Subversion (also called SVN) is a very popular, open source and free version controlling system. Subversion is created by CollabNet in 2000. Later in 2009 it was accepted by Apache foundation. Now Apache is maintaining the Subversion source code and it is one of the Apache top-level project.
Subversion is used by many open source software foundation for project hosting. This includes Google Code, Source Forge and the Apache Project Hosting itself. In addition to open source foundations, the corporate world also using subversion extensively now a days. According to Apache "Subversion exists to be universally recognized and adopted as an open-source, centralized version control system characterized by its reliability as a safe haven for valuable data; the simplicity of its model and usage; and its ability to support the needs of a wide variety of users and projects, from individuals to large-scale enterprise operations"
Subversion is widely compared to the IBM Rational Clearcase, which offers almost all functionalities as subversion. Following are a few main features of Subversion.
Even though Apache is owning and maintaining the Subversion source, Apache is not providing any binary packages for installation. Following are a few companies which offers installation packages and support for subversion server.
If you are experienced with a version controlling system like CVS or clearcase, Subversion is very easy to learn and to work with. The subversion client comes with a command line interface (svn) by default. You do all the operations like check-in, check-out, commit etc by typing in commands in to the command line console. The are many GUI clients exists which can do the operations graphically. Most of these GUI clients integrate well with most of the IDEs like Eclipse and Visual Studio. Following are a few GUI subversion clients
In the following articles about subversion, I will be using Subclipse to interact with Subversion server.
