One of the greatest frustrations in most software projects is version control: the art of managing changes to information. Today's increasingly fast pace of software development--as programmers make small changes to software one day only to undo them the next--has only heightened the problem; consecutive work on code or single-programmer software is a rare sight these days. Without careful attention to version control, concurrent and collaborative work can create more headaches than it solves. This is where Subversion comes into play. Written by members of the Subversion open source development team, Version Control with Subversion introduces the powerful new versioning tool designed to be the successor to the Concurrent Version System or CVS. CVS users will find the "look and feel" Subversion comfortably familiar, but under the surface it's far more flexible, robust, and usable, and more importantly, it improves on CVS's more notable flaws. The book begins with a general introduction to Subversion, the basic concepts behind version control, and a guided tour of Subversion's capabilities and structure. With thorough attention to detail, the authors cover every aspect of installing and configuring Subversion for managing a programming project, documentation, or any other team-based endeavor. Later chapters cover the more complex topics of branching, repository administration, and other advanced features such as properties, externals, and access control. The book ends with reference material and appendices covering a number of useful topics such as a Subversion complete reference and troubleshooting guide. Version Control with Subversion aims to be useful to readers of widely different backgrounds, from those with no previous experience in version control to experienced sysadmins. If you've never used version control, you'll find everything you need to get started in this book. And if you're a seasoned CVS pro, this book will help you make a painless leap into Subversion.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 25 Ratings

An excellent and very useful technical book - 2009-02-18
Reviewer Rating:
When I came across this book, we were actually in the middle of a transition from CVS to Subversion, so this book obviously came in handy (it even has an appendix which describes differences between the two). Even though I wasn't personally in charge of the transition, it provided me enough information to know exactly what was going on - and more. The style of the book is very well readable, and its structure is built up logically. The book starts out with fundamental concepts and basic usage - enough for everyday use as a developer. Chapter 3 discusses more advanced topics, most of which were new to me. I must say that this part is most useful as a reference, rather than simply reading it, as the subject is quite technical and you will want to actually get your hands on Subversion.

The rest of the book covers branching, merging, administration and configuration, basically any topic you can think of when it comes to version control. At least, I can't think of anything that has been left out. On top of that, Chapter 9 contains a complete reference to using Subversion. I will definitely be using this book as I get to work with Subversion more often and it provides valuable information for any developer working on a Subversion project.

In short: An excellent and very useful technical book. Want to give it either 4 or 5 stars. I hardly ever would give out 5 stars but I haven't really seen any disadvantages besides it being a bit too technical to read in bed at night.

A good read, presenting good knowledge, and good instruction. - 2009-02-05
Reviewer Rating:
While a beginner, I have been programming for a little while now and the time came for me to put my code into a repository. I was dreading it.

"version control with subversion" gently and quickly took me into using Subversion. I needed to read the first few chapters twice, after that I downloaded and installed the code, and viola, my code is version controlled with minimal effort.

Subversion linked readily with my IDE, Netbeans, although subversion with different IDEs is not really covered in this book.

Thanks to this book, I did not have take my mind of my main project for long.

I read the rest of the book (skim reading some sections) and it provides clear instructions on other possibilities, and how to set up more complex and tailored systems.

A good read, presenting good knowledge, and good instruction.

My evidence is that I am now using Subversion well, whereas two weeks ago I had no clue.

Version control with SubVersion 2nd edition - 2009-10-03
Reviewer Rating:
SVN 2nd edition: Very interesting book , if you are absoulte beginner never used SVN before , the book begins with the fundamental concepts of SVN and its history and how it works and its use cases and whether it's the right tool for you or not, in Chapter 2 overview of the most common tasks you'll encounter daily such as making your repository, making your working copy, checking out and updating the repository and alot more. chapter 3 and 4 illustrate advanced SVN topics such as branching , merging , network model ... etc that's beyond the beginners use . chapter 5 and 6 for SVN repository administration and server configuration. chapter 7 for customizing SVN such as using external editors and using external tools for differencing and localization . chapter 8 for embeding SVN and using its API using C and other programming langs . Chapter 9 is SVN complete reference for all SVN commands. appendices at the end of the book contain SVN quick start , SVN for CVS users, WebDAC autoversioning and SVN Copyright license . recommended as SVN book and reference .

Top notch guide - 2009-06-18
Reviewer Rating:
This book is both an excellent way to learn Subversion from scratch and an invaluable reference guide to experienced users. The material in this book is on par with (and often better than) the material available in corporate "live, instructor-led" training courses. This book covers everything from the high-level, conceptual view of Subversion to command-line usage details to the low-level internal workings of the Subversion code. Best of all, the book is easy to read and the authors use just the right amount of diagrams and flow charts (enough to clear up any questions, but not so many as to be overwhelming or distracting). I can't imagine working on a Subversion-powered project without this book. Highly recommended

The only SVN book you need - 2009-06-18
Reviewer Rating:
Free Subversion beats expensive commerical software hands-down in terms of design, usability and quality. This book is the official guide to exploit its full capability and it lives up to its promise.

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