Using Subversion

Version Control Software Concepts

Version control software is used by teams of professional programmers for centralized storage of source code, simplification of team development, keeping track of changes, etc. Subversion is a particular version control system. In this course Subversion is used for lab assignment submission and grading. Subversion stores the projects in a centralized repository. From this repository the projects can be checked out, i.e. copied to local machine. Then, modifications can be made locally. After modifying the project, it can be committed, i.e. put back in the subversion repository. Once in the repository, the project files can be viewed on the web. This is a common way of verifying that the assignment submission was successful. The repository contents is referred to using URLs similar to web-pages.


Using Subversion in Eclipse

Subclipse is an extension of Eclipse that allows it to interact with Subversion. It comes with its own Team Synchronization perspective. However, most of the functionality is accessible from the standard C/C++ CDT perspective.

Adding a Project to Subversion Repository

Before further subversion manipulations can be made with a project, it needs to be added to the subversion repository. To add a project to the repository:
  1. Right click on your project in the Project Explorer view;
  2. Select Team --> Share Project...
  3. Select SVN repository type, click Next
  4. If this is the first time you are connecting to subversion, select Create a new repository location, otherwise select the location from the list, click Next
  5. Type for the url location:

    http://classes.cs.kent.edu/courses/cs23021/svn/SECTION/USERNAME/

    Replace SECTION and USERNAME with your (three digit) lab section and your username (CS Dept. login name).

    Click Next

  6. Select Use project name as folder name, Click Next
  7. Enter a comment that describes what you have done. For example, "Adding Lab01_FirstProgram to the repository.". Click Finish
  8. In the dialog box, enter your CS department username and password. Note that you might have to enter name/password multiple times. Do not select "save password" option as Eclipse will save it and it will be available for other users after you leave.
Note that Console view shows information about adding the project to the repository. Your project has now been added to the subversion repository. Now, if you right click on your project in the Project Explorer or C/C++ Projects view and select Team you will see a submenu that allows you to manipulate the project in the repository.

Committing to Repository

As you make changes to the local copy of your project, they are not stored in the subversion repository. To save it in repository, for example, to submit for grading, you need to commit the changes to the repository. To perform a commit in Eclipse:

  1. Right click on your project in the Project Explorer view;

  2. Click Team --> Commit...

  3. Enter a comment that describes what you have done.

  4. Click OK

  5. in the dialog box, enter your CS department username and password

Your changes made in Eclipse have now been sent to the repository. To verify your submission, enter the URL of the repository in a web-browser and confirm that your changes have been saved. After you are done working with Eclipse, remove the project from the local computer:

  1. Right click on your project in the Project Explorer view;
  2. Select Delete
  3. Mark Delete project contents on disk in the dialog box that appears, click OK

Checking a Project Out

As you work on your project on various computers, a new computer may not have a local copy of your project, you need to check out the project from the repository, i.e, download it to the local computer. To check out your project in Eclipse:
  1. Right click in the white space of the Project Explorer view
  2. Click New --> Other...
  3. Expand SVN in the list
  4. Select Checkout Projects from SVN, click Next
  5. Select Create a new repository location, click Next

  6. Enter the url of the location of the project you want to check out:

    http://classes.cs.kent.edu/courses/cs23021/svn/SECTION/USERNAME/

    Replace SECTION and USERNAME

    Click Next

  7. Enter your CS dept. login name and password in the appearing dialog box.
  8. select the project you want to check out from the project list
You should see the checked out project in the Project Explorer view. Remember to commit any changes you make to the project back to the repository.

Updating in Eclipse

Sometimes the project in the repository is newer than the one on the local machine. Update copies newer files from the repository to local machine. To perform an update in Eclipse:

  1. Right click on your project in the Project Explorer view;

  2. Click Team --> Update...;

  3. A window will appear, enter your CS dept. username and password.