This is work in progress. Subversion [major-minor] has not been released yet.
Apache Subversion [major-minor] is a superset of all previous Subversion releases, and is as of the time of its release considered the current "best" release. Any feature or bugfix in 1.0.x through [previous-major-minor].x is also in [major-minor], but [major-minor] contains features and bugfixes not present in any earlier release.
This page describes only major changes. For a complete list of changes, see the [major-minor] section of the CHANGES file.
Older clients and servers interoperate transparently with [major-minor] servers and clients. However, some of the new [major-minor] features may not be available unless both client and server are the latest version. There are also cases where a new feature will work but will run less efficiently if the client is new and the server old.
There is no need to dump and reload your repositories. Subversion [major-minor] servers can read and write to repositories created by earlier versions. To upgrade an existing server installation, just install the newest libraries and binaries on top of the older ones.
Subversion [major-minor] maintains API/ABI compatibility with earlier releases, by only adding new functions, never removing old ones. A program written to any previous 1.x API can both compile and run using [major-minor] libraries. However, a program written for [major-minor] cannot necessarily compile or run against older libraries.
There may be limited cases where the behavior of old APIs has been slightly modified from previous releases. These are cases where edge cases of the functionality has been deemed buggy, and therefore improved or removed. Please consult the API errata for more detailed information on what these APIs are and what impact these changes may have.
| New Feature | Minimum Client1 | Minimum Server | Minimum Repository | Notes |
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Subversion [major-minor] uses the same working copy format as Subversion 1.8 through [previous-major-minor].
Before using Subversion [major-minor] with an existing Subversion 1.7 or older working copy, users will be required to run the svn upgrade command to upgrade working copy metadata to the new format. This command may take a while in some cases, and for some users, it may be more practical to simply checkout a new working copy.
Note: Subversion [major-minor] cannot upgrade working copies that a 1.6 client would have refused to operate upon before an svn cleanup was run (with a 1.6 client). In other words, before upgrading to 1.8 or newer, a 1.6 or older client must be used to run svn cleanup on all 1.6 or older working copies that require cleanup. Likewise, Subversion [major-minor] cannot upgrade corrupt working copies. Unfixable problems can arise from missing or corrupt meta-data inside .svn directories. Such damage to the working copy is permanent, and cannot be fixed even if svn cleanup is run prior to the upgrade.
If your working copy does not upgrade cleanly, please check out a new one.
There are no known issues specific to this release at the moment.
[major-minor] is a Long-Term Support (LTS) release. See Supported Versions and How We Plan Releases.