Subversion – An Overview
Subversion is an open source version control system. It is a centralizedsystem for sharing information. At its core is a
repository
, which is acentral store of data. The repository stores information in the form of afilesystem tree—a typical hierarchy of files and directories. Any numberof clients may connect to the repository, and then read or write tothese files.What makes the Subversion repository special is that
it remembersevery change ever written to it
. This allows you to recover olderversions of your files and examine the history of how and when yourdata changed, and who changed it. To manage the multiple file versions, Subversion uses a
Copy-Modify-Merge
model as an alternative to locking. In this model, each user'sclient reads the repository and creates a personal
working copy
of the file or project. Users then work in parallel, modifying their privatecopies. Finally, the private copies are
merged
together into a new,final version. The version control system often assists with themerging, but ultimately a human being is responsible for making ithappen correctly. This is much more efficient than the
Lock-Modify-Unlock
methodwhich means only one person can be editing a file at a time.
Advantages of Subversion
:
•
Every change will be recorded and monitored.
•
Every change can be undone easily.
•
It preserves a historic record.
•
Commits are atomic
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