Appendix A. Subversion Quick-Start Guide

If you’re eager to get Subversion up and running (and you enjoy learning by experimentation), this appendix will show you how to create a repository, import code, and then check it back out again as a working copy. Along the way, we give links to the relevant chapters of this book.

Warning

If you’re new to the entire concept of version control or to the copy-modify-merge model used by both CVS and Subversion, you should read Chapter 1 before going any further.

Installing Subversion

Subversion is built on a portability layer called APR: the Apache Portable Runtime library. The APR library provides all the interfaces that Subversion needs to function on different operating systems: disk access, network access, memory management, and so on. While Subversion is able to use Apache as one of its network server programs, its dependence on APR does not mean that Apache is a required component. APR is a standalone library usable by any application. It does mean, however, that like Apache, Subversion clients and servers run on any operating system that the Apache httpd server runs on: Windows, Linux, all flavors of BSD, Mac OS X, NetWare, and others.

The easiest way to get Subversion is to download a binary package built for your operating system. Subversion’s web site (http://subversion.tigris.org) often has these packages available for download, posted by volunteers. The site usually contains graphical installer packages for users of Microsoft operating ...

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