Today we would like to announce the first steps in saying goodbye to Subversion, also known as SVN. The Blender project first used CVS as its version control system, then migrated to SVN, and later to Git.
However while the Blender source code uses Git, other repositories like the user manual and libraries continued using SVN. This was due to poor support for binary files such as images and executables in Git. With the addition of Git Large File Support (Git LFS) and the recent move to Gitea, we can now use Git for all repositories.
Using Git rather than SVN gives developers and technical writers the following features:
- Ability to work and make commits offline
- Better branching and merging support
- Better 3rd party GUI clients
- Basic online editing in Gitea
- Less software to install
The first repositories that were migrated away from SVN are the Blender manual and its translations. The Blender libraries, test files and user interface translations will follow later.
Blender Manual Migration
Contributors to the project should delete their exiting local repository and read the updated contribution guides to learn how to contribute using the new Git repository. Developers and technical writers with existing commit access will need to make sure to set up SSH Keys to be able to push changes to the repository.
With the move to Git, the repository is browsable on projects.blender.org, and contribution and review is done through pull requests. This workflow should be familiar to those contributing to the Blender source code or using other platforms such as GitHub.
There is also basic support for online editing of the user manual in Gitea. It’s possible to make a fork of the manual, create edits in a branch and submit them as a pull request. Those with commit access can also make small edits directly in the main repository.
However there are some limitations to this. For example, updating a fork to the latest revision or resolving conflicts requires a local checkout of the repository. We plan to improve the online editing experience in Gitea, but there is no concrete timeline for it yet.
If you encounter problems, feel free to ask questions in the topic on devtalk or in #docs on blender.chat.
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