Show the current SVN revision in your Rails app
I’m current developing a Rails application. I deploy this application to a demonstration server using capistrano.
To streamline feedback and bug reporting I want to show the current revision number of the code that’s published on the demo server to show in the footer of every page.
First I looked into Subversion keyword expansion, but this is marked as ‘evil’ and it doesn’t meet my requirements. I want to show the latest revision number of the entire repository and not just that of the current file.
Luckily for me, I use capistrano. Here’s how I fixed the problem.
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Announcing “Subversion Kick-Start”
With this post I officially announce my first book, “Subversion Kick-Start“.
Subversion is a popular version control system that’s used by many, many developers around the globe. Most developers know how to find their way around Subversion, but quite a lot do not.
SKS is for every software engineer who wants to learn how to put Subverstion to real use for their projects. It’s more than just storing code. It’s about structuring the way you write code. It’s about optimizing the way you work.
Subversion Kick-Start is aimed at getting you and Subversion up and running as quickly as possible with the minimal amount of effort required.
Please subscribe to my feed newsletter or RSS feed and stay up-to-date! You’ll be the first to know when the book is available.
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How to setup a Ubuntu development server - Part 1
Since I’m starting some real work on my final school project, I want to install a Ubuntu development server here at home. I have a Pentium 4 box here that will perform that task.
In this first part I will show you how to install Subversion over WebDAV. All of this will be done in such a way that it’s easy to serve multiple projects at once.
In future parts I will tell you more about installing Trac, FastCGI (with Apache) to host Rails applications and how to use Capistrano to deploy your app properly.
For now, let’s get cracking at Subversion.
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SVN: How to structure your repository
Most people know what Subversion is and that there’s something called “The Trunk” with code in it. Well, there’s more to your SubVersion repository than you think! This article will discuss how to structure your repository in order for you to take full advantage of Subversion’s possibilities.
As you may have read in my previous Subversion articles the base of your Subversion repository are three directories: branches, tags and trunk.
Each directory in subversion can be checked out seperately. See the examples for more information.
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SVN: How to fix bugs properly
I’ve already told you about releasing your project with help from Subversion. Now I want to talk to you about using Subversion to fix bugs in your application.
Fixing bugs can be as easy as fixing a few lines of code or as hard as rewriting a significant portion of your application. Both situations need a different approach from us. Let’s talk about the easy stuff first.
For this example let’s say we have a project. It has a release branch named RB-1.0 and current development is going on in the trunk.
A user has submitted a bug report (numbered #3391) against your 1.0 release. Here’s what to do:
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SVN: How to release software properly
Many projects use SubVersion nowadays to store their project code. I do this also at work, and for my personal projects like CSE-Tool.
The question, however, is how to release your current code properly to the public. You probably don’t want your users to check out your current development code. Either you want them to check out a certain version (release) or you want to present them with a download archive containing the code.
I’m going to show you how to release a simple PHP application from SubVersion as an archive file to my users.
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