Upgrade or revert with SmartSVN and sitecopy

This article needs an introductory paragraph that introduces the concepts to be discussed and needs to put the article in context. It is not clear to someone what SmartSVN or site copy is - maybe link to a SmartSVN (or the wikipedia SmartSVN article) and sitecopy articles that provide some details.

Grrr! I just spent two hours finishing what I started, and the Wiki not only "lost session data" but it #$%&$%^$% disabled the copy paste functions in my browser! If anyone else wants to continue where I started, go for it! Otherwise, I'll try again some other day.

When I want to change the version of PhpGedView I’m running, I merely

• select the version I want
• wait a few minutes
• type a simple command
• wait less than a minute

It really is that simple—and the setup to make it possible is not difficult either.

Details of the procedure

(I have Mac OS 10.3.9, with SmartSVN Foundation 3.0.4 and sitecopy 0.16.0 installed.)

1. Launch SmartSVN
2. Select (click on) the top level directory
3. Menu: Modify -> Update...
4. Click "Revision" and enter the number you want (if you want the bleeding-edge latest, just leave it on HEAD)
5. Click OK

SmartSVN will download each file in that revision that is different from what you already have. Download time will be proportional to the number and size of files. From 2228 to 2291 (approx. 4.1.3 to 4.2) took about one minute, forty seconds and changed 39 files.

When it is done

1. Open a Terminal
2. Type sitecopy --update PGV

Like SmartSVN, sitecopy will upload only the files that are different. Took 41.7 seconds for the same 39 files.