On the server (cannot be done remotely)
svnadmin create /var/svn/repository_name
On the client with the files to check in
svn import svn+ssh://myserver.com/var/svn/repository_name
You MUST use full path if using svn+ssh. If using HTTP, full path is not necessary.
Then erase the entire directory, and checkout the files from Subversion in order to make the current directory a working copy. Be careful and copy the directory to a backup directory before deleting all files and checking out a working copy.
cd .. mkdir bak_directory cp -R my_directory bak_directory cd my_directory rm -rf * svn co svn+ssh://myserver.com/var/svn/repository_name .
Don't forget that period at the end of the checkout (co) statement. It will create the directory if you forget the . (current directory) optional parameter which will result in my_directory/my_directory/[your files]