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Apache Subversion is widely used by various teams and organizations for version control and code management. One common use case is in web …
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What is Apache Subversion?
Apache Subversion is a version control option that is free to download and open source under the Apache 2.0 license.
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What is Apache Subversion?
Apache Subversion is a version control option that is free to download and open source under the Apache 2.0 license.
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What is Apache Subversion?
Apache Subversion is a version control option that is free to download and open source under the Apache 2.0 license.
Apache Subversion was designed to be a full featured and better version of CVS. Its features include:
Apache Subversion was designed to be a full featured and better version of CVS. Its features include:
- Most CVS features - CVS is a relatively basic version control system. For the most part, Subversion has matched or exceeded CVS's feature set where those features continue to apply in Subversion's particular design.
- Directories are versioned - Subversion versions directories as first-class objects, just like files.
- Copying, deleting, and renaming are versioned - Copying and deleting are versioned operations. Renaming is also a versioned operation, albeit with some quirks.
- Free-form versioned metadata ("properties") - Subversion allows arbitrary metadata ("properties") to be attached to any file or directory. These properties are key/value pairs, and are versioned just like the objects they are attached to. Subversion also provides a way to attach arbitrary key/value properties to a revision (that is, to a committed changeset). These properties are not versioned, since they attach metadata to the version-space itself, but they can be changed at any time.
- Atomic commits - No part of a commit takes effect until the entire commit has succeeded. Revision numbers are per-commit, not per-file, and commit's log message is attached to its revision, not stored redundantly in all the files affected by that commit.
- Branching and tagging are cheap (constant time) operations - Branches and tags are both implemented in terms of an underlying "copy" operation. A copy takes up a small, constant amount of space. Any copy is a tag; and if you start committing on a copy, then it's a branch as well. (This does away with CVS's "branch-point tagging", by removing the distinction that made branch-point tags necessary in the first place.)
- Merge tracking. - Subversion 1.5 introduces merge tracking: automated assistance with managing the flow of changes between lines of development, and with the merging of branches back into their sources. The 1.5 release of merge tracking has basic support for common scenarios.
- File locking - Subversion supports (but does not require) locking files so that users can be warned when multiple people try to edit the same file. A file can be marked as requiring a lock before being edited, in which case Subversion will present the file in read-only mode until a lock is acquired.
- Symbolic links can be versioned - Unix users can place symbolic links under version control. The links are recreated in Unix working copies, but not in win32 working copies.
- Executable flag is preserved - Subversion notices when a file is executable, and if that file is placed into version control, its executability will be preserved when it it checked out to other locations. (The mechanism Subversion uses to remember this is simply versioned properties, so executability can be manually edited when necessary, even from a client that does not acknowledge the file's executability, e.g., when having the wrong extension under Microsoft Windows).
- Apache network server option, with WebDAV/DeltaV protocol - Subversion can use the HTTP-based WebDAV/DeltaV protocol for network communications, and the Apache web server to provide repository-side network service. This gives Subversion an advantage over CVS in interoperability, and allows certain features (such as authentication, wire compression) to be provided in a way that is already familiar to administrators
- Standalone server option (svnserve) - Subversion offers a standalone server option using a custom protocol, since not everyone wants to run an Apache HTTPD server. The standalone server can run as an inetd service or in daemon mode, and offers the same level of authentication and authorization functionality as the HTTPD-based server. The standalone server can also be tunnelled over ssh.
- Parseable output - All output of the Subversion command-line client is carefully designed to be both human readable and automatically parseable; scriptability is a high priority.
- Localized messages - Subversion uses gettext() to display translated error, informational, and help messages, based on current locale settings.
- Interactive conflict resolution - The Subversion command-line client (svn) offers various ways to resolve conflicting changes, include interactive resolution prompting. This mechanism is also made available via APIs, so that other clients (such as graphical clients) can offer interactive conflict resolution appropriate to their interfaces.
- Repository read-only mirroring - Subversion supplies a utility, svnsync for synchronizing (via either push or pull) a read-only slave repository with a master repository.
- Write-through proxy over WebDAV - Subversion 1.5 introduces a write-through proxy feature that allows slave repositories (see read-only mirroring) to handle all read operations themselves while passing write operations through to the master. This feature is only available with the Apache HTTPD (WebDAV) server option.
- Natively client/server, layered library design with clean APIs - Subversion is designed to be client/server from the beginning; thus avoiding some of the maintenance problems which have plagued CVS. The code is structured as a set of modules with well-defined interfaces, designed to be called by other applications.
- Binary files handled efficiently - Subversion is equally efficient on binary as on text files, because it uses a binary diffing algorithm to transmit and store successive revisions.
- Costs are proportional to change size, not data size - In general, the time required for a Subversion operation is proportional to the size of the changes resulting from that operation, not to the absolute size of the project in which the changes are taking place.
- Bindings to programming languages - The Subversion APIs come with bindings for many programming languages, such as Python, Perl, Java, and Ruby. (Subversion itself is written in C.)
- Changelists - Subversion 1.5 introduces changelists, which allows a user to put modified files into named groups on the client side, and then commit by specifying a particular group. For those who work on logically separate changesets simultaneously in the same directory tree, changelists can help keep things organized.
Apache Subversion Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows, Linux, Mac |
| Mobile Application | No |
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TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
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Apache Subversion is widely used by various teams and organizations for version control and code management. One common use case is in web development, where it serves as a reliable system to track code changes and maintain a centralized repository for shared code. According to users, Apache Subversion is highly effective in providing revision control and the ability to track commits, making it an essential tool in software projects.
