Rob Gonda's Blog - Subversion

SVN Client for Mac : Cast your vote

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:14:00 -0400

SCPlugin
Syncro SVN Client
SvnX
SmartSVN
RapidSVN
Eclipse + Subclipse / Subversive
Mac SVN
Cornerstone
ZigVersion
Versions

IIS + Apache, side by side happy together

Tue, 27 May 2008 22:52:00 -0400

IIS and Apache running side by side ... why? Well, for me, because I run SVN through Apache in a Windows box. I still like IIS for web sites, especially because I like to keep it similar to my production sites... however, I blogged before about getting multiple SVN repositories working with Apache. I usually switched Apache to listen to an alternate port because IIS binds itself to all port 80 on all IPs, regardless if they are actually being used or not. Good news! I found this Microsoft support document explaining how to unbind IIS from all IPs and include only the ones you want. I know, I actually never even looked for this before, but I have IIS serving my sites and Apache server SVN in the same server, both on port 80. Of course, you can also use this for hosting Trac (easier in Apache than IIS), or even just testing ... By the way, if you don't have the Windows Server CD handy, you can download the Support Tools here.
So, after installing the Support Tools, follow these instructions from the M$ site:

To add an IP address to the IP inclusion list
1.    Click Start, and then click Run.
2.    Type cmd, and then click OK to open a command prompt.
3.    Type the following, where xxx.xxx.x.x is the IP address you want to add:
httpcfg set iplisten -i xxx.xxx.x.x
When this succeeds, Httpcfg returns the following:
HttpSetServiceConfiguration completed with 0

To view additional status codes, see the Httpcfg help.
4.    After the IP address is added, use the following command to list it:
httpcfg query iplisten
Httpcfg returns the following:
IP :xxx.xxx.x.x
5.    From the command prompt, stop the HTTP service and its dependent services. To do this, type the following string at the command prompt:
net stop http /y
6.    From the command prompt, restart the HTTP service and it dependent services. To do this, type the following string at the command prompt:
net start w3svc
Note When you start w3svc, all services that were stopped when HTTP was stopped will start.

SVN: PROPFIND request failed - No Such Revision

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:37:00 -0400

One of my Subversion repositories got corrupted today and every single operation started failing, returning an error message: PROPFIND request failed on '/path/to/repo/ No Such Revision 296.

After researching for an hour I could not find anything, nada, nothing at all ... I found a few posts on dumping the data, creating a new repo, importing again ... but like I said, every operation on the repo failed... I couldn't even try those options.

So I chose to backup the repository's file system and fix it myself... I noticed that the error claimed that revision 296 did not exist and indeed, when I opened the db/revs folder it only went up to 295. With a completely wild guess, I opened the /current file and noticed that it had the 296 revision number on it, so I assumed this is the pointer to the latest revision, but the data never made it to the server... I modified the number to 295 and everything immediately started working.

Again, it was a wild guess, but it worked ... Hope this saves someone a few hours.

update: I think I found out how it broke. Someone committed a file that Nod32 caught with a virus; SVN increased the repo version, updated the indexes, and then the antivirus deleted the data...

tortoise svn 1.4.0 Final Released

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 23:02:00 -0400

Tortoise SVN 1.4.0 was released a couple of days ago to match the new changes in the Subversion 1.4.0 Server.

Many improvements and new features got added:

The action dialogs (commit, add, check for modifications, ...) have configurable columns, drag-n-drop support and new context menu commands.
The log dialog has a new column to show the issue number, formatting of log messages (*bold*, ^italic^ and _underlined) and finer control over the range of log messages to show.
Completely redesigned revision graph
Drag-n-drop in the repository browser
Option to disable the status cache
TortoiseMerge shows inline diffs, can handle UTF16 files, mark blocks which changed only in whitespace

upgraded to subversion 1.4.0

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 18:01:00 -0400

I just upgraded my SVN server from 1.3.2 to 1.4.0. In my previous post I mentioned it was available, but the Windows Installer version was not up there yet, only the source and binaries.

