Aral Balkan

Seb just asked for Mac SVN client recommendations on Twitter and I realized that I hadn't blogged about Syncro SVN. It's the only SVN client I've found that is actually usable on OS X.

PC users are spoiled with the excellent TortoiseSVN but the few clients that exist on the Mac, well, how should I put it, umm, suck. Badly. Except for Syncro.

Check out Syncro SVN. Personally, though, I still prefer the command line! :)

Comments

• There is a TortoiseSVN-a-like client for OSX named SCPlugin. It works great if you don't have to access secured repositories.

  by Patrick Pietens on 2007-05-15 11:40:38

• I use the SubClipse within Eclipse, and it works perfectly..

  by gabes on 2007-05-15 11:52:26

• Another vote for SCPlugin for Finder integration, but will definitely give this Syncro a try thanks Aral!

  by Richard Leggett on 2007-05-15 12:16:46

• I like also SvnX http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/community/subversion/svnx/features/?sid=7970311e7bf0ff2e530321a329e2e415

  by amnesic on 2007-05-15 13:54:40

• I was also going to mention svnX - works pretty good, and it's open-source, so the price is just right as well.

  by Josh Buhler on 2007-05-15 13:58:52

• We're looking into this very issue right now, as we're trying to get the design team into the practice of using version control. Syncro SVN looks impressive, but I think it may be too much for our non-technical designers. We're trying to go from a "what's wrong with saving to my desktop" mentality here... We're only looking at binary files (PSD, FLA, Illustrator, etc) so we're not too worried about code merging functionality. The simpler the better: Lock it, Change it, Check it in. SCPlugin for Finder looks good, but not being able to connect to a secure repository would be a deal breaker. We've been looking at ZigVersion (http://zigzig.com/content/view/15/29/) which looks pretty simple. We've also been looking into the feasibility of bridging Adobe Version Cue to run off the Subversion server. If anyone has prior experience in this, let me know :)

  by Miles on 2007-05-15 15:29:13

• I've been using the free Foundation version of SmartSVN http://www.syntevo.com/smartsvn/ Works pretty well. And of course command line svn binaries from http://www.codingmonkeys.de/mbo/ come in handy from time to time.

  by Erki Esken on 2007-05-15 17:25:03

• Last time I needed to use SVN on Mac, I looked and tested a lot of tools tryingto find something close to TortoiseSVN, and found nothing... ended using the command-line, duh I would have loved to know about SCPlugin at this time. @Miles: when I had to make designer on Mac communicate with programmers on Windows/Mac/whatever and both using SVN, I ended using autoversioning http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.2/svn.webdav.autoversioning.html DAV svn SVNPath /path/to/repository SVNAutoversioning on that way you just give network folder path to the designers and they use it as any other filesystem, but in the background the server keep all the versioning.

  by zwetan on 2007-05-15 21:48:47

• You can connect to a secure respository with SCPlugin. You must checkout the project with the command line version once. After that, SCPlugin will be able to update and commit without problems.

  by Josh Tynjala on 2007-05-15 23:24:18

• Sorry Aral, I forgot to close my em tag. Please fix!

  by Josh Tynjala on 2007-05-15 23:25:01

• Yeesh! I took one look at that awful screenshot on the Syncro SVN homepage, and it scared me away. I think I will try SCPlugin first. :)

  by adampasz on 2007-05-16 00:41:18

• close em tag.. :) Thanks for the heads up. I've been using SmartSVN which is pretty lame in comparison. Thanks

  by Bjorn on 2007-05-16 03:45:20

• Can't beat the command line ;)

  by Rob on 2007-05-16 08:32:13

• @Josh: I read about it but unfortunately it didn't work for me!

  by Patrick Pietens on 2007-05-16 08:58:00

• I think its worth taking the effort to learn the command line interface, once you get up and running its perfect and not only that so many tutorials/screencasts use it in their demos if you arent set up to use it, it becomes a pain.... In a perfect world All mac users would become1 with their terminal...:-)

  by keith on 2007-05-16 12:53:13

• Does anyone know a way to create a keyboard shortcut to bring up a terminal window in osx?

