I recently needed to update the readme.txt file inside a specific tag (tags/4.1) of my WordPress plugin hosted on WordPress.org.
🔧 Goal
Update the following line in readme.txt inside tags/4.1:
1 | Tested up to: 6.8 |
🛠️ Prerequisites
Make sure SVN (Subversion) is installed on your system. I’m using Ubuntu, so I installed it with:
1 | sudo apt update |
📥 Step 1: Checkout the Plugin
Replace your-plugin-slug with your actual plugin slug. For me, it’s woocommerce-filter-orders-by-product.
1 | svn checkout https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/woocommerce-filter-orders-by-product |
This downloads the full plugin structure, including:
/trunk/tags/4.1/branches
📂 Step 2: Navigate to the Tag Directory
1 | cd tags/4.1 |
📝 Step 3: Edit the File
I opened readme.txt using nano, but you can use any editor:
1 | nano readme.txt |
Then I updated the line:
1 | Tested up to: 6.8 |
Saved the file and exited the editor.
✅ Step 4: Commit the Change
To commit only the readme.txt file and include my WordPress.org SVN username (but not the password), I ran:
1 | svn commit -m "Updating supported WP version to 6.8" --username=kowsar89 readme.txt |
SVN then prompted me for my password securely in the terminal.
🕒 Step 5: Wait a Few Minutes
After a few minutes, the change was reflected in the plugin’s readme file on the WordPress.org plugin page under version 4.1.
✅ Bonus: Check Your Changes Before Committing
Optional but helpful:
1 | svn diff readme.txt # See what's changed |
🧠 Final Thoughts
This was a good reminder that SVN is different from Git — you commit from within specific directories, and you commit files explicitly.