The install was easy, nothing out of the ordinary. Subversion asked me if I wanted it to update by apache modules and I clicked yes, however, when I went to the modules folder they were not updated. I had to manually copy mod_authz_svn.so and mod_dav_svn.so from C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin to C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\modules.

All my repo's, services, and modules work fine. If I see any new feature worth mentioning, I'll post back.

subversion 1.4 is out

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 17:06:00 -0400

Subversion 1.4 was released a few days ago... I haven't upgraded my servers yet, but I will post comments as soon as I do. Why should you upgrade?

svnsync, a new repository mirroring tool
Huge working-copy performance improvements
Support for BerkeleyDB 4.4 and its "auto recovery" feature
Size improvements to the binary delta algorithm
A handful of new command switches
Many improved APIs
More than 40 new bugfixes

Tortoise SVN is still on 1.4 RC1, so we should be seeing the final release soon. Subeclipse shows no signs of adding the new commands to the client.

SVNServe Vs Apache

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 21:36:00 -0400

SVN, short for Subversion, is a source control system similar to CSV, but IMHO better. Anyways, it is extremely simple to install the server, for Windows or Linux servers. SVN will take care of versioning, but if you need to serve it over IP you must use an additional tool, SVNServe and Apache being the two main (only?) choices.

If you have to choose one, here are a few points to take into consideration.

Both work with Windows and Linux
SVNServe for Windows allows to serve a single repository; SVNServe for Linux allows unlimited
Apache allows to serve unlimited repositories in both OS.
svn1clicks allows to fully install SVN + SVNServe in Windows
SVNServe runs on port 3690, Apache runs on port 80
Apache allows to run encrypted SVN over HTTPS -- port 443
Apache allows to authenticate against an htpassword file, ldap, or other methods. SVNServe uses a clear text passwd file.
SVNServe and Apache allow per repository authentication, including None, R, or RW. Apache allows per folder access restrictions too.
Apache requires to restart/reload configuration everytime a change is made. SVNServe picks it up automatically.

Those are the main points I can think of right now, there may be more, so please share your personal experience.

I have two setups at the moment, one running SVN+SVNServe for Linux, and the other is SVN+Apache in a Windows box. In fact, this box is running IIS6 and Apache with no conflicts, which you can accomplish by either having multiple IPs, or assigning a special port for Apache.

My client tools are TortoiseSVN and SubEclipse. I tried SVN Ant a couple of times, but I gave up... running SVN in the command line with Ant.

Subclipse 1.0.0 is out!

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 22:42:00 -0400

That's right ... I use Tortoise SVN for Windows, and Subeclipse for my eclipse development... Version 1.0.0 was released today and it cannot be installed through the automated update, you need to install it manually.

More information can be found @ the subeclipse _press_ release.

Multiple SVN repositories for Windows using Apache

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 01:05:00 -0400

1. Follow subversion for windows installation tutorial

2. Install Apache 2.0.55 by downloading and installing: http://www.apache.org/

3. After the installation finishes, run the following from a command prompt: "net stop apache2" (to stop the web server)

4. If you DON'T want/need SSL support, skip to step 9b below.

5. Rename httpd.conf in the apache config. directory (default is "c:\program files\apache group\apache2\conf") to httpd.conf.save

6. Browse to "http://smithii.com/ answer the questions and download and open the zip file (assuming you are allowed to do so).

7. Extract files from the zip you just opened to the base apache install directory (default is "c:\program files\apache group\apache2"). Be sure you preserve the folder names when extracting (i.e., don't just extract all the files to the same dir.)

8. Open ssl.conf in the apache configuration directory with notepad and change as follows:

a. Change "<IfDefine SSL>" to "#<IfDefine SSL>"

b. Change "</IfDefine>" to "#</IfDefine>" (last line of file)
This avoids the requirement of starting apache with the "-DSSL" parameter (which I couldn't get to work when running apache as a service).

