Version Control with Subversion - Electrical and Computer ...

the repository. While these aren't strict requirements like the syntax described above, they help to organize
frequently performed tasks. The /trunk part of URLs you'll find throughout this book is one of these conventions;
we'll talk a lot more about it and related recommendations in Chapter 4, Branching and Merging.
Although the above example checks out the trunk directory, you can just as easily check out any deep
subdirectory of a repository by specifying the subdirectory in the checkout URL:
$ svn checkout http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/doc/book/tools
A tools/readme-dblite.html
A tools/fo-stylesheet.xsl
A tools/svnbook.el
A tools/dtd
A tools/dtd/dblite.dtd
…
Checked out revision 2499.
Since Subversion uses a “copy-modify-merge” model instead of “lock-modify-unlock” (see Chapter 2,
Basic Concepts), you're already able to start making changes to the files and directories in your working
copy. Your working copy is just like any other collection of files and directories on your system. You
can edit and change them, move them around, you can even delete the entire working copy and forget
about it.
Note
While your working copy is “just like any other collection of files and directories on your
system”, you need to let Subversion know if you're going to be rearranging anything inside
of your working copy. If you want to copy or move an item in a working copy, you should
use svn copy or svn move instead of the copy and move commands provided by your operating
system. We'll talk more about them later in this chapter.
Unless you're ready to commit a new file or directory, or changes to existing ones, there's no need to further
notify the Subversion server that you've done anything.
What's with the .svn directory?
Guided Tour
Every directory in a working copy contains an administrative area, a subdirectory named .svn. Usually, directory
listing commands won't show this subdirectory, but it is nevertheless an important directory. Whatever
you do, don't delete or change anything in the administrative area! Subversion depends on it to manage your
working copy.
While you can certainly check out a working copy with the URL of the repository as the only argument,
you can also specify a directory after your repository URL. This places your working copy in the new
directory that you name. For example:
$ svn checkout http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk subv
A subv/subversion.dsw
A subv/svn_check.dsp
A subv/COMMITTERS
A subv/configure.in
A subv/IDEAS
…
Checked out revision 2499.
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