Subversion - Branching and merging to release, stable or something else

Previously, we talk about the basic stuff of Subversion. This is still basic stuff :p


Is about managing source codes by branching. Branching is a way to have 2 or more sets of source code with each has it's own development, but eventually, merging them into the main trunk.

Example, in most development, we normally have "development" & "release" version. As word means, the "development" version is meant for development & testing. But the "release" version, would be the ultimate version that roll out for production use. For this example, "release" will be the trunk & "development" will be the branch.

A view of it :

web_blog(repository)
   |
   +release
   |  |
   |  +front_end
   |  |
   |  +engine
   | 
   | 
   +development
      |
      +front_end
      |
      +engine

To create this hierarchy :

Subversion - How to use svn to manage source files

The "svn" command stands for Subversion. Subversion is commonly use to manage revisions of source files, e.g. configuration files & program source code. Subversion keeps revision what of have been change or committed into the repository. This is good when we accidentally change the source code and needs to roll back to the previous changes. It is also good for managing configuration files (e.g. /etc, /usr/local/etc) on servers as it provides revision control. We can roll back to the last working condition if we screw something up. :p

Here's how to start using svn to manage source files, for the first time :