9. Open httpd.conf in the apache configuration directory with notepad (default is "c:\program files\apache group\apache2\conf") and change the contents as follows:

a. Replace all "d:\test\apache2" with "c:\program files\apache group\apache2" (or whatever your base apache install directory is). Hint: Ctrl+H in notepad will allow you to do find/replace

b. Uncomment (remove "#") from "#LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so"

c. Add "LoadModule dav_svn_module modules/mod_dav_svn.so"

d. Add the following to the bottom of the file:
<Location /svn>
DAV svn
SVNPath "c:/documents and settings/svn_repos"
</Location>
Ensure you change the directory in SVNPath to be the actual location of your repository that you created when you installed subversion as part of Joe's tutorial. If you want more than one repository, you can create additional <Location> blocks. This example will allow you to browse to "http://localhost/svn". If you want a different URI for your repository, change the path after "<Location ..." line. Note: The above changes are NOT intended as "all you need" regarding apache configuration. It's only intended to get you a running example with subversion. You should review the manual and make any other configuration changes you deem appropriate (Hint: "http://localhost/manual")

10. Copy the following files from the subversion bin directory (default is "c:\program files\subversion\bin") to the apache bin directory (default is "c:\program files\apache group\apache2"):
libdb43.dll
intl3_svn.dll
mod_authz_svn.so
mod_dav_svn.so

11. From a command prompt, run "net start apache2".

12. If it fails to start, examine the Application event log. It should describe the error in enough detail for you to fix it (generally a configuration file error is the culprit). If you get a "not found" error loading module "mod_dav_svn.so", then ensure you completed step 7 above correctly.

13. From a command prompt, run "svn ls https://localhost/svn" (use http instead of https if you didn't install the SSL support) and it should display the root of your repository.

14. Further reading (for authentication and for authorization):
http://geekswithblogs.net/flanakin/archive/2005/08/31/51743.aspx
http://www.subversionary.org/sspidomainauth
http://www.erenkrantz.com/oscon/OSCON%202003%20Subversion%20WebDAV.pdf

SVN for Dreamweaver

Mon, 11 Jul 2005 22:41:00 -0400

Note to self: Try SVN for Dreamweaver. Thus far I've only used homesite+ 5.5 and I just got into eclipse, cfeclipse, and subeclipse. Each and all of them have pros and cons. Eclipse in this date still does not support RDS or remote FTP browsing. It doesn't have a built-in database explored, but it does have some nice features such as compare lo local history... I think that's great!
Homesite does not have subversion integration... I tried CVS, RCS-CS and didn't quite like it.
I have been never a huge fan of dreamweaver... it has too much designer-like interface that sacrifices too much.
Now Macromedia announced they’ll join the cfeclipse force and maybe something good will come out of that. Cfeclipse is still improving the cfmx7 tag support.

I found this link today for a SVN integration into dreamweaver… Dreamweaver has issues modifying files directly into the servers… it is the slowest connection I have every experienced… Oh yeah, not to mention that it constantly crashes … Anyway, I will give it another chance … I’ll give it a try tomorrow and post further notes.

Maybe DW will be the solution … RDS, remote FTP browsing, database connectivity, version control… We shall see.

SVN Obliterate

Sun, 10 Jul 2005 18:59:00 -0400

Subversion was been built and designed so you never lose any data no matter what… so there’s no way to permanently delete any data. Everything you delete you can actually bring back from the other world.

It may eventually be a problem… say one you the developers commit to intellectual protected code; there is no way to get rid of it.

There is an open bug track issue to solve this problem, but it seems that there will be no resolution any time soon.

The only way to actually get rid of something is to fully dump the entire repository, delete the existing one, filter the dump, create a new repository, and restore from the dump.

The following steps demonstrate the exactly how to proceed.

