Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Key Features

Directory versioning

Subversion implements a virtual versioned filesystem that tracks changes to whole directory trees over time. Files and directories are versioned. Because it tracks the history of the directory tree rather than just the files, you can add, delete, copy, and rename both files and directories. Every newly added file begins with a fresh, clean history all its own, even if the filename was previously used.

Atomic commits

A collection of modifications either goes into the repository completely, or not at all. This allows developers to construct and commit changes as logical chunks, and prevents problems that can occur when only a portion of a set of changes is successfully sent to the repository.

Versioned metadata

Each file and directory has a set of properties—keys and their values—associated with it. You can create and store any arbitrary key/value pairs. Properties are versioned over time, just like file contents.

Choice of network layers

Subversion has an abstracted notion of repository access, making it easy for people to implement new network mechanisms. Subversion can plug into the Apache HTTP Server as an extension module. A more lightweight, standalone Subversion server process is also available. This server speaks a custom protocol that can be easily tunneled over SSH.

Consistent data handling

Subversion expresses file differences using a binary differencing algorithm, which works identically on both text (human-readable) and binary (human-unreadable) ...