  by keith on 2007-05-16 14:13:43

• @keith: you can use Quicksilver to invoke commands in terminal/iterm. 1.enable the terminal/iterm plugins in Quicksilver preferences. 2. invoke Quicksilver, then type a '.' (depending on your config) to enter text mode 3. type the command, press tab 4. choose the "Run a text command in Terminal/iTerm" option and press enter a new window or tab of Terminal/iTerm should appear

  by richard on 2007-05-16 18:53:55

• I wish there was something like TortoiseSVN available for Macs =(

  by Dallas Freeman on 2007-05-22 13:15:54

• SCPlugin is on its way to being as good as TortoiseSVN but still a long way to go, any recommendations on places to read about command line i've hardly used it, and when i did, i was on a linux box

  by Dallas Freeman on 2007-05-23 07:28:07

• Hi, I'm having problems uploading to the svn repo large files. these are .sql files and anything > 80KB makes the svn process hang (either radrail hangs or command line tool hangs). Is this a known/obvious problem i'm running into? Any help appreciated. svn --version svn, version 1.4.3 (r23084) compiled Apr 23 2007, 20:20:07

  by sanjay suri on 2007-05-31 10:21:40

• [...] There is a discussion in comments to Aral Balkan’s Blog about Subversion clients for Mac OS X. Here is a list of all tools mentioned, slightly sorted by “popularity”: [...]

  by Subversion clients for Mac OS X — Version Control Blog — Subversion, visual diff, GUI, on 2007-06-30 12:18:53

• If you are looking for the latest (1.4.4) Mac OS server and command line client binaries (Universals), check here: http://downloads.open.collab.net/binaries.html

  by Guido on 2007-07-02 17:08:35

• Hi Guido, Thanks for the link :) Aral

  by aral on 2007-07-02 19:32:56

• Maybe little bit off topic but talking about SVN and Flash: Was anybody here already confronted with the problem that Flash CS3 doesn't accept a document class if the FLA and the class in an folder under SVN-control? When I move the FLA and the class somewhere else everything works fine. Only occures under OS X ...

  by christian on 2007-07-11 16:39:21

• [...] 2) The existing SVN clients for Mac are crap. At Carson Systems we use RapidSVN but its lack of support for standard OSX keyboard shortcuts make it rather cumbersome to use. Aral Balkan recommends Syncro SVN, but I think it’s ugly and looks like a Windows app. [...]

  by Elliot Jay Stocks » 5 apps for a new MacBook Pro on 2007-07-13 13:27:18

• Of course you can make the terminal a bit more "sexy" by using the Dashboard terminal widget... I'm rolling SVN out to IA's and Designers at the moment and I'm spec'ing SCPlugin as the day to day tool. Subclipse as the "admin" tool. Of course the initial checkout has to be done with a Terminal script... so Automator is the first choice to shield our poor non-terminal people.

  by JasonM on 2007-07-18 09:34:06

• SynchroSVN crashes on my system, begging for more memory while downloading from my repo. Configuring it according to the error message on crash doesn't seem to solve the problem. Not what I'm expecting for non-free software. Next!

  by Jonathan Boutelle on 2007-07-22 05:23:34

• SyncroSVN is the only MAC client I can find that has a usable GUI for Branch/Tag/Merge. Very similar to tortoisesvn. It is a little slower though. They recently dropped their price. If you only need to modify and check-in files, ZigVersion is a good free client to check out.

