elego Software Solutions

Stephen Butler (SVN Committer), elego Software Solutions: What's new in Subversion 1.7? How did 1.6 turn out?

Level: Fortgeschrittene

Subversion 1.6 suffered from the same problem as earlier releases: insufficient pre-release testing. Two easily detectable problems were fixed remarkably late after 1.6.0 -- file externals on binary files as well as merging replacements were both fixed only in 1.6.6. Better test coverage as well as pre-releases in binary form to enable easy testing by a wide user base would benefit release quality.
Subversion 1.7 introduces the subcommand 'svn patch', the counterpart to 'svn diff', as well as an improved http repository access layer (httpv2), speeding up http:// and https:// access. But the main feature of Subversion 1.7 is WC-NG (Working Copy, Next Generation), a complete working copy library rewrite. The metadata previously stored in many .svn directories across the working copy is reduced to a single .svn directory in in the working copy root, which contains a central SQLite database and SHA1 hashed pristines file store. WC-NG gets rid of large amounts of old, "grown" code and makes room for fixes and improvements long overdue. The single metadata storage dramatically reduces I/O and speeds up the svn client, and it resolves numerous situations where metadata was missing because of nonexistent subfolders. Subversion 1.7 creates the solid base for future

Stephen Butler has worked for software companies in the USA and Europe, mainly in the telecom industry, with a personal focus on configuration management and software process improvement. In 2007 he joined elego Software Solutions, helping software teams in many companies to migrate to Subversion. He's been a committer to the Subversion project since 2008.