Due to current incompatibility with subversion 1.7, I am attempting to use local file URL's in order to bypass svnserve. So a project that is usually checked out as:

svn://toolgroup/swtools/JavaVersion/trunk

I have changed the URL to:

file://d:/svn-repos/swtools/JavaVersion/trunk

The project in question has the following svn:externals

/externals/junit/4.8.2 junit
/externals/findbugs/1.3.9 findbugs
/externals/checkstyle/5.3 checkstyle

The problem is that these externals are not being checked out if I use the file: URL scheme. The same works on the command line or if the svn: scheme is used.

Normally this would not be significant bug. However, due to current incompatibility with subversion 1.7, this is the only workaround that I can think of. And due to combination of these issues my Jenkins setup is completely inoperable.