  by Patrick on 2007-08-07 15:38:49

• I just had to evaluate and configure a svn client on OS X. First I had a shot at svnX but found it too confusing to explain to non-technical project members. I then switched to SCPlugin and am happy with it, despite the fact that not the complete svn functionnality is available at that moment. We connect to a secure repository using ssh-keys. There is no need for a command-line checkout. -> Set up ssh keys without password protection (open Terminal, type ssh-keygen) -> We store those ssh-keys in a password protected drive (optional) (use DiskUtility to create a password protected disk image, store the keys on that drive and use sshKeychain to make the keys available) -> Check out the repository with SCPlugin: check and your url of type: svn ssh://server-username@your.server.url/your/repositoriy/path

  by Lukas on 2007-08-23 15:14:44

• SCPlugin just released a new version, 0.7, that makes life a lot easier. I think Lukas is using the new version, while all earlier posts are still using the old. The new version can handle the login info during check-out, eliminating the awkward requirement for a command-line tool for the first checkout. Login info is cached very securely, in the OS X Keychain, so you only need to enter them once (or when they change, of course). Access via svn ssh:// still requires something like the ssh-keys solution provided by Lukas, or ssh-askpass if you like that approach better. The new version also includes a real installer, more-reliable badging (not yet perfect, but much better - sigh!), and every command in the context menu works.

  by Jack Repenning on 2007-08-28 21:26:29

• Cornerstone is a new SVN client that is an impressive tool among the other alternatives. I suggest you at least check it out, it is both simple and intuitive yet powerful. You may not notice some of the capabilities till you start using it because the software only bothers you about details when it's necessary. http://www.zennaware.com/cornerstone/ I switched from using SyncroSVN to Cornerstone, and I refuse to go back. Using SVN on my Mac is a much more enjoyable experience now.

  by Matt Johnson on 2008-07-30 04:50:03

• Another vote for Versions (http://versionsapp.com). They've just come out of beta with their first stable release and I couldn't be more pleased. It's intuitive and, while it doesn't have finder integration, I find I have no use for it with their really intuitive layout. I also use Coda (http://www.panic.com/coda/) as my main editor - for three reasons - awesome syntax highlighting (very fast to render on my old G5), killer code hinting (for php, at least) and last, but not least FTP/WebDAV/SVN integration. The SVN portion could be a bit better fleshed out, but it works for quick updates to individual files where I don't need to check in a bunch at a time. I hadn't worked with SVN before I got my Mac - yes, there was a time before Mac - the dark ages of Windows and the enlightenment of Ubuntu lead me to the nirvana of Mac - so I'm a bit spoiled on my choices having only made these two. But honestly - I couldn't be happier. The hard-core linux geek in me says you can't beat the command line, the lethargic Windows user says a file browser is best, but the true Mac lover will recognize the utility of a well planned and cleanly executed GUI any day and that's what I think I've found in Versions and Coda. @James - strangely, I've not had to run an SVN cleanup with Versions, either; all of my PC cohorts are constantly complaining about that.

  by Jeremy on 2008-11-21 01:37:39

• After trying out various options, I decided that the "SVN Plugin + Eclipse" is the way to go for. However, I'm trying out "Syncro SVN Client" with the feeling that keeping the SVN Management separate might help.

  by Brajeshwar on 2008-03-26 10:57:26

• @christian I encountered the same problem using version controlled class packages in CS3 (using smartSVN). After some investigating I found that my open FLA would not compile after I performed a very large commit - I think it was a few hundred files. The error was that the "document class could not be found" As long as I kept the commits small there was not a problem. So strange, not sure if it is an SVN or Adobe bug..

  by Bryan Roman on 2008-02-25 15:30:18

• @Christian && @Bryan Roman The bug is related to the amount of files in a single directory. More details at http://agit8.turbulent.ca/bwp/2008/05/01/flash-cs3-bug-on-mac-os-x-and-subversion-svn-files/ Pretty major!

  by Ben on 2008-05-02 23:02:24

• How do these compare with RapidSVN. I've found it usable, albeit slow for some updating.

