156 lines
8.9 KiB
HTML
156 lines
8.9 KiB
HTML
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
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<title>How to Read This Book</title>
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<meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.75.2" />
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body { background-image: url('images/draft.png');
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background-repeat: no-repeat;
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background-position: top left;
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/* background-attachment: fixed; */
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}</style>
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<link rel="home" href="index.html" title="Version Control with Subversion [DRAFT]" />
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<link rel="up" href="svn.preface.html" title="Preface" />
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<link rel="prev" href="svn.preface.audience.html" title="Audience" />
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<link rel="next" href="svn.preface.organization.html" title="Organization of This Book" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<div class="navheader">
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<table width="100%" summary="Navigation header">
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<tr>
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<th colspan="3" align="center">How to Read This Book</th>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="svn.preface.audience.html">Prev</a> </td>
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<th width="60%" align="center">Preface</th>
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<td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="svn.preface.organization.html">Next</a></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<hr />
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</div>
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<div class="sect1" title="How to Read This Book">
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<div class="titlepage">
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<div>
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<div>
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<h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="svn.preface.howread"></a>How to Read This Book</h2>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<p>Technical books always face a certain dilemma: whether to
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cater to <em class="firstterm">top-down</em>
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or to <em class="firstterm">bottom-up</em> learners. A top-down
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learner prefers to read or skim documentation, getting a large
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overview of how the system works; only then does she actually
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start using the software. A bottom-up learner is a <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">learn by
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doing</span>”</span> person—someone who just wants to dive into the
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software and figure it out as she goes, referring to book
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sections when necessary. Most books tend to be written for one
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type of person or the other, and this book is undoubtedly biased
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toward top-down learners. (And if you're actually reading this
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section, you're probably already a top-down learner yourself!)
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However, if you're a bottom-up person, don't despair. While the
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book may be laid out as a broad survey of Subversion topics, the
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content of each section tends to be heavy with specific
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examples that you can try-by-doing. For the impatient folks who
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just want to get going, you can jump right to
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<a class="xref" href="svn.intro.html" title="Appendix A. Subversion Quick-Start Guide">Appendix A, <i>Subversion Quick-Start Guide</i></a>.</p>
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<p>Regardless of your learning style, this book aims to be
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useful to people of widely different backgrounds—from
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those with no previous experience in version control to
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experienced system administrators. Depending on your own
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background, certain chapters may be more or less important to
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you. The following can be considered a
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<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">recommended reading list</span>”</span> for various types of
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readers:</p>
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<div class="variablelist">
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<dl>
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<dt>
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<span class="term">Experienced system administrators</span>
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</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>The assumption here is that you've probably used
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version control before and are dying to get a
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Subversion server up and running ASAP.
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<a class="xref" href="svn.reposadmin.html" title="Chapter 5. Repository Administration">Chapter 5, <i>Repository Administration</i></a> and
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<a class="xref" href="svn.serverconfig.html" title="Chapter 6. Server Configuration">Chapter 6, <i>Server Configuration</i></a> will show you how to
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create your first repository and make it available over
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the network. After that's done,
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<a class="xref" href="svn.tour.html" title="Chapter 2. Basic Usage">Chapter 2, <i>Basic Usage</i></a> and
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<a class="xref" href="svn.forcvs.html" title="Appendix B. Subversion for CVS Users">Appendix B, <i>Subversion for CVS Users</i></a> are the fastest routes to
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learning the Subversion client.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt>
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<span class="term">New users</span>
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</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>Your administrator has probably set up Subversion
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already, and you need to learn how to use the client. If
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you've never used a version control system, then
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<a class="xref" href="svn.basic.html" title="Chapter 1. Fundamental Concepts">Chapter 1, <i>Fundamental Concepts</i></a> is a vital introduction to the
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ideas behind version control. <a class="xref" href="svn.tour.html" title="Chapter 2. Basic Usage">Chapter 2, <i>Basic Usage</i></a>
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is a guided tour of the Subversion client.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt>
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<span class="term">Advanced users</span>
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</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>Whether you're a user or administrator, eventually
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your project will grow larger. You're going to want to
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learn how to do more advanced things with Subversion, such
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as how to use Subversion's property support
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(<a class="xref" href="svn.advanced.html" title="Chapter 3. Advanced Topics">Chapter 3, <i>Advanced Topics</i></a>), how to use branches and
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perform merges (<a class="xref" href="svn.branchmerge.html" title="Chapter 4. Branching and Merging">Chapter 4, <i>Branching and Merging</i></a>), how to
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configure runtime options
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(<a class="xref" href="svn.customization.html" title="Chapter 7. Customizing Your Subversion Experience">Chapter 7, <i>Customizing Your Subversion Experience</i></a>), and other things.
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These chapters aren't critical at first, but be sure to
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read them once you're comfortable with the basics.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt>
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<span class="term">Developers</span>
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</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>Presumably, you're already familiar with Subversion,
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and now want to either extend it or build new software on
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top of its many APIs. <a class="xref" href="svn.developer.html" title="Chapter 8. Embedding Subversion">Chapter 8, <i>Embedding Subversion</i></a> is
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just for you.</p>
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</dd>
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</dl>
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</div>
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<p>The book ends with reference material—<a class="xref" href="svn.ref.html" title="Chapter 9. Subversion Complete Reference">Chapter 9, <i>Subversion Complete Reference</i></a> is a reference guide for all Subversion
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commands, and the appendixes cover a number of useful topics.
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These are the chapters you're mostly likely to come back to
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after you've finished the book.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="navfooter">
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<hr />
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<table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer">
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<tr>
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<td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="svn.preface.audience.html">Prev</a> </td>
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||
<td width="20%" align="center">
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<a accesskey="u" href="svn.preface.html">Up</a>
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</td>
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<td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="svn.preface.organization.html">Next</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Audience </td>
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<td width="20%" align="center">
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<a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a>
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</td>
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<td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Organization of This Book</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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</div>
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<div xmlns="" id="svn-footer">
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<hr />
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<p>You are reading <em>Version Control with Subversion</em> (for Subversion 1.7), by Ben Collins-Sussman, Brian W. Fitzpatrick, and C. Michael Pilato.<br />
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This work is licensed under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">Creative Commons Attribution License v2.0</a>.<br />
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To submit comments, corrections, or other contributions to the text, please visit <a href="http://www.svnbook.com/">http://www.svnbook.com/</a>.</p>
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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