TortoiseSVN 1.4 Release Notes

What's New in TortoiseSVN 1.4

TortoiseSVN 1.4 is a superset of all previous TortoiseSVN releases. Anything in 1.0.x, 1.1.x, 1.2.x or 1.3.x is also in 1.4, but 1.4 contains features and bugfixes not present in any earlier release. It is linked with Subversion 1.4.

• Action dialogs (commit/check for modification/add...)

  • "Compare with BASE" is now possible for added and deleted files too. The diff viewer will show the diff against an empty file in that case.
  • The columns shown are configurable. You can choose which columns are shown and what sizes they have. The configuration is saved between sessions. See issue #80 for details.
  • The 'OK' button is disabled until at least one file/folder is selected to avoid empty operations.
  • Files and folders shown can be dragged to other applications. Also files and folder can be dragged from the explorer on to those dialogs. See issue #213 and issue #212 for details.
  • The dialogs can be interrupted while the status is fetched by clicking on 'Cancel'.
  • Switched files/folders are indicated with an '(s)' after the status text. See issue #229 for details.
  • Subversion properties can be edited/set/deleted directly from these dialogs with a right-click. See issue #231 for details.

• Log dialog

  • New column showing the bugtraq ID string assigned to the revision.
  • You can now specify a range for which the log messages should be fetched to avoid having to either click on 'Next 100' repeatedly or fetch all messages at once.
  • The log messages can contain simple formatting. You can write text in *bold*, ^italic^ or _underlined_. Of course, the formatting is also done in the commit dialog while you are writing the log message.

• Explorer

  • The context menu shows different icons depending on what entry the menu is for. If you right-click on a shortcut, two entries are shown, one with a link icon and one with a folder or file icon (depending on what the shortcut points to). If you right-click on a file, again two entries are shown. One with a file icon for the file itself, and one with a folder icon for the parent folder.
  • New "Move and rename" entry in the context menu.
  • New column for showing the svn:eol-style property.

• Revision graph

  The Revision graph got some major improvements. It has been rewritten almost completely to address some issues users reported in the past.

  • Analyzing the data is much faster.
  • Ability to show all revisions, not just the ones where there was a copy operation.
  • Ability to have the graph sort the nodes by path.
  • Better zooming support.

• Repository browser

  • When dragging items, folders are opened and closed automatically if hoovering over them for more than two seconds.
  • Dragging items beyond the visible area makes the browser scroll the view automatically.
  • Checkout of multiple urls at once. See issue #247 for details.

• Status cache

  • An option to disable the cache process completely and either fetch the status only for the currently visible folder or not show any overlays at all.

• TortoiseMerge

  • Changes inside lines are colored differently to better see what exactly has changed. See issue #254 for details.
  • Changed blocks which have only changed in whitespace are marked with a white circle. Such changes usually happen due to code cleanups and have no functional changes. Now those blocks are clearly marked so you can easily go over them.
  • Files in UTF-8 format are recognized automatically.
  • Files in UTF-16 format can be diffed.

• TortoiseIDiff

  • This is a new tool which shows two images side-by-side. If you have images in your working copy (e.g. screenshots or partial screenshots for the helpfile/documentation) then you can now easily compare the new version of the image with the old one. This tool is for images what TortoiseMerge is for text files.

• Comparing two branches/tags

  Due to a new function available in the Subversion 1.4 library, comparing two branches/tags is now much faster and reliable. Also it's now immediately clear if the file or property contents were changed.

• Many many more small improvements and bug fixes. See the Change Log for full details.

Compatibility Concerns

Subversion 1.4 uses a new format for the working copy. The update is done automatically, you won't even notice it. But once the working copy has been updated, you won't be able to access it with clients linked to older versions of the Subversion library.

Due to the upgrade process to the new working copy format, you might run into slight problems with the overlays not showing up or not showing the correct status. Just run update or cleanup on your working copy to get the overlay icons back to normal.

Older clients and servers interoperate transparently with 1.4 servers and clients. Of course, some of the new 1.4 features may not be available unless both client and server are the latest version. There is no need to upgrade your repositories;

If you access a BDB repository using file:// access you will need to update that repository to BDB 4.3 format. But this is only necessary if you're upgrading from a TortoiseSVN version before 1.2. Instructions on how to do that can be found on the Subversion FAQ page