Subversion Version Control: Using the Subversion Version Control System in Development Projects

I found this book covered well the basics and introduced some good practices. However overall the book might have been better organized. For example you have to read the whole book to understand what best practices to adopt, before going back to the chapter on installation. The real case examples also lacked analysis. Finally, the book is getting a bit old since it covers SVN 1.1 and SVN is now at version 1.4, and there is no online follow up/errata page from PHPTR.

This book covers all aspects of using Subversion: from setting up repositories, to daily usage, to administering the repositories that you created. There is also a section that explains how to configure the Apache web server to serve repositories. After reading the book, I truly had a good understanding of Subversion and how to use it effectively. There is a minor precaution, however. This book only covers up to Subversion 1.1. Subversion 1.4 was recently released, so some newer functionality is not detailed. Although the book trails the current release of Subversion by a few releases, most of the enhancements are "behind the scenes", and don't affect how users interact with the repositories. (One feature that many people feel is important, the ability to lock files, was added in Subversion 1.2 and is therefore not covered.) This book is an excellent introduction to almost all facets of Subversion, and I highly recommend it to Subversion novices. However, since it is slightly out of date in its feature coverage, I subtracted a star from the overall rating.

While the book title indicates that this is a book on the Subversion Version Control software system the author has chosen to provide a more thorough background and cover such topics as why use version control and how to use it best in a software development environment. If you are already familiar with version control software you will be pleasantly surprised to find that the author not only details how to use it to its greatest benefit but also includes information on its limitations and workarounds for specific situations. After the introductory and general background information the author jumps right into installation and setup. From there he first examines the use of Subversion from the user's standpoint and then from the administrator's perspective. The administrative part includes an excellent section on using scripts. The next part examines the software development process and not only includes using Subversion in the development process and several case studies, but also an excellent section on best practice policies. The last section of the book is a detailed technical reference that includes a detailed command reference. If you do software development of any type you will want to use a version control system. Subversion is a top quality open source solution and Subversion Version Control is an excellent resource on how to use it.

This is a straightforward book on a straightforward topic. Subversion is an open-source version control (VC) system conceived as a replacement for CVS. While improving on CVS in a number of ways, it nonetheless feels comfortable and familiar to CVS users. Furthermore, because it avoids some of CVS's worst "gotchas", it's easier for VC novices to learn. Nagel writes this book for both of these audiences in a plain, easy to read style. As expected, the book covers the basic concepts of VC software, offers comparisons between Subversion and several other VC systems, and discusses Subversion's command set in detail. But the most valuable part of the book are the numerous discussions throughout of practical approaches to working in a VC environment and to managing a Subversion repository. There's some great material on how VC practices and development methodologies affect each other, and there are some detailed case studies of individual companies and how they use Subversion -- right down to the details of the client software, repository layout, and automation scripts that they use. There's always a danger that a book documenting a specific software package will simply duplicate material that's already in the manual; that really doesn't happen here. Prospective Subversion users -- whether they're coming from a CVS or SourceSafe environment, or if they're new to VC all together -- won't go wrong with this book.

This is an excellent Subversion resource. Everything from administration through use and automation is covered. In addition the author imparts some experience based wisdom about proper branching technique, which can be impenetrable at the best of times. There are some issues, the code is often a little long and sometimes acts as exposition. But for the moment I would rate this as the best Subversion book that I have seen.