  by Simon Robbie on 2007-12-07 19:50:25

• So I haven't used OSX in sometime and ended up having to use one for today ( not that I mind, the thing is beautiful ). However, I was shocked to find that SVN wasn't already installed by default in terminal! Whats up with that? Sigh, now I have to hunt down an OSX install.

  by Jeff Yamada on 2008-01-22 01:24:19

• Doh, looks like I just had to set my .profile and restart Terminal...Yay

  by Jeff Yamada on 2008-01-22 01:28:58

• SVN is really excellent in conjunction with www.springloops.com. Probably one of the best applications out there. Use any client you want and have Spring Loops help with the administration and deployment, just brilliant.

  by Szymon Kiedyk on 2008-06-16 01:53:36

• try out: http://www.versionsapp.com/ of all the clients I've tried, I like this one best!

  by Bjorn on 2008-07-18 12:58:49

• There is a new SVN client out thereanow called Versions (http://www.versionsapp.com/). Looks promising but I was not impressed by the UI. For me, SmartSVN works like a charm! The free version is just fantastice and should suffice for many! If I do end up buying a client, SmartSVN it will be.

  by Navin Samuel on 2008-06-04 17:18:57

• I also vote for Versions. It was the first gui svn app that i tried for mac and i need not look elsewhere. It is a pleasure to use, it's intuitive and it looks good :)

  by Tanja Pislar on 2008-11-21 13:28:33

• SCPlugin really is not acceptable until it supports locking and unlocking files!!!

  by SCPlugin Needs Lock/Unlock Function! on 2008-07-23 08:09:21

• Versions.app just came out of beta. To me, Versions beats the other good for-pay SVN client (Snycro) on three fronts: 1) better price / license plan, 2) better interface (the UI actually Mac OS X and is usable and intuitive), 3) the app literally loads in no time, compared to Syncro. Its faaaaaast. I don't know if Versions can handle "cleanup" on a working copy, but quite mysteriously I havent needed to run cleanup since ive been using Versions. Admittedly Versions interface is wildly different than any other svn client i've used, and the paradigm for their "commit process" took a little getting used to, but overall it is easy and a pleasure to work with once you play with it for a day. I have no experience with Cornerstone and I tried Zig but didn't like it as much. http://versionsapp.com

  by James on 2008-11-19 21:02:51

• Hello, Could someone please tell me how to setup this url in SmartSVN? http://www.prestashop.com/publicsvn/trunk/ and send screenshots? I have other projects setup and they work but not this one. I downloaded Versions app and the svn works on that one but not SmartSVN. Thank you!

  by Melinda on 2008-10-08 21:51:31

• I just try Versions (Pico + Sofa team) It looks great. But didn't tested enough to compare with competitors. http://www.versionsapp.com/

  by Nuno Luciano on 2008-11-23 21:40:06

• SCPlugin is horrible. It errors out and crashes all the time. I removed it. Versions app works great so far.

  by MIchael Pardo on 2009-05-11 13:29:32

• Just go for SCPlugin. You'll never need another svn client http://scplugin.tigris.org/ Enjoy

  by gyo on 2009-03-28 09:53:01

• I also like Versions. Coda has an "okay" svn gui integrated into it...but Versions is much nicer. For Versions I recommend you use the documentation to get yourself started ....some parts work a little differently than some users might expect. Once you get going with it and get used to where things are (like how to checkout an existing project to a local repository requiring you to make a bookmark of the remote source control location first), you'll find it's very easy and friendly to use! -David

  by David Colwell on 2009-05-14 00:44:16

• My biggest problems with all those clients for MacOSX are: 1. Most are paid, i didn't see any free version which could at least allow to revert a specific revision 2. No Snapshot support (patch creation exists in SmartSVN but no integration back) 3. Most of them in Java, which doesn't give good look and feel

  by rpv on 2009-07-23 12:11:07

• Versions is the best. Had it running within seconds. Great UI!

