<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>Help!</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles.css" /> <meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.79.1" /> <style type="text/css"> body { background-image: url('images/draft.png'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: top left; /* The following properties make the watermark "fixed" on the page. */ /* I think that's just a bit too distracting for the reader... */ /* background-attachment: fixed; */ /* background-position: center center; */ }</style> <link rel="home" href="index.html" title="Version Control with Subversion [DRAFT]" /> <link rel="up" href="svn.tour.html" title="Chapter 2. Basic Usage" /> <link rel="prev" href="svn.tour.html" title="Chapter 2. Basic Usage" /> <link rel="next" href="svn.tour.importing.html" title="Getting Data into Your Repository" /> </head> <body> <div xmlns="" id="vcws-version-notice"> <p>This text is a work in progress—highly subject to change—and may not accurately describe any released version of the Apache™ Subversion® software. Bookmarking or otherwise referring others to this page is probably not such a smart idea. Please visit <a href="http://www.svnbook.com/">http://www.svnbook.com/</a> for stable versions of this book.</p> </div> <div class="navheader"> <table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"> <tr> <th colspan="3" align="center">Help!</th> </tr> <tr> <td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="svn.tour.html">Prev</a> </td> <th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 2. Basic Usage</th> <td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="svn.tour.importing.html">Next</a></td> </tr> </table> <hr /> </div> <div class="sect1"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="svn.tour.help"></a>Help!</h2> </div> </div> </div> <a id="idm917" class="indexterm"></a> <p>It goes without saying that this book exists to be a source of information and assistance for Subversion users new and old. Conveniently, though, the Subversion command-line is self-documenting, alleviating the need to grab a book off the shelf (wooden, virtual, or otherwise). The <span class="command"><strong>svn help</strong></span> command is your gateway to that built-in documentation:</p> <div class="informalexample"> <pre class="screen"> $ svn help usage: svn <subcommand> [options] [args] Subversion command-line client, version 1.8.13. Type 'svn help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand. Type 'svn --version' to see the program version and RA modules or 'svn --version --quiet' to see just the version number. Most subcommands take file and/or directory arguments, recursing on the directories. If no arguments are supplied to such a command, it recurses on the current directory (inclusive) by default. Available subcommands: add blame (praise, annotate, ann) cat … </pre> </div> <p>As described in the previous output, you can ask for help on a particular subcommand by running <strong class="userinput"><code>svn help <em class="replaceable"><code>SUBCOMMAND</code></em></code></strong>. Subversion will respond with the full usage message for that subcommand, including its syntax, options, and behavior:</p> <div class="informalexample"> <pre class="screen"> $ svn help help help (?, h): Describe the usage of this program or its subcommands. usage: help [SUBCOMMAND...] Global options: --username ARG : specify a username ARG --password ARG : specify a password ARG … </pre> </div> <div class="sidebar"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <p class="title"> <strong>Options and Switches and Flags, Oh My!</strong> </p> </div> </div> </div> <a id="idm932" class="indexterm"></a> <p>The Subversion command-line client has numerous command modifiers. Some folks refer to such things as <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">switches</span>”</span> or <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">flags</span>”</span>—in this book, we'll call them <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">options</span>”</span>. You'll find the options supported by a given <span class="command"><strong>svn</strong></span> subcommand, plus a set of options which are globally supported by all subcommands, listed near the bottom of the built-in usage message for that subcommand.</p> <p>Subversion's options have two distinct forms: short options are a single hyphen followed by a single letter, and long options consist of two hyphens followed by several letters and hyphens (e.g., <code class="literal">-s</code> and <code class="literal">--this-is-a-long-option</code>, respectively). Every option has at least one long format. Some, such as the <code class="option">--changelist</code> option, feature an abbreviated long-format alias (<code class="option">--cl</code>, in this case). Only certain options—generally the most-used ones—have an additional short format. To maintain clarity in this book, we usually use the long form in code examples, but when describing options, if there's a short form, we'll provide the long form (to improve clarity) and the short form (to make it easier to remember). Use the form you're more comfortable with when executing your own Subversion commands.</p> </div> <p>Many Unix-based distributions of Subversion include manual pages of the sort that can be invoked using the <span class="command"><strong>man</strong></span> program, but those tend to carry only pointers to other sources of real help, such as the project's website and to the website which hosts this book. Also, several companies offer Subversion help and support, too, usually via a mixture of web-based discussion forums and fee-based consulting. And of course, the Internet holds a decade's worth of Subversion-related discussions just begging to be located by your favorite search engine. Subversion help is never too far away.</p> </div> <div class="navfooter"> <hr /> <table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"> <tr> <td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="svn.tour.html">Prev</a> </td> <td width="20%" align="center"> <a accesskey="u" href="svn.tour.html">Up</a> </td> <td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="svn.tour.importing.html">Next</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 2. Basic Usage </td> <td width="20%" align="center"> <a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a> </td> <td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Getting Data into Your Repository</td> </tr> </table> </div> <div xmlns="" id="vcws-footer"> <hr /> <img src="images/cc-by.png" style="float: right;" /> <p>You are reading <em>Version Control with Subversion</em> (for Subversion 1.8), by Ben Collins-Sussman, Brian W. Fitzpatrick, and C. Michael Pilato.</p> <p>This work is licensed under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">Creative Commons Attribution License v2.0</a>.</p> <p>To submit comments, corrections, or other contributions to the text, please visit <a href="http://www.svnbook.com/">http://www.svnbook.com/</a>.</p> </div> </body> </html>