<p>I'm adding an existing site to SVN.</p>

<p>The files already exist on the webserver, and now identical copies (- configuration files) exist in the repository.</p>

<p>I want to convert the webserver directory into an SVN working copy, but when I run:</p>

<pre><code>svn checkout http://path.to/svn/repo/httpdocs .
</code></pre>

<p>I get the error:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>svn: Failed to add file '': object of the same name already exists</p>
</blockquote>

<p>How do I tell SVN to just overwrite those files whose contents are the same?</p>

Pull from the repository to a new directory, then rename the old one to
```
old_crufty
```
, and the new one to
```
my_real_webserver_directory
```
, and you're good to go.
If your intention is that every single file is in SVN, then this is a good way to test your theory. If your intention is that some files are not in SVN, then use Brian's copy/paste technique.