Edit: This is not working out like it's supposed to. Still getting a svn-lock error when trying to init the sync, so while this in concept was a good idea, it's not "taking".

Pre-warning: Do not do this unless you know what you are doing, it will wipe the entireness of your SVN history for your project. It will be as if you just created your project fresh.

I wanted to svnsync an old repository to a new one on SourceForge. In my haste, I started setting up trunk/branches/tags without thinking. Of course, if the repo is not at revision 0, then you don't get to svnsync. So I pinged support to get them to reset my sourceforge repository. After a little bit, it turns out I effectively had the tools in my own hands the whole time!

I'm sure you well know that there's no way to wipe an svn repository completely down to revision 0 remotely. (at least none that I've seen so far) Well SourceForge has a nifty little tool (in your project, go under Admin, and subversion) to migrate your repository from cvs to svn. Well it didn't seem very clear on that particular page, but you can -also- migrate from an SVN dump to your new SourceForge repository from the same tool.

So how does this fit together? Basically what you do is you create a local svn repository that's completely empty:

> svnadmin create /tmp/myrepo

Then you get a dump of it:

> svnadmin dump /tmp/myrepo > svndump
* Dumped revision 0.

Then you gzip it (not sure if this is absolutely necessary):

> gzip svndump

Then upload that dump to your SourceForge file repository uploads directory, I used sftp:

> sftp USERNAME@frs.sourceforge.net
sftp> cd uploads
Connecting to frs.sourceforge.net...
USERNAME@frs.sourceforge.net's password:
sftp> put svndump.gz
Uploading svndump.gz to /incoming/U/US/USERNAME/uploads/svndump.gz
svndump.gz 100% 185 0.2KB/s 00:00
sftp> quit

Then you go to the migration tool that's mentioned under Admin -> Subversion -- Look for "Migration Instructions" and click on the migrate link under it.

You'll see the svndump.gz you just uploaded. Make sure to click the Replace checkbox and then click Submit. Wait for it to complete and you are done! Back to revision 0 for you!

I hope this helps others who run into the same issue!