My client uses SVN (Subversion) instead of TFS; so something new to learn. In the past, I have had clients that used AccuRev and Borland’s StarTeam. So it would seem that 20% or more of my clients have not used TFS for source control.
I downloaded SlikSVN from https://sliksvn.com/download/, and used the free doc here to learn the basics. The doc is available both in PDF format and HTML. In this blog, I will be sharing my “Introduction to SVN”, which is basically just trying some of the simple commands with a couple of small code files (I chose Powershell instead of BizTalk to keep it super simple.)
The first thing I had to do was to create a “Repository”. I chose the File System repository, which seems to be recommended. It’s also called an “FSFS-backed repository.”
<pre>C:\>svnadmin create SVNRepository
When dealing with with multiple users, you will also have to setup a web server and a URL. But for single machine, single user access, you can simply refer to the respository I created as file:///C:/SVNRepository.
I had two Powershell programs that I was using as demos. For example, Version 1 looked like this:
<pre># Neal Version - SVN learning and exercises
# Date Created: 12/22/2014
Write-Host "Hello World "
Write-Host "The End"
Then I added the date, and for small changes just changed the text inside the last “Write-Host” statement.
<pre># Neal Version - SVN learning and exercises
# Date Created: 12/22/2014
$showDate = get-date #added 12/22/2014
Write-Host "Hello World $showdate"
Write-Host "The Demo2 Change End"
</pre>
<pre>c:\Code>svn import c:/Code/Demo file:///c:/SVNRepository -m "Initial Checkin"
Adding (bin) Demo\Sample1.ps1
Adding (bin) Demo\Sample2.ps1
Committed revision 1.
c:\Code>svn checkout file:///c:/SVNRepository
A SVNRepository\Sample1.ps1
A SVNRepository\Sample2.ps1
Checked out revision 1.
c:\Code>svn status
svn: warning: W155007: 'C:\Code' is not a working copy
c:\Code>cd demo
c:\Code\Demo>svn status
svn: warning: W155007: 'C:\Code\Demo' is not a working copy
</pre>The problem above was that I left off the Path from the Checkout statement. The doc shows an example with no Path, so I found it rather confusing. Here is the corrected checkout:
<pre>c:\Code>svn checkout file:///C:/SVNRepository C:\Code\Demo2
A Demo2\Sample1.ps1
A Demo2\Sample2.ps1
Checked out revision 1.
</pre>“SVN status” won’t show anything until you change a file. I opened Sample1.ps1 with notepad, changed it, then ran the command. “SVN status” runs totally on the client without accessing the repository.
<pre>c:\Code\Demo2>svn status
M Sample1.ps1
</pre>One important note, when creating the Powershell programs using the “ISE” utility, it encoded them as UTF-16. This caused SVN to see them as binary, and I had to follow the advice of this StackOverflow post to solve the problem.
I changed the text of the final “Write-Host” statement in Demo2 and checked-it in using the “Commit” subcommand. The -m is required to specify the description of your changes.
<pre>c:\Code\Demo2>svn commit -m "Demo2 update Write-Host"
Sending Sample1.ps1
Transmitting file data .
Committed revision 5.
</pre>You can add the -u parm to the “Status” subcommand, and it will show you the files that are in need of update (with the *), i.e. this command now contacts the repository. Since I commited Sample1.ps1 in Demo2, I now switch back to my Demo directory, and see that Sample1.ps1 is out-of-date and in need of update from the repository.
<pre>c:\Code\Demo>svn status -v -u
* 3 3 neal.walters Sample1.ps1
M 4 4 neal.walters Sample2.ps1
3 3 neal.walters .
Status against revision: 5
</pre>So then I changed the same line of code in C:\Code\Demo\Sample1.ps1 and tried a commit:
<pre>c:\Code\Demo>svn commit -m "Test conflict"
Sending Sample1.ps1
svn: E155011: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: E155011: File 'C:\Code\Demo\Sample1.ps1' is out of date
svn: E160028: File '/Sample1.ps1' is out of date
</pre>I should have noticed above that “*” told me that Sample1.ps1 was out of date, and so I need to do an “SVN Update”:
<pre>c:\Code\Demo>svn commit -m "Test conflict"
Sending Sample1.ps1
svn: E155011: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: E155011: File 'C:\Code\Demo\Sample1.ps1' is out of date
svn: E160028: File '/Sample1.ps1' is out of date
c:\Code\Demo>svn update
Updating '.':
C Sample1.ps1
Updated to revision 5.
Conflict discovered in file 'Sample1.ps1'.
Select: (p) postpone, (df) show diff, (e) edit file, (m) merge,
(mc) my side of conflict, (tc) their side of conflict,
(s) show all options: m
Merging 'Sample1.ps1'.
Conflicting section found during merge:
(1) their version (at line 6) |(2) your version (at line 6)
--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
Write-Host "The Demo2 Change End" |Write-Host "The End - Some other Demo
--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
Select: (1) use their version, (2) use your version,
(12) their version first, then yours,
(21) your version first, then theirs,
(e1) edit their version and use the result,
(e2) edit your version and use the result,
(eb) edit both versions and use the result,
(p) postpone this conflicting section leaving conflict markers,
(a) abort file merge and return to main menu: 2
Merge of 'Sample1.ps1' completed.
Select: (p) postpone, (df) show diff, (e) edit file, (m) merge,
(r) mark resolved, (mc) my side of conflict,
(tc) their side of conflict, (s) show all options: r
Resolved conflicted state of 'Sample1.ps1'
Summary of conflicts:
Text conflicts: 0 remaining (and 1 already resolved)
</pre>Above, I selected option (2) for “use your version”, causing my change to override the change made by the other “fake” person (i.e. the other directory where I changed the code differently. Then I had to further select “R” for “mark Resolved”. After the merge and resolve, the commit works fine:
<pre>c:\Code\Demo>svn commit -m "Update text in final msg"
Sending Sample1.ps1
Sending Sample2.ps1
Transmitting file data ..
Committed revision 6.
</pre>If all the above looks antiquated, I find it that same.Working with the command line utilities to me seems going backward, but yet I know some people love it. Hopefully, in the next blog, I’ll show you the similar results by using TortoiseSVN, a graphical user interface which installs as a shell into the Windows right-click facility of Windows Explorer. It is plug compatible with your existing repository, and you can switch back and forth between the command line and the Tortoise GUI anytime.