C. Michael Pilato: “Subversion Locking”
C. Michael (Mike) Pilato, one of the main developers of Subversion, answers common questions about Subversion file locking feature.
The default version control model employed by Subversion is the copy-modify-merge model, where users asynchronously checkout personal working copies of a versioned directory, modify files inside that directory, and then commit their modifications, only worrying about conflicting changes made to the same file when they actually occur. Locking (sometimes referred to as “reserved checkouts”) allows Subversion users to step outside that default model and into the lock-modify-unlock model, in which multiple users preemptively serialize their commit access to a given file so that conflicts never occur.
Mike discusses pros and cons of file locking in context of Subversion; the exact mechanism for file locking (via svn:needs-lock property); and existing restrictions (only files could be locked, and not directories or branches).
Read at Subversion blog: From the Question Bin: Subversion Locking.
Recent posts on similar topics
- Karl Fogel: "Subversion’s Delta Editor: Interface as Ontology" - October 27th, 2007
- Ben Collins-Sussman & Brian W. Fitzpatrick: "Subversion Worst Practices" - October 12th, 2007
- Karl Fogel, Ben Collins-Sussman, on distributed version control - October 11th, 2007
- Subversion clients for Mac OS X - June 30th, 2007
- Launchpad.net - June 27th, 2007
