Working with Linux SVN client the simple way.
Software
Software used in this article:
- Debian Wheezy
- Subversion 1.6.17
- Gnome-keyring 3.4.1
Installation on Debian
Install subversion if not yet installed:
# apt-get update && apt-get install subversion
We’ll use gnome keyring to store SVN passwords (another option would be kwallet):
# apt-get install gnome-keyring
Keyrings will be stored under ~/.gnome2/keyrings/.
Open ~/.subversion/config file and set password store to gnome-keyring:
password-stores = gnome-keyring
Open ~/.subversion/servers file and set the following parameters if needed:
[groups] store-plaintext-passwords = no username = sandy [global] store-passwords = yes store-plaintext-passwords = no
Let’s create a myproject directory for our svn project:
$ mkdir -p ~/svn/myproject
Change to svn directory:
$ cd ~/svn/myproject
Starting this point, we’ll be working inside ~/svn/myproject.
SVN Usage
SVN co – Check out a working copy from a repository
Let’s checkout the latest version copy from the SVN server:
$ svn co https://svn.example.com/repository/myproject/ ./ Checked out revision 26.
As we may see below, there’s just one Python script checked out from the repository:
$ ls code.py
Revision number is 26.
SVN mkdir – Create a new directory under version control
Create a new directory for scripts:
$ svn mkdir ./scripts
URL can also be used to create a remote directory if needed.
SVN status – Print the status of working copy files and directories
Check status:
$ svn status . A scripts
We see that scripts is added (“A”) to version control. That’s what we just did, created a new directory for scripts.
SVN ci – Send changes from your working copy to the repository
Commit changes to the server:
$ svn ci -m "#no_task adding script folder" ./scripts Adding scripts Committed revision 27.
Revision has changed to 27. If we check svn status now, it should return nothing as no changes are made:
$ svn status .
SVN info – Display information about a local or remote item
Check local working directory:
$ svn info . Path: . URL: https://svn.example.com/repository/myproject/ Repository Root: https://svn.example.com/repository/myproject/ Repository UUID: b0ab59e6-bf21-43f5-ac60-c2f9a0b9eb90 Revision: 26 Node Kind: directory Schedule: normal Last Changed Author: sandy Last Changed Rev: 26 Last Changed Date: 2014-03-13 17:29:52 +0000 (Thu, 13 Mar 2014)
We see the old revision number here, 26.
We can also check other files and folders individually by specifying them:
$ svn info scripts Path: scripts URL: https://svn.example.com/repository/myproject/ Repository Root: https://svn.example.com/repository/myproject/ Repository UUID: b0ab59e6-bf21-43f5-ac60-c2f9a0b9eb90 Revision: 27 Node Kind: directory Schedule: normal Last Changed Author: sandy Last Changed Rev: 27 Last Changed Date: 2014-03-13 18:31:14 +0000 (Thu, 13 Mar 2014)
SVN up – Bring changes from the repository into the working copy
We can use svn update command to bring changes from the repository into the working copy:
$ svn up At revision 27.
Display working directory info again:
$ svn info . Path: . URL: https://svn.example.com/repository/myproject/ Repository Root: https://svn.example.com/repository/myproject/ Repository UUID: b0ab59e6-bf21-43f5-ac60-c2f9a0b9eb90 Revision: 27 Node Kind: directory Schedule: normal Last Changed Author: sandy Last Changed Rev: 27 Last Changed Date: 2014-03-13 18:31:14 +0000 (Thu, 13 Mar 2014)
Revision changed from 26 to 27, good.
SVN co – Check out a specific revision copy from a repository
Let’s see how our local copy looks like:
$ ls code.py scripts
So we have a python script that came with revision 26, and a scrips folder that was created afterwards, revision 27.
Many bad things can happen, files get infected or corrupted, and sometimes there’s a need to get to the last know non-infected or non-corrupted copy.
We can checkout a specific revision copy, 26 in this case, from the server by adding a revision number:
$ svn co https://svn.example.com/repository/myproject@26 ./ D /home/sandy/svn/myproject/scripts Checked out revision 26.
If we list items under the local working directory again, we’ll notice the following:
$ ls code.py
The scripts folder is gone, as it did not exist on revision 26.
To get back to the newest revision, we don’t need to checkout again, but simply update:
$ svn up A scripts Updated to revision 27.
And we see that scripts folder is back.
SVN rm – Remove files and directories from version control
To remove scripts folder from version control do:
$ svn rm scripts D scripts
Letter “D” indicates deleted.
Commit changes to the server:
$ svn ci -m "#no_task deleting scripts" . Deleting scripts Committed revision 28.
SVN diff – Display the differences between two revisions or paths
To get the idea of svn diff, we’ll create a test file with some text inside:
$ echo "some random text here" > ./test.txt
Add it to version control:
$ svn add ./test.txt A test.txt
And commit changes to the server:
$ svn ci -m "#no_task test.txt" ./test.txt Adding test.txt Transmitting file data . Committed revision 29.
Note the revision number 29. Let’s modify the test file by adding another text line:
$ echo "this is a second line" >> ./test.txt
And commit changes to the server again:
$ svn ci -m "#no_task test.txt updated" ./test.txt Sending test.txt Transmitting file data . Committed revision 30.
Note the revision, 30. Now we can check the differences between the two revisions:
$ svn diff -r 29:30 ./test.txt Index: test.txt =================================================================== --- test.txt (revision 29) +++ test.txt (revision 30) @@ -1 +1,2 @@ some random text here +this is a second line
We see that the latest revision has an extra text line.
SVN mv – Move and/or rename something in working copy or repository
In case we need to rename a file, or afolder, we use svn mv command:
$ svn mv test.txt newname.txt A newname.txt D test.txt
As may be seen above, newname.txt file is added to version control while test.txt is deleted from it.
SVN ls – List directory entries in the repository
To list the content of the repository:
$ svn ls https://svn.example.com/repository/myproject/ code.txt test.txt
SVN cat – Output the content of specified files or URLs
To read file from the repository:
$ svn cat https://svn.example.com/repository/myproject/test.txt some random text here this is a second line
SVN help – Describe the usage of this program or its sub-commands
Check svn help for more available sub-commands.