SVN for School Projects

What is svn?

svn (Subversion) is a source code repository. It is a program capable of storing the source code of a project and keep track of all the changes made (contributions) by its developers.

What svn can do for you?

• Stores your work (source code) safely on a remote server so you will never lose your work.
• Lets several students work on the same project at the same time.
• Keeps track of all the work done with history (who have done what, and when), this means you can:

  undo your work to any of the past stages of the work.

  look at different stages of the work and see all the changes.

  check other team members' work, their progress and contribution.

  ask for help from others to help you with your work and help others with their work.

• to be continued...

Common actions for school projects

Kick-start a project (project initiation)

1. create a directory to do your work
2. checkout the repository (the whole thing) into the directory

   Look and make sure you have the 3 directories (branches, tags, trunk)

3. Open branches directory and create a directory using your login name

   this becomes the root of your (each students') workshop

   note: do not use the operating system's file management to copy, move, etc any of the versioned files

4. Do an update on the whole repo to see all the changes from all students
5. branch the trunk into a sub-dir of your workshop (name the sub-dir using your assigned task)

   branch as verb, means copy (in repository)

You are good to go to start working on your repository

start working on a project

1. If you have not already branched the trunk:

   branch/tag the trunk into a sub-directory. Use your task name/description to Name this sub-directory so you can refer to it easily later.

2. In your branch/task directory do your work and commit at anytime you have something worth committing. Make sure you comment your commits.

   Note that in your branch you can commit your work even if it is not complete. In fact, commit your work anytime you are leaving your computer and comment it like: "going for lunch". But again this is only valid when you are working in YOUR OWN BRANCH

3. When task is complete
   1. Update the repository to get all the changes applied to your local copy
   2. Merge the changes back to trunk

   Note that, the merging happens on the local copy and not the repository

4. Edit possible conflicts, save and mark them as resolved when done.
5. Compile, test and make sure the changes are what you want
6. In trunk, apply more changes and do debugging if needed.

   note that this is the only time you do work in trunk

7. When everything is perfect get ready to commit the trunk:
   1. Make sure you are logged in to IRC.
   2. Go to team page and set the status of trunk to committing with following info: User ID, email, IRC Nick, time and date
   3. If the status of trunk is already committing by another user, communicate with them and find out when they are going to be done so you can do your commit.

      Never commit to trunk with out checking and setting the status of trunk

   4. Update repository
8. Commit the trunk
9. Edit, save and resolve possible conflicts and go to previous step
10. When done, go to team page and set the status of trunk back to committed with the same info as before.

Start a task

Continue working on a task on a new computer

Continue working on a task (everyday work)

Release a completed task (Submitting an Assignment or a Release)

Standard svn tree structure

Directory Structure

|-- Team_Repository_Account
  +--branches
  | +-- member-id1  <-- this is a team member's home within branches
  |   +-- Task1
  |   +-- Task2
  | +-- member-id2  <-- this is a team member's home within branches
  |   +-- Task1
  |   +-- Task2
  |   +-- Task3
  | +-- member-id3  <-- this is a team member's home within branches
  |   +-- Task1
  +--tags
  | +-- R0.1
  | +-- R0.11
  | +-- R0.2
  | +-- R0.21
  | +-- ...
  | +-- R0.5
  | +-- ...
  | +-- R1.0
  | +-- R1.1
  | +-- R1.2
  | +-- R1.21
  +--trunk

branches

• branches is the common directory for all team members' workspaces.
• Each team member should create their own home directory or workspace (member-id1, member-id2,...) for their own development tasks within branches.
• Each team member should divide their workspace into several sub-directories (workspaces) during the development of the project. These workspaces(Task1, Task2, ...) are usually copies of the trunk to be worked on.

  These sub-directories(Task1, Task2,...) are called branches of trunk. When the word branch is used as a verb, it means copying the whole trunk into a sub-directory, either in branches.

tags

• tags is the directory that holds copies of successful stages of trunk throughout development. (Also called as Milestones)
• tags are never modified or edited. You may branch a directory of tag into branches under a workspace and then modify the branch and apply the changes back to trunk, but you should never change the contents of a tag
• The action of branching the trunk into tags is often referred to as a release.
• We use the tags directory to submit the work for marking. Your instructor will specify the requirements of a release.
  • A release is usually tagged by a version number like: R0.1, Prj0.2, As1_1.0
  • When a release is due, your instructor will always mark the latest version of that release.

    If R0.3 is due, and R0.3, R0.31, R0.32 are present in tags, then your instructor will mark R0.32

trunk

• trunk is the directory that holds the project in its current stage, complied and run-able
• trunk should never hold non-compiled code. Usually trunk is an exact copy (or better than) the latest version in tags.
• If the repository only contains one project, then trunk has no project level sub-directory and is the root of the project. Ifthe repository holds more than one project, trunk is divided into several sub-directories - one for each project.

  In this case, we divide tags into exactly the same project sub-directories as present in trunk