What is trunk branch and tag in Subversion

Question

Possible Duplicate    What do  ldquo branch rdquo    ldquo tag rdquo  and  ldquo trunk rdquo  really mean        What is a trunk  branch and tag in Subversion and what are the best practices to use them   What tools can I use for Subversion in Visual Studio 2008

User · Answer

A great place to start learning about Subversion is http://svnbook.red-bean.com/.

As far as Visual Studio tools are concerned, I like AnkhSVN, but I haven't tried the VisualSVN plugin yet.

VisualSVN does rely on TortoiseSVN, but TortoiseSVN is also a nice complement to Ankh IMHO.

User · Answer

The trunk is the main line of development in a SVN repository   A branch is a side-line of development created to make larger  experimental or disrupting work without annoying users of the trunk version  Also  branches can be used to create development lines for multiple versions of the same product  like having a place to backport bugfixes into a stable release   Finally  tags are markers to highlight notable revisions in the history of the repository  usually things like  this was released as 1 0    See the HTML version of  Version Control with Subversion   especially Chapter 4  Branching and Merging or buy it in paper  e g  from amazon  for an in-depth discussion of the technical details   As others  e g  Peter Neubauer below  the underlying implementation as  tags  branches and  trunk directories is only conventional and not in any way enforced by the tools  Violating these conventions leads to confusion all around  as this breaks habits and expectations of others accessing the repository  Special care must be taken to avoid committing new changes into tags  which should be frozen     I use TortoiseSVN but no Visual Studio integration  I keep the  Check for modifications  dialog open on the second monitor the whole time  so I can track which files I have touched  But see the  Best SVN Tools  question  for more recommendations

User · Answer

If you re new to Subversion you may want to check out this post on SmashingMagazine com  appropriately titled Ultimate Round-Up for Version Control with SubVersion   It covers getting started with SubVersion with links to tutorials  reference materials   amp  book suggestions   It covers tools  many are compatible windows   and it mentions AnkhSVN as a Visual Studio compatible plugin  The comments also mention VisualSVN as an alternative

User · Answer

A fantastic free utility to use if you have a team of developers is SVN Monitor  It serves as a heartbeat for your tree  telling you when there are updates  possible conflicts  etc  It s not quite as useful for a solo developer though

User · Answer

The  trunk    branches   and  tags  directories are conventions in Subversion   Subversion does not require you to have these directories nor assign special meaning to them   However  this convention is very common and  unless you have a really good reason  you should follow the convention   The book links that other readers have given describe the convention and how to use it

User · Answer

A trunk is considered your main code base  a branch offshoot of the trunk   Like  you create a branch if you want to implement a new feature  but don t want to affect the main trunk   TortoiseSVN has good documentation  and a great diff tool   I use Visual studio  and I use VisualSVN and TortoiseSVN

User · Answer

The answer by David Schmitt sums things up very well  but I think it is important to note that  to SVN  the terms  branch    tag   and  trunk  don t mean anything  These terms are purely semantic and only affect the way we  as users of the system  treat those directories  One could easily name them  main    test   and  releases    As long as everyone using the system understands how to use each section properly  it really doesn t matter what they re called

User · Answer

To use Subversion in Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2008  install TortoiseSVN and AnkhSVN      TortoiseSVN is a really easy to use Revision control   version control   source control software for Windows    Since it s not an integration for a specific IDE you can use it with whatever development tools you like    TortoiseSVN is free to use  You don t need to get a loan or pay a full years salary to use it       AnkhSVN is a Subversion SourceControl Provider for Visual Studio  The software allows you to perform the most common version control operations directly from inside the Microsoft Visual Studio IDE  With AnkhSVN you no longer need to leave your IDE to perform tasks like viewing the status of your source code  updating your Subversion working copy and committing changes  You can even browse your repository and you can plug-in your favorite diff tool

User · Answer

A good book on Subversion is Pragmatic Version Control using Subversion where your question is explained  and it gives a lot more information

[svn] What is trunk, branch and tag in Subversion?

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