Good Linux (Ubuntu) SVN client

Subversion has a superb client on Windows (Tortoise, of course). Everything I've tried on Linux just - well - sucks in comparison....

Disclaimer: A long long time ago I was one of the developers for RabbitVCS (previously known as NautilusSvn).

If you use Nautilus then you might be interested in http://rabbitvcs.org/">RabbitVCS</a> (mentioned earlier by Trevor Bramble). It's an unadulterated clone of TortoiseSVN for Nautilus written in Python. While there's still a lot of improvement to be made (especially in the area of performance) some people seem to be quite satisfied with it.

The name is quite fitting for the project, because the story it refers to quite accurately depicts the development pace (meaning long naps). If you do choose to start using RabbitVCS as your version control client, you're probably going to have to get your hands dirty.

Generally I just use the command line for svn, it's the fastest and easiest way to do it to be honest, I'd recommend you try it.
Before you dismiss this, you should probably ask yourself if there is really any feature that you need a GUI for, and whether you would prefer to open up a GUI app and download the files, or just type svn co svn://site-goes-here.org/trunk

You can easily add, remove, move, commit, copy or update files with simple commands given with svn help, so for most users it is more than enough.

To begin with, I will try not to sound flamish here ;)

Sigh.. Why don't people get that file explorer integrated clients is the way to go? It is so much more efficient than opening terminals and typing. Simple math, ~two mouse clicks versus ~10+ key strokes. Though, I must point out that I love command line since I do lot's of administrative work and prefer to automate things as quickly and easy as possible.

Having been spoiled by TortoiseSVN on windows I was amazed by the lack of a tortoisesvn-like integrated client when I moved to ubuntu. For pure programmers an IDE integrated client might be enough but for general purpose use and for say graphics artists or other random office people, the client has to be integrated into the standard file explorer, else most people will not use it, at all, ever.

Some thought's on some clients:

kdesvn, The client I like the best this far, though there is one huge annoyance compared to TortoiseSVN - you have to enter the special subversion layout mode to get overlays indicating file status. Thus I would not call kdesvn integrated.

NautilusSVN, looks promising but as of 0.12 release it has performance problems with big repositories. I work with repositories where working copies can contain ~50 000 files at times, which TortoiseSVN handles but NautilusSVN does not. So I hope NautilusSVN will get a new optimized release soon.

RapidSVN is not integrated, but I gave it a try. It behaved quite weird and crashed a couple of times. It got uninstalled after ~20 minutes..

I really hope the NautilusSVN project will make a new performance optimized release soon.

NaughtySVN seems like it could shape up to be quite nice, but as of now it lacks icon overlays and has not had a release for two years... so I would say NautilusSVN is our only hope.

kdesvn is probably the best you'll find.

Last I checked it may hook in with konqueror, but its been a while, I've moved on to git :)

You could also look at git-svn, which is essentially a git front-end to subversion.

See my question:

What is the best subversion client for Linux?

I also agree, GUI clients in linux suck.

I use subeclipse in Eclipse and RapidSVN in gnome.

IMHO there is one great svn gui client, SmartSVN. It is commercial project, but there is foundation version (100% functional) witch can be used free of charge, even for commercial purposes. It is written in java, so it is multi-platform (it requires sun-java* package) http://smartsvn.com

I guess you could have a look at RabbitVCS

> RabbitVCS is a set of graphical tools written to provide simple and straightforward access to the version control systems you use. Currently, it is integrated into the Nautilus file manager and only supports Subversion, but our goal is to incorporate other version control systems as well as other file managers. RabbitVCS is inspired by TortoiseSVN and others.

I'm just about to give it a try... seems promising...

For Ubuntu you cane make use of KDESVN integrated with Nautilus to five a Tortoise SVN Feel.

Try this http://www.clickoffline.com/2008/12/ubuntu-alternatives-for-tortoise-svn-in-linux/">ClickOffline.com : Ubuntu alternatives for Tortoise SVN

Nobody else has mentioned it and I keep forgetting the name so I'm adding these instructions here for my future self the next time I google it...

currently pagavcs seems to be the best option.

you want one of these .deb files

> sillyspamfilter://pagavcs.googlecode.com/svn/repo/pool/main/p/pagavcs/

(1.4.33 is what I have installed right now so try that one if the latest causes problems)

install then run

nautilus -q

to shutdown nautilus, then open up nautilus again and you should be good to go without having to logout/shutdown

Sadly rabbit just chokes on large repos for me so is unusable, paga doesn't slow down browsing but also doesn't seem to try and recourse into directories to see if anything has changed.

I'm very happy with kdesvn - integrates very well with konqueror, much like trortousesvn with windows explorer, and supports most of the functionality of tortoisesvn.

Of course, you'll benefit from this integration, if you use kubunto, and not ubuntu.

Take a look at SVN Work Bench, it's decent but not perfect

> sudo apt-get install svn-workbench

I sometimes use kdesvn for work directly against a repository.

I often use Subclipse when working on projects via Eclipse.

But most of all I use good ol' CLI. With some aliases and bash scripts to back it up, it really is the most concise, reliable method of using svn.

I have tried NautilusSVN (no relation to NaughtySVN) and svn-workbench and found them too problematic or lacking in functionality. I know I tried RapidSVN at some point but I must not have been impressed as it was quickly uninstalled, but I don't remember anything about it.

If you use it, NetBeans has superb version control management, with several clients besides SVN.

I'd recommend however that you learn how to use SVN from the command line. CLI is the spirit of Linux :)

If TortoiseSVN is really ingrained you could try using it through WINE? Though I haven't tried it.

Failing that, I've found Eclipse with Subversive to be pretty good.

If you use eclipse, subclipse is the best I've ever used. In my opinion, this should exist as stand-alone as well... Easy to use, linked with the code and the project you have in eclipse... Just perfect for a developer who uses eclipse and wants a gui.

Personally, I prefer the command-line client, both for linux and windows.

Edit: if you use XFCE and its file manager (called Thunar), there's a plugin which works quite well. If I don't want to open the terminal, I just use that one, it has all the functionality, is fast and easy to use. There's also one for git included, though...

As a developer, I use eclipse + sub-eclipse client (Assuming that you are using svn to checkout some development project and you will compile them).

most people don't spend much time with svn operation, and command line is the fastest way to do so.

there is also some nice GUI tools :

http://rabbitvcs.org/

or

http://www.harecoded.com/nautilus-subversion-integration-tool-execute-svn-commands-with-gnome-scripts-96355

Nautilus provides context menu for svn activities

sudo apt-get install nautilus-script-collection-svn

cp -r /usr/share/nautilus-scripts/Subversion ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/

For more info

Nautilus context menu

Since you're using Ubuntu, and not Kubuntu, I assume you're using GNOME. You might be interested in Nautilus Subversion Integration described on that link.

Anjuta has a built in SVN plugin which is integrated with the IDE.