How to use SVN

[mpooley]

I am confused about how to use VisualSVN in Visual Studio , although the same would apply to any subversion.
Some very Basic Questions I have are.
I open My project from my projects folder.
Using Visual SVN . I create a new repository at say "C:\Repositories" and import it there.
I make a few changes to my Project and commit them.
The next time I want to open the Project Where do I open it from?
I am only a single user so I don't Have to worry about someone else changing the code.
Should I open the project from it's original position in my projects folder or should I open it directly from the repo?
Does it make any difference?
Are there really two copies of my code or does the repo just store the changes?

Thanks

 

[jmcilhinney]

Once you have a local copy of the project, that's what you use all the time. You make changes locally and then commit them to the repository. If you are working on multiple machines, you would pull any changes from the repository to your local copy, so that machine has all the changes made on any other machine. The only reason you'd need to open from the repository is if you were working on a machine that didn't have a local copy. You'd create a local copy first, then work on the local copy.

 

[jmcilhinney]

I don't know exactly how SVN stores its data and the specifics may vary among source code providers. They keep a record of the state of the code at every commit, so I doubt that they would keep the entire source for every commit. I imagine they would have a copy of each file in its original state and then either a database of the specific changes to each file or a copy of each changed file.

 

[mpooley]

Thanks that's very useful to know