Subversion

Subversion allows multiple individuals, potentially geographically distributed, to collaborate on a set of files using a centralized version control model. It evolved from CVS, supporting all major CVS features plus enhancements like improved branching and merging. The main package includes the svn client, svnsync for synchronization, svnadmin and svnlook for repository management, and svnserve for network access.

Use cases include software development teams tracking changes, website maintenance with version history, and repository administrators handling dumps, backups, and access controls. Language bindings for Python, Perl, Ruby, and Java enable scripting and integration into custom tools. Additional utilities in subversion-tools assist with backups, cleaning working copies, and bisecting revisions to find regressions.

Subversion operates repositories accessible via HTTP/HTTPS (with mod_dav_svn), svn:// protocol (svnserve), or file:// locally. Working copies track changes against repository revisions, supporting operations like checkout, commit, update, and merge.

Subversion uses a centralized repository model where all changes are committed to a single server, creating sequential revisions. Clients maintain working copies with metadata linking to specific revisions. Protocols include WebDAV over HTTP/HTTPS via Apache modules (libapache2-mod-svn), custom svn:// via svnserve, and local file access. FSFS format stores data efficiently with delta compression. Tools like svnadmin manage repository formats, svnlook inspects contents, and svnsync mirrors repositories. Bindings expose libsvn1 APIs for programmatic access in various languages.