Java – Why is Eclipse trying to copy the .svn folders from src to bin, and how can I make it stop

If you are using sublipse as your SVN provider I recommend doing the following

Team -> Share project is usually enough to connect the metadata.

(that is, assuming that the .svn files are still there which they seem to be if you can work on the command line).

Hope this helps as to why this would happen I have no idea

Workspaces and repositories shouldn't be related.

The workspace is really just where Eclipse stores a bunch of settings. Project files can (and usually do) live in the workspace, but as you know, they can be imported from an external source--the import is just a logical link.

You can create as many workspaces as you want for specific purposes; you could even import projects in one workspace into another if you had reason to do so.

The SVN layout should be separate from how your workspace is defined. They may end up looking similar, but that shouldn't imply that they're actually the same. I'd recommend each Eclipse project have its own SVN project, so that instead of having

• http://myrepo
  • myworkspace
    • trunk
      • projectA
      • projectB
    • tags
    • branches

you have

• http://myrepo
  • projectA
    • trunk
    • tags
    • branches
  • projectB
    • trunk
    • tags
    • branches

What this does for you is give you the flexibility to lay out your workspace completely separate from how your repository is structured. You'll be able to check out individual projects into the workspace without having to checkout the entire codebase. You'll be able to have projects checked out on development branches while others are on the trunk, you can revert changes to one project while leaving another alone and so forth.

The last question about which artifacts to check into SVN is a matter of taste. I'd recommend checking in whatever artifacts are universal across the development team. If Eclipse is the standard IDE, go ahead and check in the .project and .classpath files so that a new developer will be able to checkout and build immediately. If certain plugins are universal and have config files of their own, go ahead and check those in as well. On the other hand, anything that isn't shared across the dev team should be left out of the repository.

Hope this helps.

EDIT

Further experience has taught me that the only things that should go into source control are the actual source files. Configuration and setup files should be regenerated by the developer when setting up a new project.