TortoiseSVN optimization tip

If you work with TortoiseSVN on Windows, you've probably noticed that its process TortoiseSVNCache.exe does a lot of unexpected disk I/O. The reason is that TortoiseSVNCache.exe is used to render icons overlays in Windows Explorer. So each folder and all its sub-folders are, by default, recursively scanned to display their corresponding SVN status icon overlay.

A setting exists to set which folders TortoiseSVN is allowed to scan. You will of course set it to only scan the folders that contain local copies of SVN repositories. As we all know this is often only two or three work folders on the filesystem.

1. Open TortoiseSVN locate Settings > Icon overlays menu.
2. Add all fixed drives in the exclude paths field one by line ( C:\*, D:\*, E:\*, etc... ), all followed by a wildchar to set the exclusion recursive.
3. Add all desired work folders with SVN local copies in it in the include paths field ( C:\my_dev_folder\*, D:\my_libs_folder\*, etc...), all followed by a wildchar to set the inclusion recursive.

TortoiseSVN will no more caches icon overlays on unappropriated filesystem folders.

I've found this tip after a little googling on a blog post followed by reading the documentation on the official TortoiseSVN website.

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