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Re: Linux prefered for running Subversion : call for testimonials

From: Andy Levy <andy.levy_at_gmail.com>
Date: 2007-11-14 14:40:49 CET

On Nov 14, 2007 7:46 AM, Roth, Pierre <pierre.roth@covidien.com> wrote:
>
> > -----Message d'origine-----
> > De : Andy Levy [mailto:andy.levy@gmail.com]
> > Envoyé : mercredi 14 novembre 2007 13:02
> > À : Roth, Pierre
> > Cc : users@subversion.tigris.org
> > Objet : Re: Linux prefered for running Subversion : call for testimonials
>
> >
> > On Nov 14, 2007 6:11 AM, Roth, Pierre <pierre.roth@covidien.com> wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > After one year in my new company, I finally succeeded in convincing my
> > > software department manager to switch from Visual Source Safe to
> > > Subversion. I just have then to convince my IT department to make it
> > > run on a Linux server instead of a Windows server (clients are running
> > > under Windows XP).
> > >
> > > I would like then to compile into a single short document all the
> > > pro's for running the subversion server on a Linux machine.
> > >
> > > I've read the archives and found some ideas.
> > >
> > >
> > > I intiate the list by topic ...
> > >
> > > 1- Scripting :
> > > 1-a : Scripting languages are easier to setup/develop under *nix
> > > systems. Implementing fine-tuned hooks (server side) is more
> > > comfortable in a *nix environment.
> > > reference :
> > > http://osdir.com/ml/version-control.subversion.vss2svn.user/2006-12/ms
> > > g0
> > > 0055.html
> > > 1-b : to be continued...
> >
> > While somewhat true, Perl, Python and other scripting languages are readily available for Windows as well.
> >
> > > 2- Performance :
> > > 2-a : "NTFS Filesystem does not seem to perform well with large
> > > bnumber of small filles" (I can't confirm it since I absolutely does
> > > not know Windows NTFS capabilities) reference :
> > > http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&&msgNo=61947
> >
> > This will be mitigated with SVN 1.5's "sharding" IIRC - revision files will be broken out into subdirectories of 1000 each.
> >
> > If your shop doesn't have a large amount of Linux knowledge in-house and prefers Windows servers, stick with Windows. Subversion runs very well on Windows (maybe not AS WELL as on Linux, but probably 90% of the way there), especially if you use Apache. You don't want to be stuck being the only guy in > the building who knows how to manage the server because you pushed for Linux and no one else knows how to admin it.
> >
>
> First thak you very much for your answer.
>
> Then, be sure I'm not a Linux fanatic. I just don't know how to administrate a Windows server. If we plan to use a Windows server, my IT team will be ok with that but the problem is that this machine will reside in our Development department and we will be in charge of developing scripts on it, tuning the sytem, ...

Who will be responsible for the OS/box itself? The company IT
department? And your group will be responsible for Subversion itself?

> If Windows perfectly fits our needs, no problem for me (and less work !) but from the links and discussions I have read it didn't seem to be so obvious and for some people [svn on Windows ] != [svn on Linux]

Like I said, SVN/Win is very, very close to SVN/*NIX. The developers
have done an excellent job making Windows a first-class citizen in the
Subversion world, with a few exceptions which usually have their roots
in limitations of Windows itself. Problems with hook script
compatibility should largely be considered issues with those hooks,
not Subversion itself.

> My post is there to have some feedbacks on it and be sure that I _really don't_ want to be the "only guy in the building who knows how to manage the server" :-)
>
> To be totally complete, I am very interested in contrary reasons. Why prefering Windows instead of Linux to run subversion ?

For pretty much that reason :) We're a (very small) Windows shop, our
only non-Windows systems are Netware. our VMWare hosting platform and
a Solaris box that a vendor package requires (which they pretty much
manage, and we're about to outsource). So all our admins are really
Windows/Netware guys - no Linux admins in the house (I have a Linux
server at home, I am not knowledgeable enough to admin the OS in a
business environment).

I did make a pitch for Linux to be our SVN server (we have some other
apps that could run on Linux as well, with less overhead than a
Windows server), but I'd be the only guy in the office who could
manage the server, and none of our backup & management tools would
work with it. I knew going into the pitch that I was really just doing
my due diligence trying to save us the cost of a Windows license, and
some overhead on the VMWare host (our SVN server is a virtual machine)
as a Linux server would need less RAM than Windows.

I haven't needed to get into any complex hook scripts, so that's not
been an issue. I haven't heard any complaints yet about our setup.

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Received on Wed Nov 14 14:41:44 2007

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