Get started with SVN

Assembla's SVN repository offers a full set of features like merge requests, version comparisons, inline comments, protected branches, forks, and hooks. 

This article will help you get started quickly so you can start pushing changes to your repository.

1. Starting from Scratch?

You need first to check if you already have an SVN repository in your space. If it's not listed among other tools in your top bar, then you will need to add one. Follow these instructions to add a SVN repository to your space:

Precondition: You need owner permission to the spaces.

1. Go to the Admin tab ➙ Tools

2. Click on the Add (or Add another) button next to SVN.

3. ​The newly added Subversion (SVN) repository will appear in your navigation bar named as SVN (number - if any).

4. In the Source sub-tab of the SVN tab you can find the URL for the SVN repository to checkout.

5. Get an SVN client. Here is a list of some clients per OS:

• Windows
• Mac
• Linux

6. Checkout your repository:

WINDOWS

We recommend using TortoiseSVN as a Subversion client for Windows.

Precondition: Make sure you have an assembla password. If you signed up with your Google or Yahoo account, you might need to create an assembla password. To set one, just go to your profile page and create a password.

Step 1: Create a folder in your local. Right click inside the folder where you want to checkout the repository, from the pop up menu, click "SVN Checkout..."

Step 2: In the pop up window enter the URL for your Assembla hosted SVN repository and click OK. The URL can be copied from the SVN repository Source tab on Assembla.

Step 3: When prompted, enter your Assembla username and password and hit Enter to checkout the repository.

MAC & LINUX 

Step 1: Create a local folder in your local

$ mkdir My_SVN

Step 2: Go to your folder

$ cd My_SVN

Step 3: Checkout the repository.

$ svn co --username assembla_username --password assembla_password https://subversion.assembla.com/svn/your_space/

Step 4: A new folder has been created inside your SVN folder, that's your repo. Go to trunk

$ cd your_space/trunk

Step 5: Add or make changes to the repo

$ nano xyz.txt

Step 6: Add the local file to your changes

$ svn add xyz.txt

If you see this error "W150002" run --force at the end:

$ svn add xyz.txt --force

Step 7: Go back to root

$ cd ..

Step 8: Commit the changes to your repo

$ svn commit -m "Commit Message"

Step 9: Update your repo

$ svn update

2. Importing Existing Data?

If you already have an SVN repository, you can import it directly to Assembla. To import an SVN repository from another server:

1. Obtain an SVN dump file for the source repository. The steps for obtaining an SVN dump file varies depending on the SVN service provider hosting the repository, but you can import it by using these commands:
   svnadmin create my_repo svnadmin load my_repo < my_dump_file
   If the import was without errors, you can archive the dump file with:
   gzip -9 my_dump_file
2. Add an empty SVN repository to your Assembla space as shown in "Starting from scratch?" section.
3. Go to the Import/Export sub-tab in the SVN tab for your newly created repository.
4. Browse and select the SVN dump file from your computer and click Import. If your file is larger than 200 MB, you will need to use a URL to import it instead.  An import job will be scheduled and run in the background.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please email us at support@assembla.com.