How to mark files for edit in Subclipse

Question

We've recently moved from CVS to Subversion 1.6. We used the native Eclipse CVS support as our CVS client. We now use the Subsclipse plugin as our SVN client.

We used to use the CVS "edit" function to mark a file for edit so our users can see who is currently editing what. They also get prompted when they try to edit something already under edit by someone else.

I understand this feature is not available in SVN. There is a locking mechanism however this is a mutex lock so two people can't edit the same file at the same time.

Does anyone know of a way to emulate the "edit" functionality of CVS within Subversion, in particular:

• Let users see who is currently editing what files
• Warn users if they try to edit a file that is currently being edited by someone else
• Allow multiple users to edit the same file at the same time

I'm not sure if I'm looking for a SVN trick or a Subclipse trick or a different Eclipse plugin. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Subversion rejects the lock-edit-unlock paradigm. There is no concept of “who is currently editing what files” since anyone can commit changes to any file at any time.

The way SVN deals with this is by merging changes when you update your working copy.

So there is no way to emulate this “edit functionality” because the whole point of SVN is to not need it.