The screen shot below (Figure 2.1, “subcommander Main Window”) shows subcommanders main window. It has three major items. On the left is the Project Folder View. It is a tree view that shows all configured projects as top level items.
On the right is either a Repository View or a Working Copy View. Which one is displayed depends on the current selection in the Project Folder View. The Repository View displays detailed information about the items (files and folders) in the repository. The Working Copy View shows details about the items in the working copy.
Since the Working Copy View is the most used display we take a closer look at it now and summarize the most important information that is also hidden elsewhere in this documentation.
The working copy display depends on a few options which can be set or unset in the tool bar (the section called “Tool Bar”). Most interesting are All and Recursive (the third and fourth toolbar button).
On first start All will be off and Recursive on. All on means display all files and dirs. All off means display only the modified items (with background colors indicating the type of modification). Recursive On will show a flat view (a simple list) and Recursive off will show a tree view.
The combination All off/Recursive on will show only the modified
items, recursive in a flat view. It will simply list any modified item at
any depth in the working copy tree. You will only see what is important.
Typically this is the list of items your are currently working on. If you
are familiar with the subversion command line client you will recognize
that it is the same information displayed by svn
status
. It is subcommanders preferred view.
If you have a clean working copy it will only show the working copy root, ie. the "." entry. Modify something and reload the view (rightmost toolbar button) to see the item you have just modified.
The combination All on/Recursive off will show a tree view similar to a file explorer. You have to open or enter a dir to view any changes in that folder (enter by double click, go back by double click on the "." item, this also works in the flat view).
Subcommander does not mark a folder in the tree view as modified if anything below it is modified (like TortoiseSVN does with its overlay icons).
The combination All off/Recursive off is similar to the previous tree view display but will only list the modified files. It will show all folders because without folders it would be impossible to navigate the tree... :)
Back to the main window. At the bottom of the main window is the Log Output View. Subcommander writes information about each command it runs on a repository or a working copy to it.
The three views are separated by splitter widgets. Special about them is that clicking on the handle does hide one on of the split widgets. Clicking the vertical splitter handle hides (or shows) the Project Folder View. Clicking the horizontal handle hides (or shows) the Log Output View.
Subcommander has a couple of menus that contain all the commands which you can use to handle your projects.
The Project menu, the ReposFolder menu and the WcFolder menu list the commands you can run on project items, repository items or working copy items in the Project Folder View. The commands in each menu are only enabled if a corresponding item is selected in the Project Folder View. Each menu is also available as a context menu on a selected item.
The Repos menu contains the commands you can run on items in the Repository View and the Wc menu contains the commands available in the Working Copy View. Both menus are also available as context menus.
If this guide is refering to a command in a specific menu you can in most cases run the command also from the context menu of the selected item.
Opening a project in the Project Folder View will normally show a couple of sub items. These sub items bookmark repository URLs or working copy paths. Usually you will have bookmarks that represent the trunk folder, the branches folder, the tags folder and bookmarks that link to the working copies of the project. The trunk, branches and tags bookmarks are special bookmarks which tell subcommander the layout of your project. You don't have to use them but they are usefull for creating branches and tags. If you provide the layout URLs you don't have to tell subcommander where to place a branch or tag. You just have to give a name for the new branch or tag and subcommander will create it in the configured branches or tags folder. While you can have only one of each of the special bookmarks you can have any number of repository and working copy bookmarks. Moving the mouse pointer over a bookmark shows its repository URL or in case of a working copy bookmark its local file system path in the status bar.
You can browse a repository by selecting the corresponding bookmark. The right view will change to the Repository View displaying the content of the selected bookmark. You can now browse the repository in the same manner as you would browse a file system path in a file manager. By double clicking a folder in the Repository View you can navigate into that folder. By double clicking the "." (the current folder) you will move back to its parent folder.
Using the ReposFolder menu you can run several commands on the selected repository item. The different commands are described in the section called “The Commands”.
Selecting a working copy bookmark of a project displays the status of the working copy. The right side of the main window turns to the Working Copy View where it shows detailed information about the modifications to your working copy (See also the next section and the section called “Working Copy View”). By double clicking a folder you can navigate into that folder. By double clicking the "." (the current folder) you will move back to its parent folder. Disabling the recursive working copy option will display the working copy in a tree view instead of a flat (recursive) view. When you run subcommander for the first time, working copies will be displayed in a flat view which only displays modified items, i.e. if your working copy doesn't have any modifications you will only see a single "." entry wich represents the working copy root.
The WcFolder menu contains the different commands (the section called “Working Copy View”) you can run on the selected working copy item(s).
