Installing Subversion on Windows

Transcription

1 Page 1 of 32 Installing Subversion on Windows By Robert Canright Version = Table of Contents Abstract... 1 Overview... 1 Installing the SVN Server... 2 Creating a New Repository: Example 1, a Mistake... 9 Creating a New Repository: Example 2, the Right Way Installing the SVN Client Adding Code to the SVN Repository Adding Code to the SVN Repository the Wrong Way Adding Code to the SVN Repository a Second Mistake Adding Code to the SVN Repository the Right Way Code Checkout from SVN Conclusion Abstract The installation of Subversion (SVN) for source control on a Windows PC is explained with detailed instructions and copious screen shots. Visual SVN Server and TortoiseSVN are used for the server and client. Overview This document has three sections (1) Installing the SVN Server, (2) Installing the SVN Client, (3) Adding Code to the SVN Repository, and (4) Code Checkout from SVN. The goal is to walk you through the steps to set up SVN (server and client) on your home PC, put your code into the repository, and then connect your working code directory to the repository. Examples are

2 Page 2 of 32 provided on two computers, one running XP and one running Windows 7. Common mistakes are illustrated and proper repository structure is examined. Installing the SVN Server Go to this website to download the VisualSvn server: Of the two choices, pick VisualSvnServer because you are not using Visual Studio. Click on the Download Now button. At this time, the download is VisualSVN-Server msi. It downloads quickly. The entire installation and setup for VisualSvnServer can be done in 30 minutes or less. Run the installer (the msi file) by double-clicking on VisualSVN-Server msi on computer #1 (XP). In Windows 7 (on computer #2)

3 Check on the accept-the-terms check box on the license agreement window. Page 3 of 32

4 Take the default on the next screen Page 4 of 32

5 Page 5 of 32 Make this small change. The default is to have the SVN repositories in C:\Repositories, but there is a good chance you might one day want to also use Git for source control, so you will have more than one code repository. Instead, make it C:\SvnRepositories\. Notice the port number is 443. You might need to know that one day.

6 Page 6 of 32 Click on Next. Click on Install.

7 Page 7 of 32 Watch the installation. Accept the default and click on Finish.

8 Page 8 of 32 The VisualSVN Service Manager launches now. You can access it through Programs > VisualSVN > VisualSVN Service Manager. Right click on Users and give yourself an account.

9 Page 9 of 32 Part of the process of setting up an SVN server is to create a repository. Two examples follow. The first illustrates a mistake and is included for education. The second example presents a pattern you can follow. Creating a New Repository: Example 1, a Mistake

10 Page 10 of 32 Right click on Repositories and Create a New Repository... Click on Create default structure (trunk, branches, tabs). On computer number 1 I named the repository Murach because I planned to put sample code from Murach into the repository for practice. Murach is more appropriately the name of a project, so this was a mistake, but we will walk through it as an example. You don t want to copy this particular approach, but you will see what a poor repository design looks like. Notice where it says Repository URL: The URL is important to know. Creating a New Repository: Example 2, the Right Way On computer number 2 I decided to name the repository Main1. Computer #2 has the repository design you can copy. Within the trunk directory of Main1 is where software projects are added. Where it says Learn about recommended repository layout, you end up at this webpage: You now have an SVN repository named Main1 and you can add multiple projects into the trunk. Notice the repository URL is You will need to know the repository URL when your SVN client tries to connect to the SVN server. It is okay for the client and server to be on the same machine.

11 Page 11 of 32 Projects go into the trunk of the repository. I made a mistake on computer #1, but I did a better job on computer #2. You can go to Task Manager, Services (Windows 7) and see the VisualSVN server is running and that it will start every time your computer starts.

12 Page 12 of 32 You now have an SVN server. If your computer is networked, all computers in the network can use the VisualSvn server. But it is fine to use the server on only one computer only to manage code. Installing the SVN Client Tortoise is an excellent SVN client. Go to this web page and, carefully avoiding the advertised download of some junk at the top of the page, maneuver down the page to download the latest copy for your computer (32-bit or 64-bit). Watch out for all the advertisements that have large Download buttons. They are trying to trick you into downloading stuff you don t want. Find the buttons that say Download Now from Sourceforge. This download takes longer to download than VisualSvnServer, but not too long.

