Just saw that Subversion 1.5.0 has been released. There are quite a few new features, but the main ones of interest to me are:
- basic merge tracking (to be improved in 1.5.1)
- changelist support for working with common file groupings
- sparse checkouts for working with large repos (say, one that includes multimedia assets)
- improvements to
svn:externals - The usual performance improvements
See the svn 1.5 release notes for a run down of the main changes, or the CHANGES file for a complete list.
Oh yeah, and the usual, major version, working copy and repository format provisos apply… while the API is backwards compatible and svn 1.5 server and tools work with older repo versions, working copies are a different story. Older client tools will not work with svn 1.5 working copies, nor with 1.5 repositories. Your existing working copies will automatically upgrade to the 1.5 format when you access them with the new tools. Read this for more information.
You’ll also need to upgrade your repository format to 1.5 to take full advantage of the new features like merge tracking (although you’ll get a number of the improvements with older repo formats as well).
Certified binaries will be coming out over the next couple of days at CollabNet (other binary maintainers listed here). The TortoiseSVN crew is pretty much ready to go too.