subversion | Re-Cycled Air

Sometimes you enter a development environment that just isn’t going to work well with version control software. Maybe they don’t want to use version control software, or maybe the way their infrastructure is set up makes it hard to do.

I currently work at such a place, so I came up with a way to use Subversion for the vast majority of projects that I work on.

Note: This method works only if you have full ownership over a project. Any other people working on it would have their changes overwritten.

If I have full ownership over a project, I do the following.

1) Import the project of relevant subdirectory into a new Subversion repository.

2) Make my edits locally, committing whenever I feel inclined.

3) When it’s time to update on the server, I do an “svn export” of the project, and then Rsync it with the server.

It’s not ideal situation, but it works well for now.

Edit: Sorry, I didn’t look hard enough. Check out Submin if you are still interested in this.

For those not in the know, Subversion is a piece of software that manages source code in something called a repository. While this in itself is nothing special, Subversion and other software like it, allow developers to keep a detailed revision history of the source code. You can even revert back to previous version in the blink of an eye! Managing a Subversion repository can be a bit of pain though.

Here’s what I’m thinking: We need a web-based subversion management tool. Currently there aren’t any good soluti/ons for this and I’d really like to help the community out with this if I could. What features would you like to see in a web-based subversion management tool?