SVK::Help::Intro(3)

NAME
SVK::Help::Intro - Introduction to svk

DESCRIPTION
svk is a client program that makes distributed version control possible. While version control systems like CVS and Subversion are cool and sine qua non for most of us, they rely on centralized repository: one can't do much without being online. SVK will make your offline life easier and offer more.

svk makes distributed and offline work possible by introducing the concept of local depots. Before, there are only your working directory and (mostly remote) central repository. By introducing this middle layer, which resides in your own local storage, you can commit, checkout, diff with your local depot, which you can later sync with the remote repository via very simple pair of commands, "svk push" and "svk pull".

We say svk is a client because svk makes uses of existing version control systems. By default it uses Subversion, and Subversion users will immediately find similarities in the look and feel of svk. In addition to Subversion, svk also works with other version control systems such as cvs and Perforce. This means you can use svk as your local version control client even if your source tree resides in a repository that is not using Subversion. What's more, you can use svk to work with all the different repositories, like Subversion, cvs and Perforce, with only one client program.

Local depot is one of the key ideas of svk. Mirrored from a remote repository, it offers many benefits in addition to making offline and distributed work possible. For example, a non-committer can copy (mirror) the source tree of a project and then work on his or her own local copy--ci, co, diff, file manipulations, everything that before would require rights to commit. As you can see, the concept of local copy is actually that of local branch. If the non-committer now obtains rights to commit, she or he can merge with the repository with no effort. "svk push" will do the trick.

Another powerful feature of svk is its patch management. Instead of merging different versions between different depots, branches or repositories, svk can generate history-sensitive patch files. Take the example of the non-committer we mentioned above. Now instead of commit-and-merge, which would require rights to commit, he or she can generate patch files and send them to project admins. The admins can later examine and apply these patches. This feature greatly expands the version control model and at the same time makes access control more flexible.

See also <http://svk.elixus.org>