Subversion – Rules, Crash Course and Work Cycle

RULES

Rule #1:  Check in only completed functioning code that you believe works.  Bugs may be found later, but don’t check in anything that you know is incomplete or broken.

Rule #2:  Check in as often as possible without breaking rule #1.

Rule #3:  Always perform an update before a check-in.

Rule #4:  Reference the svn red book often.  http://svnbook.red-bean.com/

Rule #5:  Do not mess around with the .svn directories in the check-out unless you’re an expert with subversion.

CRASH COURSE:
Subversion (svn) is a source code repository like microsoft sourcesafe, cvs, or borland starteam.  The main repository we use is called simply ‘main’.  Beneath main, everything is organized into projects.  There is a project for the main website itself, called ‘webroot’.  Each project is organized into branches (created at release), and “trunk” where development occurs.
There are a few main functions to svn that you need to be familiar with.

1. Checkout – This is how you get a copy of the project.
2. Diff – Use this before commit to make sure you are only checking in things you intend to check in.
3. Commit – This sends your changes to the server, this is how you check in.
4. Status – This will list which files are changed or new.
5. Add – Use this to add new files you create to the repository. Must be followed by a commit.
6. Update – This brings down any changed files.  It will attempt to merge, and warn on failure, if a file on the server has been changed since the last time you ran an update, and your local copy is modified.

Again, read the red book.

WORK CYCLE:

1. Checkout the project.
2. Modify files and test modifications.
3. Update.
4. Any new files or directories need to be ADDed.
5. Update.
6. Repeat 2-4 until your changes are ready to be sent up.
7. Commit.

Tags: Crash Course, Rules, Subversion, SVN