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Setting up a subversion repo on a us

Setting up an SVN repo on a USB key is really simple, and lets me carry a completely version controlled copy of my code around with me so I can hack with minimal worries wherever I am (unless the key dies :P)

First you need to mount the key, this will vary depending on your system, for my Linux box It’ll be something like this:

mount -tvfat /dev/sdb1 /media/usbdisk

Then we can use svnadmin to create an empty repo:

cd /media/usbdisk
svnadmin create .

Next you need to import your project directory. Let’s assume that your current project you’re working on is in a subdirectory of /home/me/code:

cd /home/me/code
svn import . file:///media/usbdisk -m "initial import"

This deserves some explanation. the section after the word import tells svn to import the current directory (denoted by a period) and all sub directories into the svn repo at file:///media/usbdisk. This is the path to your usb key with it’s blank repo on as in the last step. We use file:// to denote that we’re using a repo on the local filesystem, as opposed to http:// for a repo on the network.

The section after the -m is a commit message, this will be logged along with the changes that you made to your source files so you can easily follow the progress of your project and find and reverse changes.

Congrats you now have a portable svn repo :)

For tutorials about how to checkout and make changes to files in an SVN repo, check out the excellent documentation!

This week I have mostly been listening to toe following artists (courtesy of my Last.FM account)

• Envy
• Mono
• Bôa
• AFI
• The River
• Thursday
• Carcass
• The Rotted
• Fear Before the March of Flames
• A Static Lullaby