Examining History and Changes
For more details on using Subversion visit the Subversion online instruction book.
As an author, it is likely that you will want to look at differences between two revisions of the same file, or two separate files.
| Note:
These commands can be used without any network access. Useful if you are working remotely without a network connection. |
Svn log
This shows you broad information about a file or directory.
You can use this command to find out who made changes to a file or directory, which revision it changed at, the time and date
of the revision and the accompanying log message.
Using the -v verbose switch will provide further information still:
$svn log -v ................................................. r8 | sally | 2007-05-14 09:15:27 -0500 | 1 line #this line will appear regardless of the use of the -v switch Changed paths: M /trunk/directoryA/fileA-b.html A /trunk/directoryA/newfile.html This is a new file, called newfile.html which was created as a test. #this shows the text which changed in the file .................................................
Svn cat
Using svn cat and svn list, you can view various revisions of files and directories without changing the
working revision of your working copy.
If you want to examine an earlier version of a file and not necessarily the differences between them you would run a command such as:
svn cat -r 247 blame-b.htmlWhere:
-r = revision 247 = is an earlier revision of this file examingchanges-b.htmlThe result would be an onscreen print out of the contents of this revision of the file, just like using Unix cat.
You can also redirect the output directly into a file:
$svn cat -r 247 blame-b.html > blame-b.html.v2
Svn list
This displays the files in a directory for any given revision, without having to download them to your local machine:
$svn list cl-preview/html/supporters-club .htaccess collab-b.html howtojoin-b.html index-b.html joining-proforma.txt jokemember.html members-b.html recruitment-fair-2005-b.html recruitment-fair-2006-b.html uconfig.txt
To view more details about these files, use the -v switch:
$svn list -v /cl-preview/html/supporters-club 191 mgk25 38 May 23 12:16 .htaccess 185 mgk25 6012 May 22 10:15 collab-b.html 186 mgk25 3793 May 22 17:48 howtojoin-b.html ...
Svn status
To get an overview of changes you have made, use the command svn status.
If you use this command at the root of your working copy with no switches, it will detect all file and tree changes you
have made.
An example of the sort of information svn status can return is below:
A directoryA/newfile-b.html #file is scheduled for addition C directoryA/fileA-b.html #file has textual conflicts from an update (see note below for details) D directoryA/rubbish.html #file is scheduled for deletion M changed.html #the content of this file has local modifications
| Conflict Changes received from the server during an update overlap with local changes that you have in your working copy. These must be resolved before the file can be committed to the repository. |
$ svn status directoryA/rubbish.html D directoryA/rubbish.htmlIf you use the switch -v (verbose), you will see the status of every item in your working copy, even if it hasn't changed:
$ svn status -v M 44 23 sally directoryA/changed.html D 44 18 harry directoryA/rubbish.html A 0 ? ? directoryA/newfile-b.html 44 23 harry directoryA/unchangedfile-b.html
The columns displayed are as follows:
1st column - file status (modify, delete, add, etc). If the file is unchanged, this will be blank.
2nd column - file revision (0 indicates a new file that has never entered the repository)
3rd column - revision that the file last changed. If the file is new, it will be marked with "?"
4th column - who made the changes. If the file is new, it will be marked with "?"
5th column - directory and file name.
| Note: None of the above contact the repository. This is local and compares the data in the .svn directory with the working copy. |
$ svn status -u -v M * 44 23 sally directoryA/changed.html D 44 18 harry directoryA/rubbish.html A 0 ? ? directoryA/newfile-b.html * 44 23 harry directoryA/unchangedfile-b.htmlThe asterisks indicate that these files have changed in the repository.
If you were to run svn update, these files in your working copy would be updated with changes from the repository.
This means that you either need to update to get the changes to unchangedfile-b.html, or your changed.html file will be rejected from the repository for being out-of-date.
| Note: Visit the online instruction book for more information on svn status |
Svn diff
This command shows exactly the modifications made in your file.
The svn diff command produces an output comparing your working files against copies stored within your .svn area.
The following is an example of changes made to a file on the Computer Lab website.
Output is displayed with:
"-" for removed lines
"+" for added lines:
$svn diff contact/directions/index-b.html Index: contact/directions/index-b.html =================================================================== --- contact/directions/index-b.html (revision 172) #this indicates that the removed lines were revision 172 +++ contact/directions/index-b.html (working copy) #this indicates that the new lines are in the file which is part of your working copy @@ -64,17 +64,17 @@ The William Gates Building is 2 km (1.3 miles) west of the city -centre, along Madingley Road, towards the American Cemetary. #this line had a spelling error +centre, along Madingley Road, towards the American Cemetery. #this line has replaced the original with the correct spelling
| Note: Visit the online instruction book for more information on svn diff |
Svn revert
If you find you have edited a file in error and need to start again, you can use the command svn revert to revert
the file to its pre-modified state by overwriting the copy stored in the .svn area.
Svn revert can also undo any scheduled operations:
$svn revert index.html Reverted 'index.html'To undo a scheduled operation:
$ svn status rubbish.html #What is the status of this file? rubbish.html #This file exists but has not changed since the last update $svn delete rubbish.html #Delete the file D rubbish.html #File deleted $svn revert rubbishb.html #Yikes! I didn't mean to delete that file. Revert, revert! Reverted 'rubbish.html' #Delete operation reverted $svn status rubbish.html #Has the operation really been stopped? 'rubbish.html #This file is still there and remains unchanged since last update.
| Note: Visit the online instruction book for more information on svn revert |