Xcode and Subversion Updates

Out of the box, the latest version of Xcode (3.1.2 as of this writing) has some built-in Subversion (SVN) integration. However, the version of SVN that Xcode links to is slightly outdated – 1.4. (The current version is 1.6.1) Not really a big deal if you only use Xcode to interact with SVN for your project. But, if you happen to have a newer version of SVN installed on your machine that you access via the command-line, or some other tool, and later access your Xcode project using those instances of SVN, then you’ll run into problems. The newer version of SVN used to access your local working copy will update the hidden files SVN uses to keep track of your project, and then Xcode’s SVN integration will no longer work with your project.

The problem lies in the fact that Xcode points to the default set of SVN libraries that are installed with OS X. If you manually install SVN to a newer version, most of the time the default install is not overwritten, and you just work with the newer version. However, since Xcode still points to the older files, it can’t work with the newer local copy format. There are several suggested solutions I’ve found online, but the one I think is the best comes from Duane Fields. Rather than install over the default versions of SVN, or changing a bunch of links that can possibly break your Apache install like some guides do, Duane’s fix updates the SVN plugin that Xcode uses to point to wherever the newest SVN binaries are installed on your machine. I’ve been using Xcode with Duane’s fix for over a month now, and it’s working great. (Well, as well as SVN in Xcode has ever worked.) The title of his post is for SVN 1.5, but this fix will work with whatever version of SVN you currently have installed.

Link: How to patch Xcode to work with Subversion 1.5

I do most of my SVN work through the command-line for Xcode stuff, but for adding files to the repository, doing it through Xcode is a pretty big timesaver. Xcode’s SVN integration isn’t great, but it does come in handy every once and while, so this tip is worth checking out.