On many operating systems, the ability to execute a file as a command is governed by the presence of an execute permission bit. This bit usually defaults to being disabled and must be explicitly enabled by the user for each file that needs it. But it would be a monumental hassle to have to remember exactly which files in a freshly checked-out working copy were supposed to have their executable bits toggled on, and then to have to do that toggling. So, Subversion provides the svn:executable property as a way to specify that the executable bit for the file on which that property is set should be enabled, and Subversion honors that request when populating working copies with such files.

This property has no effect on filesystems that have no concept of an executable permission bit, such as FAT32 and NTFS.^[11] Also, although it has no defined values, Subversion will force its value to * when setting this property. Finally, this property is valid only on files, not on directories.