Intermittent checkout problem
 

Intermittently I get this message from Subversion when trying a Subversion checkout sub command as a step in a .bld project:

svn: Can't determine the user's config path

If I run subversion from the command line in the same exact directory as the step in the .bld project it works, in other words something like this works: "svn.exe checkout http://foo:81/svn/mainrepository/Web/Notify"

If I open another .bld project with the same type of checkout step, that project works, but the original .bld project is still getting this error on the subversion checkout command.

Rebooting the machine fixes everything (the original broken .bld project step executes the Subversion checkout sub command without error.

Any ideas on what might be causeing this and how I can prevent it? Here is the xml of the step, if that helps. Also, whenever I run Visual Build I am logged in with the same admin account on a Windows XP Pro machine.


foo
%CompileDir%
81
http
/svn/mainrepository/Web/Notify
-1
checkout
Checkout AppName trunk to a local folder on the build machine
2
Checkout AppName trunk

The VBP Subversion action sets the starting directory for the svn process to the path in the 'Working directory for local files' field on the Subcommand tab. Perhaps that is not the correct path? You could also try adding a Set Current Dir step before the Subversion step (I believe the starting directory value takes precedence, but since the problem is sporadic, it might make a difference).

Been meaning to post a reply, I figured out the problem
 

Here it is, I just wanted to post this for posterity.

In our environment we have two NT Login accounts per person, for example "foobar\foo" and "foobar\fooA". The A account is for more secure access to sensitive areas.

We use Windows remote desktop to access our Windos XP build machine, which is where the visual build scripts live. On Windows XP only one user can be logged into a machine at a time via Remote Desktop. A user "foobar\foo can cleanly log themselves out of the machine, so that when user "foobar\fooA" logs themselves in every thing works fine, this error does not occur.

However if foobar\foo is still logged into the machine one can log in with a different account like foobar\fooA, but the session foobar\foo gets terminated. In this scenario the error I explained occurs. Logging out of foobar\fooA or rebooting fixes the problem.

I think Visual Build is having a problem (or probablly likely Windows is mucking things up) when an account is forcefully terminated in remote desktop, rather than cleanly logged out.