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Subversion: Not Just for Code Anymore

Issue 143

From Issue #143
March 2006

Jan 26, 2006  By William Nagel
 in
Here is a subversive way to handle multiple versions of your personal information instead of just versions of code.

or by using svn cat to download a single file: 

$ svn cat -r 1563 http://$MY_SERVER/docs/pics/beach.jpg

If you're going to use autoversioning to mount your repository under Linux, you need to install davfs. Once it is installed, mounting the repository is easy. All you need to do is run mount.davfs, like in the following example, which mounts the repository $MY_SERVER/docs at /mnt/documents: 

$ mount.davfs http://$MY_SERVER/docs/ /mnt/documents

Before you can use autoversioning though, you also have to turn it on in Apache. To do that, you need to add the SVNAutoversioning on option to your <Location> directive for the Subversion repository.

Conclusion

Subversion is a system with a large feature list, many of which I haven't even touched on. You should know enough now to get started with versioning your files though. I've been using it for my files for a while now and find it to be very helpful. I find it especially useful when used with autoversioning, which makes it an almost seamless integration with the filesystem.

Resources for this article: /article/8751.

Connecting from OS X

Okay, I admit it. I'm a Mac guy. As a Mac guy, my PowerBook gets a lot of use on my home network, so being able to access my files from there easily is pretty important to me. Fortunately, Subversion makes my life easy here. Subversion runs on OS X just as easily as it does on Linux, and it is a breeze to install. If you use the Fink package management system for installing open-source software on your Mac, you can install Subversion from there, or you can get standalone binaries.

If you decide to take advantage of autoversioning, you'll also be very pleased with OS X. Mounting an autoversioned repository is as easy as selecting Connect to Server... from the Finder's Go menu and entering the repository's URL. The repository will be mounted in /Volumes, and it will appear on the desktop as a mounted network share.

Connecting from Windows XP

Whether you use it for games, work, placation of a less-technical spouse or just because you like it, the chances are pretty good that there's at least one Windows machine on your network. The good news is that Subversion was designed as a cross-platform application and is very well supported under Windows. Precompiled binaries of the command-line client are available from the Subversion downloads page. Additionally, there is an excellent GUI client for Windows that integrates with the Windows Explorer, called TortoiseSVN.

Windows XP also supports autoversioning through WebFolders, although you'll want to use the old Explorer-extension version of WebFolders rather than the newer version that was introduced with WinXP, as the new version suffers from incompatibilities. To connect to a repository you simply need to add a new network place and enter the repository URL, with the port number appended. For example, to connect to a repository at example.com/documents, you'd use the URL http://example.com:80/documents.

William Nagel is the Chief Software Engineer for a small technology company, and the author of Subversion Version Control: Using the Subversion Version Control System in Development Projects. He can be reached at bill@williamnagel.net.

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Labels for certain important changes

Alvaro Arenas's picture
Submitted by Alvaro Arenas on Tue, 03/14/2006 - 03:55.

Hi

Good article. However, I was missing a little paragraph about labelling some important versions of a file. For example, I am trying to modify my grandmother’s cake receipt. I made some changes and I got a good receipt, but still I am not totally satisfied. I would like to save this version of the receipt with a label "good-enough" and continue trying. Can I do this? How do I do it?

Greetings

Alvaro.

Re: Labels for certain important changes

William Nagel's picture
Submitted by William Nagel on Sat, 03/25/2006 - 17:18.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the article.

Creating a "label" of a version of your file couldn't be easier. All you have to do is make a copy of the file and rename it to whatever you want. Subversion uses what it calls "cheap copies" when you make a copy of a file in the repository. Basically what that means is that it doesn't really make a copy of the file. Instead all it does is make a new entry under the new filename that points back to the revision of the original file from which it was created, which uses almost zero extra space on disk.

Assuming you are using WebDAV, you can do the copy by just copying the file as you would any other file and Subversion will "do the right thing" (don't create the copy by using Save As from the text editor though, as that will create a copy of the file's contents in the repository). On the other hand, if you're using a working copy of the repository you can do the copy from the command line using "svn copy" followed by "svn commit".

import syntax

padyer's picture
Submitted by padyer on Fri, 02/03/2006 - 16:42.

I think you need to use file:/// (3 /'s instead of 2) when not including a hostname.

Awesome article. I really want to try the webdav stuff.

phil

Re: import syntax

William Nagel's picture
Submitted by William Nagel on Sat, 03/25/2006 - 17:24.

I think you need to use file:/// (3 /'s instead of 2) when not including a hostname.

You are correct. However if you look back at the article you'll notice that I use $HOME, which includes the leading slash so that file://$HOME will expand to file:///home/bill (with the correct number of /'s).

Awesome article. I really want to try the webdav stuff.

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it and I with you luck with getting WebDAV going.

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