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  33 <div style="text-align: center;">
  34   <img src="images/subversion_logo_hor-468x64.png" alt="Subversion" />
  35 </div>
  36
  37 <p>The goal of the Subversion project is to build a <strong>version
  38    control system</strong> that is a compelling replacement for CVS in
  39    the open source community.  The software is released under an <a
  40    href="license-1.html">Apache/BSD-style</a> open source
  41    license.</p>
  42
  43 <div id="latest">
  44 <h2>Latest Release</h2>
  45
  46 <p>Subversion 1.4.6 is <a
  47    href="http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/NewsItemView?newsItemID=2007"
  48    >now available</a>.  It is a bugfix release for the 1.4.x line.  See
  49    the <a href="svn_1.4_releasenotes.html" >1.4.x release notes</a> for
  50    what's new in the 1.4 series generally.</p>
  51 </div>  <!-- latest -->
  52
  53 <div id="questions">
  54 <h2>Got Questions?</h2>
  55
  56 <p style="background: #dd9;">The <a
  57    href="http://svnbook.red-bean.com/">Subversion Book</a> and <a
  58    href="faq.html">FAQ</a> can usually answer most questions.  You can
  59    also ask on the <a
  60    href="/servlets/ProjectMailingListList">users@subversion.tigris.org</a>
  61    mailing list, or in IRC at <tt><a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/"
  62    >irc.freenode.net</a></tt>, channel <tt><a
  63    href="irc://irc.freenode.net/svn" >#svn</a></tt>.  (Note that the
  64    mailing lists are <a href="faq.html#moderation">moderated</a>, so
  65    there may be a delay before your post shows up.)</p>
  66 </div>  <!-- questions -->
  67
  68 <div id="features">
  69 <h2>Subversion's Features</h2>
  70
  71 <ul>  <!-- list of features -->
  72
  73 <li><strong>Most current CVS features.</strong>
  74     <p>Subversion is meant to be a better CVS, so it has most of
  75     CVS's features.  Generally, Subversion's interface to a particular
  76     feature is similar to CVS's, except where there's a compelling
  77     reason to do otherwise.</p>
  78 </li>
  79
  80 <li><strong>Directories, renames, and file meta-data are versioned.</strong>
  81     <p>Lack of these features is one of the most common complaints
  82     against CVS.  Subversion versions not only file contents and file
  83     existence, but also directories, copies, and renames.  It also
  84     allows arbitrary metadata ("properties") to be versioned along
  85     with any file or directory, and provides a mechanism for
  86     versioning the `execute' permission flag on files.
  87  </p>
  88 </li>
  89
  90 <li><strong>Commits are truly atomic.</strong>
  91     <p>No part of a commit takes effect until the entire commit has
  92     succeeded.  Revision numbers are per-commit, not per-file; log
  93     messages are attached to the revision, not stored redundantly as
  94     in CVS.</p>
  95 </li>
  96
  97 <li><strong>Apache network server option, with WebDAV/DeltaV
  98     protocol.</strong>
  99     <p>Subversion can use the HTTP-based WebDAV/DeltaV protocol for network
 100     communications, and the Apache web server to provide
 101     repository-side network service.  This gives Subversion an
 102     advantage over CVS in interoperability, and provides various key
 103     features for free: authentication, wire compression, and
 104     basic repository browsing. </p>
 105 </li>
 106
 107 <li><strong>Standalone server option.</strong>
 108     <p>Subversion also offers a standalone server option using a
 109     custom protocol (not everyone wants to run Apache 2.x).  The
 110     standalone server can run as an inetd service, or in daemon mode,
 111     and offers basic authentication and authorization.  It can also be
 112     tunnelled over ssh.</p>
 113 </li>
 114
 115 <li><strong>Branching and tagging are cheap (constant time) operations</strong>
 116     <p>There is no reason for these operations to be expensive, so
 117     they aren't.</p>
 118
 119     <p>Branches and tags are both implemented in terms of an
 120     underlying "copy" operation.  A copy takes up a small, constant
 121     amount of space.  Any copy is a tag; and if you start committing
 122     on a copy, then it's a branch as well.  (This does away with CVS's
 123     "branch-point tagging", by removing the distinction that made
 124     branch-point tags necessary in the first place.)</p>
 125 </li>
 126
 127 <li><strong>Natively client/server, layered library design</strong>
 128     <p> Subversion is designed to be client/server from the beginning;
 129     thus avoiding some of the maintenance problems which have plagued
 130     CVS.  The code is structured as a set of modules with well-defined
 131     interfaces, designed to be called by other applications.</p>
 132 </li>
 133
 134 <li><strong>Client/server protocol sends diffs in both directions</strong>
 135     <p>The network protocol uses bandwidth efficiently by transmitting
 136     diffs in both directions whenever possible (CVS sends diffs from
 137     server to client, but not client to server).</p>
 138 </li>
 139
 140 <li><strong>Costs are proportional to change size, not data size</strong>
 141     <p>In general, the time required for a Subversion operation is
 142     proportional to the size of the <i>changes</i> resulting from that
 143     operation, not to the absolute size of the project in which the
 144     changes are taking place.  This is a property of the Subversion
 145     repository model.</p>
 146 </li>
 147
 148
 149 <li><strong>Choice of database or plain-file repository implementations</strong>
 150   <p>Repositories can be created with either an embedded database
 151      back-end (BerkeleyDB) or with normal flat-file back-end, which
 152      uses a custom format.</p>
 153 </li>
 154
 155 <li><strong>Versioning of symbolic links</strong>
 156   <p>Unix users can place symbolic links under version control.  The
 157      links are recreated in Unix working copies, but not in win32
 158      working copies.</p>
 159 </li>
 160
 161 <li><strong>Efficient handling of binary files</strong>
 162     <p>Subversion is equally efficient on binary as on text files,
 163     because it uses a binary diffing algorithm to transmit and store
 164     successive revisions.</p>
 165 </li>
 166
 167 <li><strong>Parseable output</strong>
 168     <p>All output of the Subversion command-line client is carefully
 169     designed to be both human readable and automatically parseable;
 170     scriptability is a high priority.
 171 </p>
 172 </li>
 173
 174 <li><strong>Localized messages</strong>
 175   <p>Subversion uses gettext() to display translated error,
 176      informational, and help messages, based on current locale
 177      settings.</p>
 178 </li>
 179
 180 <li><strong>Repository mirroring</strong>
 181   <p>Subversion supplies a utility, <tt>svnsync</tt> for synchronizing
 182      (via either push or pull) a read-only slave repository with a
 183      master repository.</p>
 184
 185 <!-- ### Language bindings/API? -->
 186
 187 <!-- TODO: Mention 1.5.0's merge tracking support -->
 188
 189 <!-- TODO: Mention 1.5.0's write-through DAV proxy -->
 190
 191 </li>
 192
 193 </ul>
 194 </div>  <!-- features -->
 195
 196 <div id="roadmap">
 197 <h2>Future Subversion Features</h2>
 198
 199 <p>See the <a href="roadmap.html">Roadmap</a> page.</p>
 200 </div>  <!-- roadmap -->
 201
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