Make sure you have a ~/.subversion/config. Simply using it (svn --help) will cause a default one to be created if you don't already have one. Make the following changes to ~/.subversion/config: Set: enable-auto-props = yes Append/edit auto-props section (if you already use the auto-props for FreeBSD src the entry for Makefile is already done): [auto-props] bsd.*.mk = svn:eol-style=native; svn:keywords=FreeBSD=%H; svn:mime-type=text/plain distinfo* = svn:eol-style=native; fbsd:nokeywords=yes; svn:mime-type=text/plain extrapatch-* = svn:eol-style=native; fbsd:nokeywords=yes; svn:mime-type=text/plain extra-patch-*= svn:eol-style=native; fbsd:nokeywords=yes; svn:mime-type=text/plain patch-* = svn:eol-style=native; fbsd:nokeywords=yes; svn:mime-type=text/plain pkg-* = svn:eol-style=native; fbsd:nokeywords=yes; svn:mime-type=text/plain Makefile* = svn:eol-style=native; svn:keywords=FreeBSD=%H; svn:mime-type=text/plain To ignore certain files you can add something like this in the miscellany section: [miscellany] global-ignores = *.o *.lo *.la *.al .libs *.so *.so.[0-9]* *.a *.pyc *.pyo *.bak *.orig *.rej *~ #*# .#* .*.swp .DS_Store