<p>Consider the following subversion directory structure</p>

<p>/dir1/file.txt</p>

<p>/dir2/file.txt</p>

<p>I want to move the file.txt in dir1 to replace the same file in dir2 and ensure that the history for the dir1 file is maintained. I don't care about the history of original dir2 file.</p>

<p>Is this possible using subversion commands and not hacking the backend?</p>

Firstly you should never consider hacking the backend - it negates the point of using SVN in the first place.
I don't see why you couldn't just do
```
```
svn rm /dir2/file.txt
svn mv /dir1/file.txt /dir2/file.txt
```
```
the history of the file will follow it after the move.