Kalid, from BetterExplained.com, has posted an excellent explanation of the hows and whys behind version control. The article takes an agnostic approach to versioning, but its examples will be more beneficial if Subversion is used. Kalid’s explanation also contains the definitions of words commonly used in the versioning nomenclature. I like this. You may read Kalid’s article and think, “Yeah, tell me something I don’t already know.”, but it is written in terms that your PHB (Pointy-Haired Boss) might understand. Spread the good word.

Subversion (SVN) is a version control system that allows software developers to track the changes of source code and other documents. Since the release of Microsoft’s .NET Framework, Subversion has become a popular choice for developers of open source projects on the Microsoft Windows platform. The latest release of Subversion can be installed on Windows XP Professional by following these five simple steps.

1. Download and install Subversion.
   


2. Download and install TortoiseSVN.
   


3. Create a repository for your project.
   
   • Create folder “D:\Subversion\TestProject”.
   • Right-click TestProject | TortoiseSVN | Create Repository here.
   • Set up repository permissions.
     1. Uncomment the following lines in “D:\Subversion\TestProject\conf\svnserve.conf” (remove #):
        

                      #anon-access = read
                      #auth-access = write
                      #password-db = passwd
                    

     2. Add users to the passwd file in the format of username = password.
   
   
4. Set up the Subversion Service. Pay attention to the binpath argument. You can always issue the “sc delete svn” command to remove the service and start again.
   

         sc create svn binpath= "\"C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin\svnserve.exe\" --service -rD:\Subversion" displayname= "Subversion Server" depend= Tcpip start= auto
   
         sc start svn
       



5. Import repository layout.
   
   • Create folder “C:\tmp”.
   • Create folders branches, tags, and trunk in “C:\tmp”.
   • Right-click tmp | TortoiseSVN | Import…
     1. URL of repository: svn://[IP address of server]/TestProject.
     2. Import message: Initial repository load.
     3. Click ‘OK’.
     4. Enter your username and password from step 3.

This is all it takes to set up and install Subversion on Windows XP Professional. For more information, check out the HTML edition of, Version Control with Subversion.