How does svn handle concurrent file updation

Question

I understand that it is capable of managing concurrent users on same file, but how does it do that?

I am working on a file that another user is using concurrently and he committed couple of times before me, now my files don't have the changes he made. Every time I end up in such a situation I gets a conflict and I am stuck.

So is there something else I should do instead of just committing and causing conflict?

Is it safe to do a update first and then commit ? Will I lose my local changes in this case?

• JesperE: This really has nothing to do with tortoise-svn. This is a general Subversion-issue.
• Murph: In fact its a generalised question for any versioning system allowing concurrent changes - although with DVCS the steps will be a bit more convoluted.

Answer 1

You can (and should) update first before committing any changes. You will not lose any local changes when updating. If there are any conflicts, you will be informed and can deal with them by carefully merging your local changes with those in the repository.

For more information about TortoiseSVN, read the online documentation here.

• sabithpocker: Thank you for the quick response, some time i get something like <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< mine marked in my file, any idea why that comes?
• Ben Cottrell: the <<<mine stuff is the result of a merge conflict; it happens when the same bit of code has been modified in two different ways and the tool can't figure out which one is right (it needs human intervention). You should see two other files next to yours which are named after their respective SVN revisions - one will be your original file, and the other will be the repository version. You can view the conflict using the tool which Tortoise provides to let you resolve, or revert it and try merging again.