VisualSVN Server 3.5 Release Notes

VisualSVN Server 3.5 provides the following notable enhancements:

  • Faster commits to distributed VDFS repositories.
  • Customizable repository URLs.
  • New PowerShell cmdlets to manage server settings and repository hooks.

For the complete list of changes, see the VisualSVN Server 3.5.0 changelog.

Upgrade to VisualSVN Server 3.5 is recommended for all users. Upgrade is easy and straightforward, but we strongly advise reading the KB95: Upgrading to VisualSVN Server 3.5 article beforehand (especially if you are upgrading from versions older than VisualSVN Server 3.0).

Faster commits to distributed VDFS repositories

The VisualSVN Distributed File System ensures excellent performance of all read operations against VDFS repositories. Checking out or updating working copies and all the other read operations, such as merge, log and blame are always performed at LAN speeds. VisualSVN Server 3.5 version further improves performance of write operations against VDFS repositories. Commits to local VDFS repositories are now completed up to 10x faster than the corresponding direct commits to remote repositories. The largest performance improvement is achieved when you commit a large number of relatively small files.

Customizable repository URLs

Historically, all VisualSVN Server repository URLs included an '/svn' prefix before the repository name. VisualSVN Server users were forced to use URLs such as 'https://svn.example.com/svn/MyRepo' to access the repositories. This is not an issue for most of the new users, but it could be a significant problem for those who migrate to VisualSVN Server from other Subversion servers.

This limitation has been resolved in VisualSVN Server 3.5. Starting with version 3.5 it is possible to remove '/svn' prefix in a repository URL, specify a custom URL prefix such as '/repos' or keep the default prefix intact.

New PowerShell Cmdlets

VisualSVN Server 3.5 introduces a number of new PowerShell cmdlets intended to manage VisualSVN Server settings and repository hooks:

  • Add-SvnRepositoryHook: adds a new repository hook to Subversion repositories.
  • Get-SvnRepositoryHook: retrieves a list of the repository hooks configured in VisualSVN Server.
  • Get-SvnServerConfiguration: returns the configuration settings of a VisualSVN Server instance.
  • Remove-SvnRepositoryHook: deletes one or more repository hooks.
  • Set-SvnRepositoryHook: modifies the content of existing repository hooks.
  • Set-SvnServerConfiguration: modifies the VisualSVN Server configuration settings.

For the complete list of available PowerShell cmdlets, see the KB88: VisualSVN Server PowerShell Cmdlet Reference.

Upgrade and compatibility concerns

Upgrade to VisualSVN Server 3.5 is recommended for all users. Read the KB95: Upgrading to VisualSVN Server 3.5 article before upgrading. Upgrade is free for Standard Edition users and all customers who have an active maintenance subscription for VisualSVN Server Enterprise Edition licenses.

You should consider a specific upgrade procedure if you are using VisualSVN Server 3.0 or newer and have distributed repositories based on VisualSVN Distributed File System. Read the KB96: Upgrading to VisualSVN Server 3.5 in a multisite environment for further details.