i've a checked out, without externals, not using serf: https://gar.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/gar/csw/mgar/
and get a: $ svn up --ignore-externals svn: Error running context: Internal error this is on solaris, after switching to serf in ~/.subversion. i am not sure if this should work without problems, or such a failure could be expected. what makes me not so sure about this is e.g. the "editor drive order". see also [1][2][3]. the client is v 1.6.15, and the server, sourceforge, is 1.6.9. [1] http://svn.haxx.se/dev/archive-2009-05/0531.shtml. [2] http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3831, marked as fixed [3] http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2932 rupert