Install subversion repositories in my GoDaddy Shared hosting account

Question

I am a lone programmer working on many .Net projects. I work alone and I didn't used version control till now. Just recently I learned the benefits of using version control. As I have three machines I work on, keeping a sync version of a project sometimes proves to be too much. So, now I am planning to use subversion as my version control server.

Having said that, I read in many threads, blogs etc about the benefits of using version control for a single developer. I agree with most of them but one thing most of them didn't discussed was, how to use SVN without actually depending on one of your particular system to be the server. The reason I want to do this because all my systems are almost never in "always on" condition. So if I host my repositories in my main desktop, I might not be able to work on my laptop if my desktop is turned off (or am I missing something here?)

Thats why, I want to know that can I host my subversion repositories in my GoDaddy shared hosting account and access them from the three computers I have?

Or alternatively, are there any free (and fast) online svn repositories I can use? I am trying not to use any gui clients for now as I want to clear my basics first with svn, but later I am planning to use TortoiseSVN as my client.

Answer 1

First, GoDaddy does not allow for Subversion to be installed. It's a seperate service that runs to provide a web-like interface - not a hosting account.

With that said, there are a few free versions still out there.

I vote for CodePlex as it's free, and uses Subversion (through the TFS hook), as well as giving you forums, documentation areas, etc.:

http://www.codeplex.com

Additionally, Google Code is also subversion-based (I kind of like the CodePlex community better though):

http://code.google.com

If you want something more private, I recommend Unfuddle as they have a free version. Just don't check in big files.

http://www.unfuddle.com

Another private one is Project Locker:

http://www.projectlocker.com

Lastly, I highly recommend picking up and reading a Subversion book on practical uses of Subverison, organizating your multiple projects, and proper branch/merge management.

Version control with SubVersion

You can also read it for free here: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/ But, it's a very long dry read. I highly recommend picking up the book to thumb through down the road.

• Updated 2010-12-06: Added CodePlex now that they have SubVersion.
• Updated 2017-06-05: Google Code shut down in 2016 and Microsoft CodePlex is shutting down in 2017. Those were the two major companies sponsoring SVN; and, they both have the same reason for the shutdown: https://GitHub.com which is Git based.

Answer 2

I am a lone coder that uses subversion. I was unable to use shared hosting to host my code, but it was not that hard to setup apache and subversion on my xp machine at home. I then bought a cheap domain at godaddy.com that pointed to my home.

Subversion for Windows with Apache server

Answer 3

https://riouxsvn.com/ provides a free subversion hosting, and very simple to use. It is very suitable for personal use or small scale projects.

Answer 4

I use assembla for my personal projects. Its free and has been good so far.

Answer 5

You may want to look into other version control systems which aren't based on a central server. Git is the most popular choice these days.

Also, if your project is opensource GitHub is free and does all the trouble for you. It will cost if you host commercial projects.

Update:

Just to clarify my response, the way i see he's asking 2 questions, first is asking how to use subversion in his non-centralized environment OR use free hosted alternatives.

He seems to be just starting with version control, and doesn't know too many other options. I'm entirely fine with him using a free subversion hosted service, i just mentioned an alternative who natively does what he was pretending to do in the first place with his 3 computers and subversion.

This is not a comment like "omg! your [scm] sucks!!11!, just use my loved [anotherscm]!!"

Update: (response to @Yogesh)

Actually the fact that is "merge based" is a what makes it able to work decentralized and full featured while offline, it makes a breeze working with branches because actually each working copy is a branch, while branching in Subversion is a pain. I don't work too much with binaries, but by reading a bit don't think Git has much problems with them (1 | 2).

Git is not better or worse than Subversion, it depends entirely on your needs. Again, your pick, i was just pointing that Git could be a good fit to your needs, even if you're not in a team.

Answer 6

I'm not sure about GoDaddy, but you shouldn't have any issues developing in a disconnected mode with Subversion. As for other hosts, you could try ProjectLocker.