It goes like this, as root:

$ yum update subversion

[normal messages snipped]

Transaction Check Error:
  file /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/psvn.el
from install of subversion-1.5.5-0.1.el5.rf
conflicts with file from package subversion-1.4.2-2.el5
  file /usr/share/man/man1/svn.1.gz
from install of subversion-1.5.5-0.1.el5.rf
conflicts with file from package subversion-1.4.2-2.el5
  file /usr/share/man/man1/svnadmin.1.gz
from install of subversion-1.5.5-0.1.el5.rf
conflicts with file from package subversion-1.4.2-2.el5
  file /usr/share/man/man1/svnlook.1.gz
from install of subversion-1.5.5-0.1.el5.rf
conflicts with file from package subversion-1.4.2-2.el5
  file /usr/share/man/man5/svnserve.conf.5.gz
from install of subversion-1.5.5-0.1.el5.rf
conflicts with file from package subversion-1.4.2-2.el5
  file /usr/share/man/man8/svnserve.8.gz
from install of subversion-1.5.5-0.1.el5.rf
conflicts with file from package subversion-1.4.2-2.el5
  file /usr/share/xemacs/site-packages/lisp/psvn.el
from install of subversion-1.5.5-0.1.el5.rf
conflicts with file from package subversion-1.4.2-2.el5

WTF? Surely doing an update is supposed to replace files from an earlier release with a later one?

The reason, as my colleague Ian discovered, is that 64-bit Centos has both 32 and 64-bit versions of Subversion, which causes it to get its knickers in a twist when doing an update. So we just did the following:

$ yum erase subversion.i386
$ yum update subversion

to remove the 32-bit version and then just update the 64-bit one. Works fine. (Touch wood…)

Probably works with Redhat Enterprise (RHEL) too and possibly other distros.

EDIT: If you only have the Centos base RPM repository, you won’t find svn 1.5.5 (or any recent versions). You need to set your system up to use RPMForge as well, as documented here. Thanks to GR in the comments for pointing this out.

Andrew.