Windows Version

svnadmin dump svn_repos > .\dump
type .\dump | svndumpfilter exclude somefolder > .\dump2
STOP SVN Services
Backup svn_repos/conf folder
Delete svn_repos folder
svnadmin create svn_repos
Restore svn_repos/conf folder
svnadmin load svn_repos < dump2

Linux Version

svnadmin dump /path/to/repos > proj.dump
cat proj.dump | svndumpfilter exclude somefolder > cleanproj.dump
STOP SVN services
BACKUP /path/to/repos/conf /path/to/repos/hooks (all custom configuration for this repository)
DELETE /path/to/repos
svnadmin create /path/to/repos
RESTORE /path/to/repos/conf /path/to/repos/hooks
svnadmin load /path/to/repos < cleanproj.dump
RESTART SVN services

*** modified 4/25/06: Added Linux Version from textsnippets

cfeclipse/subeclipse/mx7

Sat, 09 Jul 2005 23:07:00 -0400

So, next step after installing SVN is trying it with eclipse running cfeclipse and subeclipse. Installed all of them is it works. Now, there is a problem… the stable version of cfeclipse does not support any cfmx7 tags. I dropped Rob Rohan (cfeclipse founder) an email and he claims that the current nightly build it stable enough to install and supports most if not all of cfmx7 tags. So I installed the latest nightly build and thus far no bleed or problems, and indeed most of the tags are there.

SVN port / firewall

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 22:59:00 -0400

By the way, if you need to access SVN remotely, by default it runs on port TCP port 3690, so you need to make sure it is open in your firewall.

Subversion up and running in 30 minutes or less

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 21:51:00 -0400

Joe White write this article explaining step by step how to setup SVN for Windows and it works! Just in case he decides to take it down, I should share the knowledge.

Subversion sounds pretty cool. It's a mature, powerful revision-control system that acts a lot like CVS, adds support for atomic commits and real renames, just won the Jolt award, and is free. What more can you ask for?

I've been intending to install Subversion for quite a while, but I kept putting it off, because it looked like a daunting task. But when I actually decided to go do it, it took me all of an hour and a half to get it installed and working. If somebody had just written down what I needed to do to set up Subversion on Windows, with a real server running as a real Windows service, then it probably would've only taken me ten minutes, and I would've done it weeks ago.

Here, then, is the Mere-Moments Guide to installing a Subversion server on Windows. (It may look a bit intimidating, but really, it's not.)

Some quick notes on the Guide:

These instructions assume you're using Windows 2000 or XP. (You'd better be; the Subversion server won't run on Win9x.)
If you want to know more about Subversion than just how to install it, check out the free O'Reilly Subversion book online and the not-free Pragmatic Version Control using Subversion.
For Subversion to do you much good, you'll have to add a new "project" (essentially a directory) to your repository, to put files in. In these instructions, I'm assuming that your new project will be called monkey (because mine was).
Feel free to skip steps and to play around; you'll learn more that way, because things won't work right and you'll have to figure out why.

And now, on to the Guide.

