Home FAQ Which Subversion release?

Versions' Subversion versions

Should I use Subversion 1.4, 1.5 or 1.6?

If you only use Versions, select Subversion 1.6. It's the fastest, most stable release of Subversion available.

If you also need to be able to use Subversion integration in another application, make sure you use the same major release (e.g. 1.5 or 1.6) in Versions as those applications use. Coda can use any installed command-line version of Subversion. That means that if you're on Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) you should use Subversion 1.6. If your Mac is still running Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), you will probably need to install a newer version of the command-line tools. See this page for info on where to get those.

Xcode (on Snow Leopard) also uses SVN 1.6 under the hood. So in most cases, using SVN 1.6 is the way to go.

Why even offer the choice?

Different major releases of Subversion use a different structure for their working copies. When you first access an older working copy with a client using Subversion 1.6 (either Versions, the svn command-line interface, or any other SVN app), that working is silently upgraded to use the new SVN 1.6 structure. From that moment on, a client application using Subversion 1.5, or earlier, can't access the working copy anymore.

In short: To prevent headaches, make sure that every Subversion client on your Mac uses the same major release of Subversion.

Good to know: This only affects your working copies, your repository cannot be changed just by using it with a newer client.