[TxMt] SVN?

[Rob McBroom]

On Mar 29, 2007, at 10:19 AM, Ethan H. Darling wrote:

> So, my question is...  "What is SVN, can I really use it to manage  
> a production website, and what is the best place, resource, book to  
> get information on how to install, configure, and use it?"

I deal with several web sites and I use subversion to manage them.  
It's great at what it does, but…

In my opinion, it's completely the wrong tool for the "transfer these  
updated files to the web server" part of the process, which I think  
is what you're after. I still edit all web site files remotely using  
Cyberduck (same clunky workflow as Transmit), Samba, DAV, SSHFS, etc.

The problem, if you care, is this: If you have a copy of the files on  
your local machine and you want to make some updates then push them  
to a remote machine using Subversion, you have to "commit" your  
changes*. Most of the changes you make are small and stupid and not  
worth committing. I also prefer not to commit changes until after  
I've tested and know that I didn't break anything. Why keep track of  
mistakes, right? But of course, when dealing with web stuff, the  
changed files need to be on the server in many cases in order to be  
tested, which if you're using subversion to "transfer" them, brings  
us back to committing files prematurely.

Many people on this list continue to suggest Subversion as an answer  
in a situation like yours, so maybe I'm missing something. If so, I'd  
love to hear what it is.

* Also note that this just puts the changes into the repository. It  
doesn't actually transfer updated files "as is" to the remote  
machine. The repository itself is a sort of database and useless to a  
web server, so you would need to have a working copy on the web  
server also, and have subversion update that copy after each commit  
in order to view the files there.

---
Rob McBroom
<http://www.skurfer.com/>
I didn't "switch" to Apple... my OS did.