Introduction

Main Features

• Subversion manages versioned filesystem trees. Subversion commands generally behave recursively, operating on the current subtree unless restricted.
• Directories, files, symbolic links and file metadata are versioned. This covers creation, deletion, editing, renaming and restructuring, but not rw permissions or ownership except through metadata.
• Versions are stored in a central repository. Version numbers identify the state of the repository, not the state of individual files stored in it.
• Repositories are accessed with Subversion tools, directly on the local filesystem including NFS mounts, or over a network using authenticated client-server communications.
• Work is done in a working copy of all or part of a repository tree. A .svn subdirectory in each working copy directory contains pristine copies of files to reduce repository communications.
• Repository commits are atomic; either all changes are recorded, or none in the case of error.
• Files are stored differentially in the repository, using the xdelta differencing algorithm which treats all files as binary. The preferred repository format is file-based, where each version occupies a file.

Subversion Tools

• svn: Command-line client program.
• svnlook: Tool for directly inspecting a Subversion repository.
• svnadmin: Tool for creating, tweaking or repairing a Subversion repository.
• svndumpfilter: Filters Subversion repository dump streams.
• svnversion: Reports the state of a working copy.
• svnsync: Incrementally mirrors one repository to another over a network.
• svnserve: Alternative server program to Apache.
• WebSVN, WebVC: Web clients.

Online Help

Subversion command-line tools offer detailed help. For example, do

$ svn help

for a list of svn command names, and

$ svn help command

for help on a particular command.

For further information refer to the Subversion web site and the comprehensive ebook and the FAQ there.

This Tutorial

This tutorial covers most Subversion features needed for normal use. It assumes you are running Linux, and uses short forms of common command names. In the command-line examples, commands you would type in a terminal are prefixed with $ following convention. Any command output follows, and is the actual output you should see if you replay the examples. It is captured by executing the commands when this document is generated from xml source.

This is work-in-progress. It doesn't yet deal with branching and merging, use of hook scripts, etc. Suggestions for additions and changes to John Storrs please.