SVN Client & Subversion Source Control (Commit, Blame, Log, Diff)

SVN Client & Subversion Source Control (Commit, Blame, Log, Diff), a VS Code extension by Zovo

Free SVN client for VS Code that uses your own svn command line. Subversion source control with commit, update, diff, log, blame, branch, switch and merge, one svn status at a time, and nested working copies found once. No sign-in, no network of its own.

Free, MIT license. Needs VS Code 1.90.0 or newer. Extension ID zovo.zovo-svn-client, version 0.2.1.

Free SVN client for VS Code. It runs the svn command line you already have, so it works with any Subversion server you can reach today. Free, no sign-in, works offline: the extension itself sends nothing anywhere, and only svn talks to your own repository server.

Real output from VS Code 1.142 on macOS with svn 1.15.0. The working copy comes from scripts/make-fixtures.sh. scripts/gate-vscode.mjs installed the packaged extension in a clean VS Code profile, clicked util.js in the Source Control view and saved the window.

• Commit, update and diff from the Source Control view. Changes, Unversioned, Conflicts and each changelist get their own group, and the gutter marks changed lines against BASE.
• History and blame without leaving the editor. The log view pages through the history with filters for text, author and date, and blame shows who changed each line.
• It stays light on big working copies. Only one svn status runs per working copy at a time, file events are bundled into one run, and build folders can be left out.

Quick start

1. Have the svn command line. Check with svn --version in a terminal. If it is missing, SVN Client shows an install page with the command for your system (Homebrew, apt, dnf, TortoiseSVN command line tools, SlikSVN).
2. Open a folder that was checked out with svn, or run "SVN: Checkout..." with a repository URL. The working copy shows in the Source Control view.
3. Type a message and press Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on macOS) to commit.

"SVN: Get Started" in the Command Palette opens a short tour.

Questions people ask

Why this one

People who use SVN extensions in VS Code have written about these problems in Marketplace reviews. This extension was built and tested against each one:

A server that does not answer is stopped after a time limit with a message (zovoSvn.networkTimeoutSec), so VS Code never waits on a dead connection. In the gate, with the limit at 8 s, Update against an address that never answers stopped after 8.9 s with that message, and VS Code stayed responsive.

Features

Source Control

Buttons and menus: Commit, Commit Selected Files, Commit Changelist, Update, Update to Revision, Revert (with a confirmation; unversioned files go to the trash), Add, Delete, Add to svn:ignore, Resolve (mark resolved, mine, theirs, base), Move to Changelist, Cleanup and Refresh. Explorer and editor tabs show the M, A, D, ?, ! and C letters.

Diff

Click a changed file to compare it with its BASE revision. BASE comes from svn's own pristine copy, so it needs no network. Files with svn:keywords show the same expanded $Id$ on both sides. Binary files and files over zovoSvn.maxDiffMB (20 MB) get a short note instead of a text diff, with buttons to open the file or its history. Nothing is loaded until you ask.

Log

"SVN: Show Log" for the working copy, or "Show File History" from the editor or Explorer menu for one file or folder.

• 100 revisions per page, more as you scroll
• Filter by text, author and date range (svn log --search on the server, so it covers the whole history)
• The full message and the changed paths of a revision. Click a path to see its diff, or "open" to see the file at that revision.
• Tick two revisions and press Compare to see what changed between them

Blame

"SVN: Toggle Blame" puts the revision, author and date before every line. Hover a line for the commit message and a link to all changes of that revision. Lines you changed and did not commit say "not committed". Set zovoSvn.blame.mode to inline to show it only after the line the cursor is on.

Branches and tags

• Switch to trunk, a branch or a tag, picked from a list read from branches/ and tags/ next to your working copy
• Create a branch or a tag from HEAD, from your working copy revision, or from the working copy with its local changes
• Merge from a branch: every revision not merged yet, or a list like 120,125-130. A dry run shows what would change, and the exact svn merge command shows before anything runs.
• The revision graph draws trunk, branches and tags over time

Shelving

"SVN: Shelve Changes" saves your local changes as a patch in the extension's storage and reverts the files. "SVN: Unshelve" brings them back with svn patch. It works with every svn from 1.7, not only with the experimental shelving of svn 1.10 to 1.14. Binary changes cannot go into a text patch, so a shelf with them is refused before any file is touched.

Changelists

The SVN Changelists view in the Source Control side bar lists each changelist and its files. Drag files from it or from the Explorer onto a changelist to move them there, or onto "No changelist" to take them out.

Large working copies

• One svn status per working copy at a time, after zovoSvn.statusDelayMs (1 second) of quiet. A build that writes thousands of files causes one or two status runs, not thousands.
• zovoSvn.exclude keeps build folders out: changes there start no status, and unversioned files there are not listed.
• zovoSvn.statusDepth limits how deep status looks, for very large trees you only change near the top.
• Each group lists at most zovoSvn.maxListedFiles (5,000) files. The count stays exact.
• Status skips externals, which get their own entry, so one slow external does not hold up the rest.
• Measured in the real VS Code gate: a working copy with 100,000 files showed its changes 4.9 s after VS Code started. A 300 MB binary file is listed as modified and gets a short note instead of a text diff.

Settings

Privacy and safety

• The extension makes no network calls and has no telemetry. Only svn talks to your repository server, the same as in a terminal.
• Passwords are never stored by this extension. Commands run in svn's non-interactive mode, so svn never waits at a password prompt and uses its own credential cache. If the server asks for a login, the message tells you to run svn info once in a terminal.
• svn runs without a shell, with each path as a separate argument, so names with spaces, quotes, @ or a leading dash are safe.
• In Restricted Mode a workspace cannot change zovoSvn.path, so a folder you open cannot make the extension run another program.
• Webviews run under a strict Content Security Policy with no remote sources, and text from svn is shown as plain text.

Free and Pro

Every feature above is free in this version. A later version may offer Zovo Pro for the revision graph, shelving and the changelist manager. Zovo Pro is USD 19 once on GitHub Sponsors and unlocks the Pro features in every Zovo VS Code extension. Status, commit, diff, update, log, blame, branches and merge stay free for good. There are no ads, no countdown and no popups.

Limits

• It needs svn 1.7 or later on your computer. It does not bundle svn.
• It does not do svn relocate, svn import or svn export yet. Run those in a terminal.
• Property changes are listed, and the diff view shows file text only. Use svn diff in a terminal for property diffs.
• Locks (svn lock) show in svn's own output only.
• Tested on macOS with svn 1.15.0 and VS Code 1.142. Windows and Linux paths are covered by unit tests only.

Not affiliated

SVN Client is an independent extension by Zovo. It is not made by, and does not replace, any other publisher's SVN extension. Subversion is a trademark of the Apache Software Foundation.

License

MIT. No third-party code is bundled.

Guides

• Use SVN (Subversion) in VS Code and Cursor