scott conklin's List: Subversion

• Apache is not required in order to run Subversion. Subversion includes it's own standalone server, called svnserve
• . If you are installing Apache on an individual development computer you will probably use 127.0.0.1 for both the Network Domain and the Server Name.
• Apache has already created a backup of this file for you (httpd.default.conf). Should you ever mess something up in the httpd.conf file you can always revert back to the original, factory settings, by making a copy of httpd.default.conf and naming the copy httpd.conf.

1 more annotation...

• Figure 19 illustrates Subversion's first change, uncommenting the DAV module (mod_dav.so located in Apache's modules directory). I've added a blank line before and after the DAV module to make the line stand out in the screen shot. While a full discussion of the mod_dav.so library is outside the scope of this text a basic explanation is in order. The mod_dav.so module provides *WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) functionality for Apache. WebDAV extends the stateless HTTP protocol giving Apache the ability to create, move, copy, and delete files and directories on the Web server. You can think of mod_dav.so as the central hub to all Subversion actions operating on the repositories you create.
• mod_dav_svn.so is used to make repositories available to others over a network and works hand-in-hand with mod_dav.so. The second module, mod_authz_svn.so is used to enable per-directory access control over your repositories.
• In order for Apache to know where our repository directory is located we must give it some instructions. This can be accomplished several different ways but we'll start with the Location directive. This directive gives Apache specific instructions when requests are received for a named resource (a URL path). For Subversion access, we simply want Apache to hand off requests for URLs that point at versioned resources to the DAV layer. This is accomplished by mapping a URL path to the absolute directory path of the repository.
• The DAV svn directive tells Apache's mod_dav to use the Subversion server when any requests come in using the aforementioned URL. The SVNParentPath represents the absolute location of our repository directory. This directive is special in that it informs Apache any child directories in the nominated path contain Subversion repositories.

2 more annotations...

• What is TortoiseSVN?

  TortoiseSVN is an amazingly easy to use and highly popular Subversion client for the Windows platform. Through extending Windows Explorer, TortoiseSVN commands are available anywhere within Windows by simply right-clicking. TortoiseSVN supports all the current Subversion protocols which include http://, https://, svn://, svn+ssh://, file:///, svn+XXX://. Using TortoiseSVN you can create, check out, update, and commit changes to repositories. You can also generate repository reports and view Subversion log files. We'll be installing TortoiseSVN on the server (in order to create the sample repository) as well as the client machine (so we can create working copies of the sample code).
• There are several organizational structures common in Subversion. The most popular involves creating a few top-level directories: trunk, branches, and tags but what does these mean? The trunk directory is the main line of code for your development team. This is akin to the root folder of one of your Web sites or projects. This directory is also the most fluid receiving frequent bug fixes, updates, and revisions as your code evolves over time. The branches directory allows developers to branch-off or split the main line of development (the trunk).
• For example, let's say your team has written a really useful application for the marketing department. After 6 months of use marketing decides they need some relatively significant changes, enough to warrant a new release of the application. However, there are still a few outstanding bugs with version 1. Which project does your team, and more importantly each member of your team, focus? With branches, two senior developers can split version 1 from the trunk and start writing version 2. This development occurs without affecting the trunk whatsoever. In fact, the junior developer can focus on the version 1 bugs, at the same time, committing fixed code to the trunk and not negatively impacting version 2. When the senior developers have finished version 2 they can merge their work into the trunk picking up the bug fixes from the junior developer. Branches, whether they are configured as a branches top-level folder or not, are one of the greatest benefits to Subversions copy-modify-merge model. Almost as useful as branches, tags are snapshots of the repository at a particular point in time. The most common use of tags is creating releases or builds of your project. You can view tags as another synonym for milestones; when your team reaches a particular milestone it may be beneficial to take a snapshot of the trunk and give it a meaningful name like release-1.0.3 or version-1.5.

1 more annotation...