SubversionClientsMac

This page lists Subversion clients that run on Mac OS X. I generally try to avoid supporting software that is not open source, therefore I make a clear distinction on this page between clients that are open source, and clients that are not.

A good overview of Subversion resources can be found here: http://subversion.tigris.org/links.html

Open source clients

Command line client

Mac OS X already includes the command line version of Subversion. The following command line example originates on Mac OS X 10.5.5:

tharbad:~ --> which svn
/usr/bin/svn
tharbad:~ --> svn --version
svn, version 1.4.4 (r25188)
   compiled Sep 23 2007, 22:32:34

There are a few places where you can get binary packages for different / newer versions:

CollabNet 

Probably the most official (or at least popular) place is CollabNet's community downloads page: http://www.collab.net/downloads/community/

Martin Ott 

http://homepage.mac.com/martinott/

Metissian LLC 

This looks like it's getting out-of-date. http://www.metissian.com/projects/macosx/subversion/

The Fink project 

http://www.finkproject.org/

SCPlugin

URL 

http://scplugin.tigris.org/

Project blurb 

"The goal of the SCPlugin project is to integrate Subversion into the Mac OS X Finder. The inspiration for this project came from the TortoiseSVN project."

Version 

0.7.2

Release date 

05.07.2008

Application type 

• Contextual menu plugin
• Native C/C++/Objective-C application
• Universal binary

License 

X/MIT License (open source license)

Evaluation:

• Interesting features
  • TODO
• Missing features
  • TODO
• Usage
  • Icon overlay does not always work (even when selecting "Refresh Icons" in the context menu)
  • The context menu is a submenu of "More", which makes using SCPlugin slow

svnX

URL 

http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/community/subversion/svnx/features/

Project blurb 

"SvnX is an open source GUI for most features of the svn client binary."

Version 

0.9.13

Release date 

26.10.2007

Application type 

• Stand-alone client
• Native Cocoa application
• Universal binary

License 

GPL

Evaluation

• Interesting features
  • Drag & drop between the repository browser and the Finder
• Missing features
  • svn properties

RapidSVN

URL 

http://rapidsvn.tigris.org/

Project blurb 

"Multi-platform GUI front-end for the Subversion revision system."

Version 

0.9.6

Release date 

03.03.2008

Application type 

• Stand-alone client
• Native C++ application
• Uses the wxWidgets framework
• PowerPC build only

License 

GPL

Evaluation

• TODO

SubCommander

URL 

http://subcommander.tigris.org/

Project blurb 

"A cross platform (MacOSX, Windows & Linux) general purpose graphical subversion client with diff and merge tool."

Version 

2.0.0 Beta 4

Release date 

24.08.2008

Application type

• Stand-alone client
• Native C++ application
• Uses the Qt framework (Qt 4)
• Universal binary

License 

GPL

Evaluation

• TODO

eSvn

URL 

http://zoneit.free.fr/esvn/

Project blurb 

"eSvn - a GUI frontend to the Subversion revision system."

Version 

0.6.12-1

Release date 

13.07.2007

Application type 

• Stand-alone client
• Native C++ application
• Uses the Qt framework (Qt 3)
• No binaries available, must be built from source (fink package available)

License 

Open source (GPL?)

Evaluation

• None
• Qt 3 is old, and since the author has not started moving towards Qt 4, I expect that the project is going to die

QSvn

URL 

http://www.anrichter.net/projects/qsvn/

Project blurb 

"QSvn is a GUI Subversion client for Linux, UNIX, Mac OS X and Windows."

Version 

0.7.1

Release date 

07.10.2008

Application type 

• Stand-alone client
• Native C++ application
• Uses the Qt framework (Qt 4)
• No binaries available, must be built from source

License 

GPL

Evaluation

• TODO

WorkBench

URL 

http://pysvn.tigris.org/

Project blurb 

"Python SVN Extension and WorkBench GUI"

Version 

1.5.6

Release date 

14.10.2008

Application type 

• Stand-alone client
• Python application
• Uses the wxPython framework and the pysvn module
• PowerPC and Intel binaries are provided separately (i.e. no universal binary)

License 

Apache

Evaluation

• TODO
• WorkBench requires pysvn

Notes about installing pysvn

Project blurb 

"The pysvn project's goal is to enable Tools to be written in Python that use Subversion."

Version 

1.6.2

Release date 

14.10.2008

Notes:

• py25_pysvn_svn153-1.6.2-1067-powerpc.dmg from here: http://pysvn.tigris.org/files/documents/1233/44035/py25_pysvn_svn153-1.6.2-1067-powerpc.dmg
• Why use this version?
  • Use the version for Python 2.5 because Mac OS X 10.5.5 has Python 2.5 installed
  • Use the version for Subversion 1.5.3 because there is no version for 1.4.x
    • Because of this I now have to be careful that pysvn does not touch working copies otherwise managed with the Subversion 1.4.x command line client that is part of Mac OS X)
• Mount disk image and install pysvn with the .pkg installer
• pysvn is installed to this location:

/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pysvn

• On my system (Mac OS X 10.5) Python does not find pysvn in this location; presumably the location works on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
• Actually, on a pristine Mac OS X 10.5, this path doesn't even exist:

/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework

• For this reason I have to manually make pysvn available to the system's Python:
  • Login is administrator
  • Open Terminal.app
  • Issue this command

sudo ln -s /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pysvn /Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/pysvn

• Note: It is not possible to move stuff from /Library/Frameworks/... to /Library/Python/... because pysvn comes with a set of pre-built libraries which expect their dependencies to be present in /Library/Frameworks/...; a symptom indicating this problem is if there is an error similar to this:

ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/pysvn/_pysvn_2_5.so, 2): Symbol not found: _svn_client_root_url_from_path
  Referenced from: /Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/pysvn/_pysvn_2_5.so
  Expected in: /usr/lib/libsvn_client-1.0.dylib

Non Open Source Clients

SmartSVN

URL 

http://www.syntevo.com/smartsvn/index.html

Project blurb 

"SmartSVN is a powerful and easy-to-use, graphical client for the well-known and successful Open Source version control system1 Subversion."

Version 

4.0.9

Release date 

04.11.2008

Application type 

• Stand-alone client
• Java application

License 

• Not open source
• SmartSVN Foundation can be used free of charge (even commercially)
• SmartSVN Professional is the pay-for variant

Evaluation

• None
• Although there is a free of charge variant, at the moment I don't want to support software that is not open source

Syncro SVN Client

URL 

http://www.syncrosvnclient.com/

Project blurb 

"Syncro SVN Client makes easier the document and code sharing between content authors or developers."

Version 

4.0

Release date 

09.02.2008

Application type 

• Stand-alone client
• Java application

License 

• Not open source
• 30-day trial license available

Evaluation

• None
• It's not open source, and it's not even free of charge

Versions

URL 

http://www.versionsapp.com/

Project blurb 

"Versions - subversion client for the mac."

Version 

1.0b9_45

Release date 

 ?

Application type 

• Stand-alone client
• (Probably) Native Cocoa application
• Universal binary

License 

• Not open source
• Beta versions currently valid only for a couple of weeks

Evaluation

• None
• It's not open source, and it's not even free of charge

ZigVersion

URL 

http://zigversion.com/

Project blurb 

"ZigVersion : Subversion Made Easy"

Version 

1.2.3

Release date 

 ?

Application type 

• Stand-alone client
• (Probably) Native Cocoa application
• Universal binary

• License :

• Not open source
• Free non-commercial license

Evaluation

• None
• Although there is a free of charge variant, at the moment I don't want to support software that is not open source
• It is also not clear if the free version has reduced functionality