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GitLab is the successor of our Subversion service!
Introduction
thumb|alt=Subversion logo|Subversion
Subversion (SVN) is an open source revision control system that allows one or more users to easily share and maintain collections of files.
Although SVN focusses on the software development community it is very well possible to use it as a general purpose centralized system for sharing and maintaining information contained in all kinds of data files.
We have set up a subversion server for FNWI including an administrative interface to manage repositories and repository users.
Getting started
To be able to use our SVN server you need the following:
- The URL of the repository;
- an SVN username and password;
- an SVN client installed on your computer.
Contact C&CZ to create a repository and appoint an owner.
The repository
For remote access to our SVN repository the HTTPS protocol is used. The web address (or URL) of our repositories is typically of the form:
https://svn.science.ru.nl/repos/{repository name}
WebSVN
WebSVN offers a view onto your subversion repositories that’s been designed to reflect the Subversion methodology. You can view the log of any file or directory and see a list of all the files changed, added or deleted in any given revision. You can also view compare two versions of a file so as to see exactly what was changed in a particular revision. The URL of our WebSVN installation is:
https://svn.science.ru.nl/wsvn/{repository name}
Authentication and Authorization
A subversion user can be owner of one or more repositories. Repository owners can grant user read or read-write access to the repository. New svn user accounts can be created if necessary. Account details such as your full name, email address and password can be changed through the web interface:
Repository owners
We urge repository owners to use science account names for users who already have a science account and to use account names starting with an underscore (_) for external users:
for science users external users
{science username} _{username}
svn usernames
Repository Users
If you have a science login name, the repository owner should have created an account for you with the same account name. At the moment your SVN and science accounts are not connected, i.e. you can change the passwords of both independently. In the future this will probably change.
When you first connect to the repository your SVN client will prompt you for your account name and password. Most SVN clients will store/remember your credentials for subsequent repository access.
SVN client software
For all major platforms, the svn command line client is either available as part of the distribution or can downloaded seperately. To determine if you have subversion installed on your system, type:
$ svn --version
There are many graphical clients available, which are perhaps easier or more intuitive to use.
Graphical SVN clients
Platform Application at FNWI Description
Windows TortoiseSVN Optional for Managed TortoiseSVN is a Windows shell extension, which PC’s gives feedback on the state of versioned items by adding overlays to the icons in the Windows Explorer. Repository commands can be executed from the enhanced context menu provided by Tortoise; GPL license.
Linux RapidSVN Ubuntu systems It’s a while since the latest release. Still one of the easiest to use open source SVN gui’s for Linux and OSX; GPL license.
Mac OSX -
Suggested Graphical SVN clients
Using SVN
O’Reilly has published “Version control with Subversion” under the Creative Commons Attribution License. It’s available in different formats from http://svnbook.red-bean.com/.
F.A.Q.
How do I login to the Administrative Interface?
Visit https://svn.science.ru.nl/; Click ‘Authenticate’.
I forgot my password, how can I reset it?
If you forgot your password you can reset it with the “Forgot your password?” option. You have to specify your login name and the exact e-mail address as registered in the SVN database. You’ll recieve an email with a new password. If this fails, please contact C&CZ.