Subversion

This article is about the computer software framework named "Subversion." For information on the undermining of authority, see rebellion, sabotage, and insurgency.

Subversion (also known as svn) is a version control system designed specifically to replace CVS, which is considered to have many deficiencies.

1 Features
2 Related Software
3 External links

Features

Version 1.0 of Subversion (released 23 February, 2004) offers the following features:

Most current CVS features
Directories, renames, and file metadata are versioned
Commits are truly atomic
Apache HTTP server as network server, WebDAV/DeltaV for protocol (there is also an independent server process that uses a custom protocol over TCP/IP)
Branching and tagging are cheap (constant time) operations
Natively client/server, layered library design
Client/server protocol sends diffs in both directions
Costs are proportional to change size, not data size
Efficient handling of binary files
Parsable output (including XML log output)
Open Source licensed — "CollabNet/Tigris.org Apache-style license"

Version 1.1 added these features among others:

Internationalised program messages
Versioning of symbolic links
A new repository format, FSFS, which doesn't use a database backend, instead storing the revisions as plain files in the file system.
I18Ned program messages

Version 1.2 (will be released around May/June 2005):

File locking for unmergeable files

Subversion has an IRC channel on irc.freenode.net (#svn).

Related Software

GUI front-ends/clients

RapidSVN cross-platform (Linux, Win32) GUI front-end written in C++ using the wxWidgets framework
eSvn Qt-based client
JSVN Java swing client
TortoiseSVN Windows shell (i.e. Explorer) extension
svnX Mac OS X GUI front-end to svn
AnkhSVN is a Visual Studio .NET addin. It allows you to perform the most common subversion operations from directly inside the VS.NET IDE.
gsvn mostly abandoned by its original authors, due to lack of time; written entirely in python, using GTK
SmartSVN multi-platform (java based) client for Subversion; work in progress at the time of the writing.

Alternatives

Revision control

Other projects of note

The Open Source Trac project integrates Subversion, an Issue Tracker, and Wiki functionality into one web based interface.

The Open Source Subclipse project integrates Subversion into Eclipse.

The Open Source SVK project is a decentralized version control system written in Perl, permitting offline operations and advanced merging algorithms. It layers on the Subversion filesystem and its API.

The Open Source JavaSVN project – 100% pure Java Subversion client library.

External links

Categories: Version control systems