  by Mark on 2009-08-26 22:20:37

• [...] Aral Balkan – The best Mac SVN client The best Mac SVN client (tags: svn iphone_tool mac subversion tools code) [...]

  by links for 2009-08-26 | Alones world on 2009-08-27 01:32:59

• mmm, other GNU/GPL SVN???

  by xavier cardona on 2009-12-05 21:29:32

• "I still prefer the command line! " Really? Wow you should also code everything in notepad too, then we'll all be impressed! Using the command line is stupid for something as complicated as SVN, there's literally hundreds of lines of commands to enter, and if something goes wrong and you need to clean up / commit / update / revert / commit - have fun. Humans use tools.

  by Mario on 2009-10-22 07:22:58

• [...] pe o piata competitiva, avand ca si concurenti proiecte open source ca TortoiseSVN pe Windows, dar pare a se descurca bine si pe [...]

  by Oxygen pentru succes | FocusIT on 2009-09-15 12:07:51

• I've tried Versions and I think it is really good. You should try it as well.

  by Oscar on 2009-12-08 21:48:31

• Mario, in everyday use, you have maybe three commands that you use regularly. This is why I prefer the simplicity of the command line (which is a tool) over overly-complicated GUI solutions. I use a GUI if I need to do anything non-trivial. (These days I don't use SVN unless a library I need is hosted on it; I use Git and GitHub for everything.)

  by Aral on 2009-11-09 14:10:00

• Syncro SVN is a paid app and there are basically no open source clients that can be used with Mac. svnX isn't really something that could be used in production environment, diff is broken on Snow Leopard etc. So another vote for the command line.

  by Ain on 2009-11-16 17:42:41

• I use Syncro SVN and the only reason is due to the fact that its the only SVN that works both on PC and Mac, I was using Version which is great but got tried of having different apps between my desktop pc and mac laptop especially when you have to pay twice to do the same thing. I will go full Mac some day but by then I think I will use Git and GitHub my two sense.

  by Almog on 2009-12-18 18:13:00

• Cornerstone is very good as well.

  by Chad on 2010-02-20 04:53:53

• Try out Cornerstone - http://www.zennaware.com/ Much better!

  by Felipe on 2010-10-20 05:04:12

• A vote for Versions. Just downloaded the trial, and I wonder how I have lived without it. Seriously.

  by Olivier Lamontagne on 2010-08-12 01:26:01

• Have you seen Versions? It is by far the cleanest, most usable SVN client for macs out there.

  by John on 2010-08-15 17:49:43

• Please check out Cornerstone 2 from Zennaware you guys. It's totally awesome with really cool merge support and funky annotations integration to name but a few of the features! I have been using it since ditching Versions and am not looking back!

  by Steven Mansfield on 2010-11-24 13:39:35

• What about Versions? Give me your feedback. Have you used it?

  by Curtis Morley on 2011-03-08 17:01:28

• Syncro may be the best of the worst, but it's far from great. They have devised their own terminology, the meanings of which are difficult to decipher. Their documentation is not of much use. But worse is that when something goes wrong it just fails and leaves you stuck. "Commit Failed. 'file name' is out of date." Sorry, sucker, you're on your own. I may be wrong, but isn't the concept of SVN that it will help negotiate file storage between multiple people and versions? Shouldn't an SVN tool help merge files when something is out of date? Perhaps Syncro does that, but if it does, the process is so obfuscated as to be non-existent.

  by Rick on 2011-06-21 15:06:32

• Hey mate, First of all GZ with the blog and quick info =) Now for my opinion. Personly i prefer Versions. Its a very simple app and it get big on the past years. Good visual, solid performance and easy to work. I've used Syncro a few month ago and its also a great application =) Regards, Emanuel

  by Emanuel on 2011-07-25 07:39:19

• thanx,i just want get a Syncro SVN.what the fuck .

  by lemonjesnme on 2011-12-11 06:46:32

• How about Versions app?

  by Chandra on 2012-04-04 09:34:47