The tool bar (Figure 2.2, “subcommander Tool Bar”) contains options which control the working copy status display in the Working Copy View, general options that influence several commands and a reload button to refresh the Working Copy View or the Repository View. The toolbar is grouped in three blocks. The leftmost block control the working copy status display (working copy options), the middle block contains the general options which are used by most commands as the preselcted value. The righmost block contains the reload button that refreshes a repository view or working copy view by re-running the list or status command.
By default subcommanders status display shows all items (files and folders) with modifications in a flat view. It displays any modification of an item no matter at what level (..below the selected folder) it is in the directory hierarchy of the working copy. It does not display any unchanged item.
The flat view is enabled when (Wc Status) Recursive is enabled. If Recursive is disabled subcommander displays only the modifications of the direct children of the selected working copy item.
The (all Commands) Recursive option is used by most commands that work on a working copy. For example adding a folder with recursive enabled does add the folder and all its sub items. Without recursive it does only add the folder.
Enabling View All displays all items in a working copy. With or without modifications. View All is most useful if (Wc Status) Recursive is disabled. If both are enabled subcommander shows a flat view of all items in your working copy. This can get very slow...
Enabling View Ignored lets you see the files or folders in the working copy
you have added to the svn:ignore
property (see also the section called “Add Items to the svn:ignore Property”).
With View Updates you can tell subcommander to show you the items in the working copy that have a newer revision in the repository than the latest revision you received from the repository by a checkout or by an update of your working copy.
In normal usage the subversion library prevents you from running certain operations (for example: moving a modified file). You can Force the operation to run if you know what you are doing.
Changing the state of one or more tool buttons doesn't automatically update the view. You have to press Reload to make subcommander use the new configuration in the Project Folder and the Working Copy View.
The Reload button is not
limited to changes of the configuration. You have to press Reload to
update the display of the current repository or working copy after
any command you issue from subcommander. That means after adding,
deleting, renaming or moving etc. you need to Reload to get an
up-to-date display. That is like running the
status
command with the subversion command line
client in the shell after modifying your working copy.
If you select a repository bookmark in the Project Folder View the right side of the main window switches to the Repository View (Figure 2.3, “subcommander Repository View”). It displays all items which are children of the selected repository item.
For each item it shows its name and some additional information.
This is the same information you receive if you run the
list
command with subversions command line
client.
The File Size column displays the size of the file.
The columns Revision of last Commit, Time of last Commit and Author of last Commit show information about the last committed change to the item. The revision the last change was committed, at what time it was committed and who was the committee.
The has Properties? Column tells you if the item has properties (the section called “Set, Edit and Delete Properties in a Working Copy”).
By opening the context menu or the Repos top level menu you can select different commands you can run on the currently selected item(s). The commands are described in the section called “The Commands”.
Selecting the working copy item of a project turns the right side
of the main window to the Working Copy
View (Figure 2.4, “subcommander Working Copy View”). It displays
the details about your working copy. That is the same information you
receive by running the status
command with
subversions command line tool on your working copy.
With the tool bar buttons you have a few options to modify what subcommander displays in the Working Copy View. The tool bar buttons are described in the section called “Tool Bar”.
To get a better and quicker overview of the current status, subcommander uses different background colors to highlight certain file states like added, deleted or modified. The states and their colors are listed in Table 2.1, “Working Copy Colors”. If you prefer other colors you can change them in the settings dialog.
The Text column displays if an
item (file or folder) is changed. It uses the same codes as subversions
status
command. For the more common codes
subcommander uses different background colors as described in the
previous paragraph.
Properties shows the status of
the items properties. This column also uses the
status
codes.
WC Locked shows if a working copy item is locked by another activity on the working copy. This has nothing to do with locks on files to prevent concurrent editing.
Added with History shows a plus sign if the item was added by copying it from another item in the working copy.
Switched shows an S if the item is switched relative to its parent folder.
Locked shows if a file is locked
to prevent concurrent editing. It uses the same codes as subversions
status
command.
Update tells you if there is a more recent version of an item in the repository than in your working copy. You have to enable this feature in the tool bar (the section called “Tool Bar”). Note that this needs a connection to your repository.
After the name of a working copy item in the Project Folders View
you can see its working copy Revision.
This is the same information provided by running subversions
svnversion
tool on the selected working copy
path.
By pressing SHIFT F1 in the Working Copy View you can see a more detailed description of the columns, the colors and the displayed information.
Table 2.1. Working Copy Colors
State | Background Color |
---|---|
unchanged | white |
unknown (not under version control) | light grey |
ignored | grey |
added | blue |
modified | green |
deleted | red |