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I'm going to upgrade my company's subversion server from version 1.6 to 1.7. The server runs on linux (Ubuntu AFAIK).

I've read all those:

Subversion 1.7 release notes

I've also read those posts:

subversion-client-version-confusion
how-to-upgrade-svn-server-from-1-6-to-1-7

Here and now, I know how to perform this. It's not a big deal. What concerns me the most is the current hooks infrastructure. There are several scripts in bash and perl.

As for now I've found no information referring hooks infrastructure changes, but maybe there are some known issues I missed? Is there anything against the upgrade I should know?

PS: Try and see what comes method is absolutely unavailable. I'd like the upgrade to be as fluent as possible. Repository users shouldn't even notice any changes. I can't allow myself any failure in that matter.

Community
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Krzysztof Jabłoński
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4 Answers4

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Try and see what comes method is absolutely unavailable...

Yes, the try and see what comes method is available. You build a copy of your Subversion 1.6 environment, make the Subversion 1.7 changes, and test until everything is correct.

I don't see how you can accomplish your goal of a quiet upgrade unless you copy and test.

Gilbert Le Blanc
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  • I cannot make any copy. It's a huge amount of data, particularly over 500 GB of sources. And it's sensitive data, most of which I can't have access unless I'm developing on them. But I'm not, and for a long time I won't as an administrator. – Krzysztof Jabłoński Sep 18 '12 at 16:00
  • @Krzysztof Jabłoński: In that case, I respectfully suggest that you and your company **never** attempt an upgrade of any of your system software. – Gilbert Le Blanc Sep 18 '12 at 16:04
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The Subversion compatibility guarantees promise that your hook scripts are called exactly the same in 1.6 as in 1.7. In 1.7 (and future versions) more arguments can be passed to scripts, but the old arguments still match the old behavior. So if you created your scripts like the templates, to ignore 'extra' arguments you shouldn't see a difference.

Subversion 1.7 didn't change the repository format since 1.6, so you can even (accidentally) use the svnlook from 1.6 to access the repository after upgrading.

Bert Huijben
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  • That would be great. If only you could also provide link to the source of that information. – Krzysztof Jabłoński Sep 18 '12 at 21:33
  • I think it is in the FAQ on http://subversion.apache.org/faq.html, but the real reference is in the community guide on http://subversion.apache.org/docs/community-guide/releasing.html#release-compat – Bert Huijben Sep 19 '12 at 00:57
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I guess it depends what you do with your hooks...

If your hooks are using svnlook, you should have no issues. If you're using an API (like the Python API), you probably are also okay as long as you're doing svnlook type of stuff.

Where you might start heading into problems is if you poked and prodded where you weren't suppose to poke and prod. For example, instead of doing svnlook, you do svn. There are a couple of places where the parameters have changed. Also, if you did an svn checkout (an absolute no-no in a hook) and then looked in the .svn directories, you'll get a surprise. Follow the rules, color in the lines, and your hooks won't have any issues.

I don't know of any issues from Revision 1.1 to revision 1.7 that should affect well behaved hooks hooks, and I suspect that you will not have any issues as long as we are still in Subversion 1.x. When Subversion 2.x comes out, all bets are off.

Yes, there have been some changes in how hooks work. The start-commit hook has an extra field that wasn't in versions 1.4 and earlier (The capabilities field), but nothing that would affect current hooks. And, in either Subversion 1.5 or 1.6, users now can set revision properties when doing a commit. These don't affect current hooks, but might be features that you want to incorporate in your current hooks.

David W.
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The upgrade has been performed and succeeded. Subversion server was updated without issues. Hooks were designed without any hacks or slashes, respecting the rules and common sense. It was risky but promising and came out profitable (checkouts are light-speed now).

Just for sake of completeness: there was a consecutive centrally managed client upgrade. And there were issues, however not critical and predictable. After transition svn client 1.6 -> 1.7.7 working copy format changed. Every existing working copy had to be manually upgraded (or wiped out and checked out clean again).

Server upgrade is safe though.

Krzysztof Jabłoński
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