[coldpie]

> I haven't used svn

Yeahhhh. Svn is centralized. You must be connected to the server to do any source control work. There is no local repository, there are no local commits. Every commit is global on the server. When you make a commit, it is pushed to the server and your coworkers can fetch it. You don't make commits locally and fiddle around and then push.

Also Svn doesn't have branches per se. You just use subdirectories. It does have facilities for merging directories and managing these "branches", but it feels real weird to be switching branches with 'cd'.

It's a very different world.

A quick read: https://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.7/svn.tour.cycle.html

[c-smile]

> You must be connected to the server to do any source control work. There is no local repository...

That's not correct technically speaking. You can create repository on your machine - on local FS.

But of course it is more reliable to run it on server, even for yourself. If on Windows then VisualSVN is one click solution for those who just want to have that thing working.

[Aachen]

Am I understanding you correctly if I compare it to making the argument that, technically, you could run any Internet website from your laptop and network connectivity isn't actually required for using the web?

[c-smile]

I am referring exactly to "must be connected to the server to do any source control work. There is no local repository..." which is plainly wrong by any means.

SVN client supports equally well as "svn:" protocol as "file:". Server is not mandatory with SVN - you can work with repositories on your local HD or network share.

[coldpie]

"Server" was perhaps the wrong word. "Central repo", if you like, regardless of connection method. What I meant is that "svn checkout" does not make a new repository, as "clone" does in decentralized source control systems. You must interact with the central repository (wherever it is stored, locally or over the network) to do version control work.

[tpoacher]

I have used svn in a decentralised manner, pretty much as the person above me describes, for years. It's super simple to do. You create a local repo, populate it from "origin", and when you want to commit your local changes, you make a "foreign merge" request from "origin".

Your argument that this cant be done in svn because "there's a central repo" could have been translated in "git" as: "yeah you cant work on your machine without internet because you wont be able to push on github"

[duskwuff]

> Also Svn doesn't have branches per se. You just use subdirectories. It does have facilities for merging directories and managing these "branches", but it feels real weird to be switching branches with 'cd'.

Also, this means that it's possible to do some horrifying things with branches and tags, like making a merge commit which is isolated to a single directory, or checking out a tag and making a commit to it.

Hopefully no one is actually depending on these workflows being possible, because they make project history extremely hard to follow.