13 Page 13 of 32 When finished you get a file like this: TortoiseSVN win32-svn msi (32-bit) or TortoiseSVN x64- svn msi (64-bit). Double click on it to run the installer. On Windows 7:

14 Page 14 of 32 Click on Run Click Next. Above is on an XP machine, below is on a Windows 7 machine.

15 Page 15 of 32 A license agreement appears. Click on I accept and hit Next. On the next screen, accept the defaults

16 Page 16 of 32 The red X is a default. Click Install in window below.

17 Page 17 of 32 On Windows 7, when you hit Install you must look for some approval box from Windows and click OK for the installation to start. Finish

18 Page 18 of 32 You now have TortoiseSVN installed. After you reboot your system you will be able to see TortoiseSvn in the Processes list in the Task Manager window. TSVNCache.exe is the name of the Tortoise process. Adding Code to the SVN Repository This section illustrates the addition of code to the SVN repository. Several examples will be provided for educational purposes: two blunders and one successful example you can follow. On an XP machine, open a Windows explorer window (My Documents, e.g.) and click on File and you will see two choices for SVN: Checkout and TortoiseSVN. The explorer windows on Windows 7 does not have a File menu. So on a Windows 7 machine you right-click on an empty spot in the screen and the window that appears will include TortoiseSVN in the list. The menu available for Tortoise lists these choices: Repro-browser, Export, Create repository here, Import, Settings, Help, and About.

19 Page 19 of 32 Adding Code to the SVN Repository the Wrong Way You will want to put code into SVN. That is what we will do next. After installing it, it appears Tortoise is not automatically launched as a service. I suggest a reboot. We will look at an example on my computer #1. To use Tortoise, if you do Programs TortoiseSVN > TortoiseSVN you get this message A Windows explorer window opens. I want to add C:\murach to the repository so I right click on the murach folder and select TortoiseSVN > Import Now it asks for the URL of the SVN repository: You recorded it earlier: for computer #1.

20 Page 20 of 32 Hit OK Watch the code being added to the repository in the screen shot below.

21 Page 21 of 32 It finally says Import Finished Use the Repo-browser to see the repository just created:

22 Page 22 of 32 I think this was a bad idea. It works, but I think I should have put a Murach folder inside the trunk and given the repository a different name, not the name of one project. Continuing with this example I will now create a C:\murach_svn directory, right click on it, and select Checkout.

23 Go to C:\murach_svn and see. Page 23 of 32

24 Page 24 of 32 You can see this is not right. There should just be a java directory. The others (branches, tags, and trunk) only belong in the repository. This example was a blunder, but it was a test with code not under development. Adding Code to the SVN Repository a Second Mistake Now we will go through a second example, twice. I want to demonstrate how things can go wrong and how you can recover. Do not use this method, just learn from it. You can skip ahead to the section named Adding Code to the SVN Repository the Right Way if you are in a hurry. On computer #2 I import a Netbeans project in C:\Users\Robert Canright\Documents\NetBeansProjects\ImpedanceConsoleApp\ I right-click on the directory and select TortoiseSVN > Import Enter the URL you saved earlier:

25 Page 25 of 32 Enter your password, check Save authentication, click OK and it finishes quickly. Use the Repo-browser and you can see it did not save it in the form I wanted.

26 Page 26 of 32 It is not in trunk, so that was a mistake. The ImpedanceConsoleApp folder is missing. I copied the contents without the directory to contain the contents. Looking at the repository above you can see that the branches, tags, and trunk directories are mixed in the same directory as the contents of the ImpedanceConsoleApp directory shown below.

27 Page 27 of 32 After deleting the misplaced contents in the repository Main1 directory we are ready to try again to add code. Adding Code to the SVN Repository the Right Way This example is the one you follow when you add code to your SVN repository. In the Repobrower open the trunk directory, right click in the empty directory and select Add Folder. Another choice with the Repo-browser open is to right click on the trunk folder shown in the navigation bar on the left side of the Repo-browser and select Add Folder. Either way you will get a window that you use to reach the ImpedanceConsoleApp folder. Maneuver to the ImpedanceConsoleApp folder. Select it and hit the Select Folder button as shown below.

28 Page 28 of 32 Notice the SVN log message is for the svn/main1/trunk/impedanceconsoleapp folder, as shown below. Now you can see in Repo-brower that the code is where I wanted it:

29 Page 29 of 32 The source code is now in the repository with a reasonable organization. Code Checkout from SVN You have your code in the repository, now you must connect the code in the repository to the code in your working directory. I suggest just checking out your code into the original directory, after making a backup copy. Your checkout will write-over the existing files, but each file now will have a connection to the repository so the SVN client knows if it has been modified since checkout. Here is how we will do the checkout. Go to the folder just imported into SVN, right click on it.

30 Page 30 of 32 Select SVN Checkout, but make sure you are checking out the right folder. Often you are in a group environment and checking out existing code into an empty directory in your work space. In our case we already have existing code and we are going to copy over it.

31 Page 31 of 32 Click Yes. Now you will see below the check mark in a green circle that indicates this code was checked out of the repository. Enter the checked-out directory and see the subdirectories all have the check mark and that there is a dot svn hidden folder.

32 Page 32 of 32 You can now work in this directory and check-in changed code into the repository. We are not going to show how SVN is used. Conclusion We have accomplished our goal: to walk you through the steps to set up SVN (server and client) on your home PC, put your code into the repository, and then connect your working code directory to the repository.