title: svn update over-write existing non-versioned files
body: <p>I'm trying to put our site under full version control. The site and files currently exists on the server and I need to replace those non-versioned files with a versioned copy without deleting the directories or files. </p>
  
  <p>I tried using </p>
  
  <p><code>svn checkout --force https://myrepo/trunk .</code></p>
  
  <p><code>svn revert -R .</code></p>
  
  <p>Which did the checkout however, I am using some svn externals which take the place of some existing directories. I get this error: 
  Fetching external item into 'production/JS':
  svn: warning: W155007: Can't obtain lock on non-directory </p>
  
  <p>JS is an external project. I know I can simply delete the existing directories and do an update or checkout and everything will be there, but I don't want to take the site down long enough to do the checkout.</p>
  
  <p>So is there a magical spell I can cast on svn to get it to replace my existing directories with these externals?</p>