There are “one liners” for this but I wanted a bit more flexibility and ease of use so I wrote the a script that also lets you define regexp patterns for files you don’t want to add even if they exist in the directory structure.

This is how to use it:

# Add all new files
svnadd path/to/repository/
# Add all new files except those matching the regexp
svnadd -s ".*.txt|tmp/.*" path/to/repository/
# Add all new files except those matching the regexp in
# the file defined by the "-f" flag
svnadd -f regexp.txt path/to/repository/

Quite easy! If you don’t feel like remembering the pattern for files to skip, put the regexp in a file and use the svn add thefile flag.

#!/bin/bash
##########################################################################
#
# Script for adding all new files in a directory structure to an SVN
# repository.
#
# copyright © 2007 Pontus Östlund 
#
# The svnadd script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
# option) any later version.
#
# The svnadd script is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
# Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
# Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
#
##########################################################################

while getopts "s:f:h" opts
do
  case $opts in
    s) skip="$OPTARG";;
    f) if [ -f "$OPTARG" ]; then
         skip=$(head -n 1 $OPTARG)
       else
         echo "$OPTARG doesn't exist!"
       fi
       ;;
    h) help=1;;
  esac
done

shift $(($OPTIND - 1))

if [ -z $1 ] || [ "$help" ]; then
  echo "About: svnadd enables you to add all new files in [dir] to a "
       "subversion repository"
  echo "Usage: svnadd [flags] [dir]"
  echo
  echo "  -s
  Regexp pattern for files to skip"
  echo "  -f
     Path to file containing regexp for files to skip"
  echo "                The regexp should be placed in line one!"
  echo "  [dir]         The path to the repository"
  echo
  echo "Example: svnadd svnsrc/"
  echo "Example: svnadd -s 'tmp/.*.xml' svnsrc/"
  echo "Example: svnadd -f regexp.txt svnsrc/"
  echo

  exit 0
fi

dir=$1

if [ ! -d "$dir" ]; then
  echo "$dir is not a directory"
  exit 1
fi

while read status file; do
  if [ "$status" = "?" ]; then
    res=$( echo "$file" | egrep -o "$skip" )
    if [ -z "$res" ]; then
      svn add "$file"
    fi
  fi
done<