VisualSVN Server 2.6 Release Notes

We're delighted to announce VisualSVN Server 2.6. The release brings an update to Apache Subversion 1.8 that contains significant security enhancements and improves existing features. Upgrade to the version 2.6 is highly recommended for all existing VisualSVN Server users.

The upgrade to VisualSVN Server 2.6 may require additional administrative actions due to the changes in the authorization system. It is necessarily to consider KB61 before running the VisualSVN Server upgrade.

What's new in VisualSVN Server 2.6

VisualSVN Server 2.6 brings the following changes:

  • upgrade to Apache Subversion 1.8
  • improved authorization system
  • high-impact usability improvements

The most significant changes are briefly described below. See the full list of changes.

Upgrade to Apache Subversion 1.8

Apache Subversion 1.8 is a major Apache Software Foundation release that brings more than 180 user-visible changes both on the client and server side. It brings a number of new important features, such as:

  • Automatic reintegration merge. Merging to-and-fro between two branches in any order is now possible using the new "automatic merge" feature. Manual reintegrate merges are not required anymore and the '--reintegrate' option of 'svn merge' is now deprecated.
  • Inherited properties. Property inheritance provides a mechanism to find the versioned properties set on the path-wise parents of a given path. New properties 'svn:auto-props' and 'svn:global-ignores' make use of the property inheritance and help to implement repository dictated configuration for automatic property setting and ignore patterns.
  • Neon library support removed in favour of the serf. The serf is an asynchronous HTTP client library that provides significantly better network performance than the neon library.

VisualSVN Server 2.6 built with Apache Subversion 1.8 is backward compatible with older clients. However all users who would like to fully benefit from Subversion 1.8 enhancements should upgrade to VisualSVN Server 2.6.

For the complete list of notable improvements please consider Apache Subversion 1.8 Release Notes.

Improved authorization system

  • Move authorization settings to per-repository files. For enhanced isolation of security settings and better performance, each repository now has it's dedicated authorization settings file ('VisualSVN.svn-authz' or 'VisualSVN.win-authz' file in a '/conf/' folder of a repository). The repositories root no longer has Read / Write permission set for "Everyone" group by default.
  • Migration of server-wide access permissions. As a consequence of the previous change, you are not able to set server-wide access permissions in VisualSVN Server 2.6. In order to preserve effective permissions for all users, VisualSVN Server automatically migrates server-wide rules to the repository level during upgrade.
  • Hide repositories in the web browser. A repository is no longer displayed in the list of repositories unless a user has explicit access permissions on the repository root.
  • Windows authorization is now case-sensitive. Repository names and repository filesystem paths are now parsed case-sensitively. The behavior now conforms to the Subversion authentication which is case-sensitive since Apache Subversion 1.7.

High-impact usability improvements

  • Support for PFX and DER-encoded certificates. The improved certificate management wizard in VisualSVN Server Manager allows you to import certificates in PFX and DER formats.
  • Recently connected computers. For your convenience, "Connect to another computer" dialog now features a recently connected computers list. It allows you to recall VisualSVN Server instances you've recently managed and connect to them instantly.
  • New repository creation wizard. The new and improved repository creation wizard allows you to pre-define authorization rules for a new repository as well as specify it's default structure.
  • Multi-selection of users and groups in Permissions dialog. For easier and faster authorization management, you can multiselect users and groups in the Security dialog. So you can simultaneously apply permission changes to selected users and groups.
  • Option to append Subversion command-line tools to the %PATH% environment variable. Subversion command-line tools (svnadmin.exe, svnlook.exe, svn.exe) are accessible from all command prompt instances.
  • Improved VisualSVN Server Manager performance. Expanding Repositories tree with large number of repositories (500>) is much faster in VisualSVN Server 2.6.
  • Automatic check for software updates. To ensure that your VisualSVN Server version is up to date, the check for VisualSVN Server updates is now performed automatically. You will get the notification on your VisualSVN Server Manager dashboard if newer version of VisualSVN Server is available and recommended for upgrade.

Upgrading to VisualSVN Server 2.6

We recommend that all users of VisualSVN Server to upgrade to 2.6. Before upgrading please consider the KB61: Upgrading to VisualSVN Server 2.6 guide.

Upgrading to VisualSVN Server 2.6 may require an additional administrative actions. Due to the changes in the authorization mechanism some users may lose their access to repositories. You should reconfigure user access permissions as described in KB60. We encourage you to dedicate the time for VisualSVN Server 2.6 upgrade beforehand.

Download VisualSVN Server 2.6 at the download page.