Download everything
1. Go to http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=91 and download the most recent svn-x.y.z-setup.exe. At the time of this writing, the latest version was svn-1.2.0-setup.exe.
2. Go to http://dark.clansoft.dk/~mbn/svnservice/ and download SVNService.zip.
  UPDATED: previous link has been taken down, but you can downoad svnservice.zip here.
3. Go to http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/download.html and download the most recent installer. At the time of this writing, the latest version was TortoiseSVN-1.1.7-UNICODE_svn-1.1.4.msi. (It doesn't have to be the exact same version as the svn installer you got in step 1. See the compatibility chart.). Download the latest TortoiseSVN here.
Install the server and the command-line client
1. Run svn-x.y.z-setup.exe and let it install stuff.
2. Go to Control Panel > System, go to the Advanced tab, and click the "Environment Variables" button at the bottom. Click the "New" button (either one, but if you're undecided, use the one under "System variables"), set "variable name" to SVN_EDITOR, and "variable value" to the path and filename of a text editor of your choice (e.g., C:\Windows\Notepad.exe). OK all the way out.
Create a repository and configure access
1. Create a new directory somewhere out of the way; this is where your repository will live, but you'll almost never actually open the files directly. I made a directory called svn_repos directly under my C:\Documents and Settings, just so it'd be out of the way.
2. Open a command prompt and type: svnadmin create "C:\Documents and Settings\svn_repos"
3. In Windows Explorer, browse to the C:\Documents and Settings\svn_repos\conf directory (which svnadmin just created for you), and edit a couple of config files:
  1. Open the svnserve.conf file in a text editor, and uncomment the [general], anon-access = read, auth-access = write, and password-db = passwd lines. Save.
  2. Open the passwd file in a text editor, uncomment the [users] line, and add the username and password you want to use when connecting to your subversion server. Save.
Start the server manually, and create a project
1. In your command window, type: svnserve --daemon --root "C:\Documents and Settings\svn_repos"
2. Open a second command window, and type svn mkdir svn://localhost/monkey
3. You'll see the text editor you specified in step II.2, with some text already in it. Type a comment, like "Created the monkey project", at the beginning of the file (before the line starting with "--"). Save the file and close the editor.
4. If your Subversion login is the same as your Windows login, then type your password (the one you put in the passwd file) at the prompt, and hit Enter. If your Subversion login is different from your Windows login, then just hit ENTER at the password prompt, and Subversion will then ask for both your login and your password.
5. Subversion should tell you that it "Committed revision 1." Congratulations! You just checked a change into Subversion. Throw yourself a party. (Yes, creating a directory is a revisioned change — you can go back and get the repository as of a time before that directory existed. This is novel stuff for folks like me who still use VSS at work.)
6. It's conventional to have /trunk, /branches, and /tags subdirectories for each project (your code goes into trunk, and the others are where you put, well, branches and tags). Go ahead and type svn mkdir svn://localhost/monkey/trunk (and notice that, after you enter a checkin comment, it doesn't prompt you for your password again — it's smart like that).
Start the server for real
1. Go back to the command window that's running svnserve. Hit Ctrl+C to stop it.
2. Open the SVNService.zip that you downloaded earlier. Extract SVNService.exe into your Subversion bin directory (Program Files\Subversion\bin). Yes, it's important that you put it in this directory; it has to be in the same place as svnserve.exe from the Subversion distribution.
3. In a command prompt, type svnservice -install --daemon --root "C:\Documents and Settings\svn_repos"
4. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services, double-click the SVNService service, and change its startup type from "Manual" to "Automatic". Now Subversion will start every time you start Windows.
5. Start the SVNService service (by selecting it in the Services list, and clicking the "play" toolbar button).
6. Go back to a command prompt, and type svn ls svn://localhost/
  This will list all the files in the root of the repository. If all is well and you've got a real Subversion server running now, you should see: monkey/
Install TortoiseSVN
Sure, you can get by with a command-line client, but TortoiseSVN is cool — it integrates Subversion into Windows Explorer. You get little overlay icons showing the status of each file (in sync, needs to be checked in, not yet in the repository, etc.), and you can do pretty much everything you need by right-clicking on files and folders.
1. Run the TortoiseSVN installer you got back in part I.
2. Create a monkey directory somewhere on your hard drive. Right-click somewhere in that folder and select "SVN Checkout..." Type svn://localhost/monkey/trunk/ for the repository URL and click OK.
3. Create a file in that directory, any file. Right-click the file and select TortoiseSVN > Add. Notice the little plus-sign icon that appears.
  The file hasn't actually been checked in yet — Subversion's commits are both batched and atomic, so this new file, together with any other new files you added, any files you changed, any files you deleted, any files you renamed, any directories you added or deleted or renamed, will all show up on the server all at once, as a single revision and a single checkin, the next time you right-click and select "SVN Commit".
Make it run on the network
Are you kidding? You're already networked. Go to another computer on your LAN, install TortoiseSVN, and do an "SVN Checkout...". When you specify the repository URL, use the same URL you did before, but replace "localhost" with the actual name of the computer that's running the Subversion service (so in my case, the repository URL is svn://marsupial/monkey/trunk/ — nice little menagerie, there).

And there ya go — Subversion up and running on Windows, in mere moments or less.

[updated 3/20/06] -- credit to Author