One of the standout features of Apache Subversion is its interactive conflict resolution, which greatly aids in resolving conflicts during collaboration. This feature has been praised by users for its ability to streamline the process of merging changes made by multiple team members. Additionally, Apache Subversion is commonly employed to manage multiple releases in parallel, ensuring that old code doesn't inadvertently get included with new releases.
The integration with issue tracking systems like Redmine further enhances the usefulness of Apache Subversion. By associating issues with their respective commits, developers can easily keep track of bug fixes and other changes related to specific tasks or problems. This integration facilitates efficient collaboration within teams and improves overall project management.
At the academic level, many computer-related courses make Apache Subversion a mandatory tool for version control. Students benefit from using the system to track code revisions and collaborate on group projects. Similarly, in organizational settings, Apache Subversion is chosen by software departments across multiple countries to facilitate collaboration on large-scale projects. As a collective tool for version tracking and code management, Apache Subversion ensures that revisions are properly tracked by development teams.
Overall, Apache Subversion offers a powerful solution for managing source code, enabling parallel changes and the ability to revert back if necessary. It has become an indispensable tool used by various teams and organizations for effective code management and collaboration.
Stability: Many users have praised Apache Subversion for its stability, with some mentioning that they have experienced almost zero downtime over several years of usage. This reliability has made it a preferred choice compared to newer version control systems.
End-to-End Visibility: Reviewers appreciate the end-to-end visibility of all changes in the project provided by Subversion. This feature allows for effective revision control and makes it easier to track down and resolve conflicts.
Integration and Extensibility: Several users have mentioned that Subversion's integration with tools like Redmine and its ability to be extended using scripting languages like Perl are valuable features. These integrations enhance productivity and simplify workflow management.
Less flexibility compared to Git: Some users have found Apache Subversion to be less flexible compared to Git, which is the preferred choice for distributed development and provides more flexibility for software developers and teams.
Performance of SVN pulls and commits: The performance of SVN pulls and commits is not considered a strength by some users. They have experienced slower checkout, update, and commit speeds, especially on Windows.
Lack of third-party tools for code visualization: Users have expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of third-party tools available to visualize commits for a codebase, particularly across branches. This limitation can hinder their ability to track changes effectively.
Based on user reviews, there are three common recommendations for this software:
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Try the software for group QAs of living documents, especially if tracking history is important. It provides end-to-end visibility of each commit and makes it easy to track delta changes.
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Consider the integration with Intellij. Many users find it convenient and user-friendly.
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Utilize version control features and code maintenance capabilities. Users appreciate features like color coding and find it effortless to manage version control using SVN. It helps maintain code stability and ensures that test code is not left in deployments.
These recommendations emphasize the software's strengths in facilitating collaborative document review, its integration with Intellij, and its robust version control and code maintenance capabilities.
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March 20, 2021
Good and solid version control system
We used Apache Subversion to manage and control source code for our development team. Subversion helps to track, version, and manage conflicts when a file is being worked on by different team members at the same time. It allows changes to happen in parallel, keeps track of exactly what, when, and who has made the change, and allows us to revert back if necessary.
- Track and control concurrent versions of the same files.
- Has good support from many different software, including visualization, DevOps toolchain.
- Well documented and understood by developers as it has been around for a long time.
- Does not support distributed environment unlike Git.
- Merging can be painful.
- Does not natively support advanced features such as pull requests.
- Help team members work in parallel by keeping track of the versions of the same files.
- Improved overall DevOps process, seamlessly fitting into existing systems.
January 18, 2019
Source code versioning made simpler
We used to use Apache SVN for source code file versioning for all our software projects in the e-business department. Now we only use it for few projects that are not transitioned yet to Git. SVN, as most of the file versioning tools provide the following for us:
- Revision control.
- Interactive conflict resolution.
- Tracking commits.
- Collaborative commits (with the ability to lock files for disabling collaboration and avoid conflicts).
- Revision control done properly - you have end to end visibility of all changes in the project.
- Conflict resolution - visually highlighting the differences helps to track down the problem.
- Being open source and very popular.
- We are using SVN hosted in our network - it is very stable, we had almost zero downtime in 4 years.
- Rollbacks are made simple and easy to use.
- It is missing the pull request feature which Git has. You can still do it in SVN but more work is needed.
- It is centralized. Nowadays software developers and teams need more flexibility and will choose Git for that.
- Performance is not a strength of SVN pulls and commits.
- The disk space use by working copies is almost double due to the way SVN organizes its working files.
- Less support for .NET developers since it comes from the open source world.
- Code reviews could be made simpler to help the reviewer more.
- Improved time to market for our software releases - merging code from multiple developers and finding the conflicts faster really helps.
- Added visibility into all changes in the project. Provided the developer adds some notes on each check-in you will be able to tell the history of features added to the project in time.
- Allowed us to do collaborative work on the same source code. Previously we were using Visual Source Safe which was not providing this.
- Git and Visual SourceSafe
We used Visual SourceSafe before SVN many years ago and we chose SVN at that time mainly because it allowed us to do collaborative work on the same source code. It also had improved conflict resolution when doing code merges, blaming changes etc, which improved the speed of doing releases and overall the team's happiness. However, now we are moving our software projects to Git with Bitbucket due to various reasons: flexibility for developers in working with branches, support for code reviews, pull requests etc.