The documentation says:
          * any RCS, CVS and .svn directories

But the current regexp doesn't match top level .svn directory:

hard linking .svn/all-wcprops -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn
hard linking .svn/dir-prop-base -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn
hard linking .svn/entries -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn
hard linking .svn/format -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn
hard linking .svn/prop-base/make-release.svn-base -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn/prop-base
hard linking .svn/text-base/AUTHORS.svn-base -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn/text-base
hard linking .svn/text-base/MANIFEST.in.svn-base -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn/text-base
hard linking .svn/text-base/NEWS.svn-base -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn/text-base
hard linking .svn/text-base/TODO.svn-base -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn/text-base
hard linking .svn/text-base/make-release.svn-base -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn/text-base
hard linking .svn/text-base/setup.py.svn-base -> java-config-2.0.33/.svn/text-base

Index: sdist.py
===================================================================
--- sdist.py	(revision 55585)
+++ sdist.py	(working copy)
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@
 
         self.filelist.exclude_pattern(None, prefix=build.build_base)
         self.filelist.exclude_pattern(None, prefix=base_dir)
-        self.filelist.exclude_pattern(r'/(RCS|CVS|\.svn)/.*', is_regex=1)
+        self.filelist.exclude_pattern(r'(^|/)(RCS|CVS|\.svn)/.*', is_regex=1)
 
 
     def write_manifest (self):