2006 / July 2^nd/ Zig Version: The missing Subversion GUI for OSX

Over the past year and a half I’ve grown to love Subversion. My first experience with Subversion was with TortoiseSVN (you can read about my past experiences). The seamless integration with Windows was absolutely wonderful. However, the most useful feature was the ability to select commit and get a list with checkboxes of all files that were modified or not under source control and let you add+commit in one fatal swoop.

This is where OSX was severely lacking. I tried a few alternatives and all of them flat out sucked. They were overly complicated and didn’t offer that one important feature that I was looking for — the ability to see what files need to be added and commit them all at once. The best solution I could come up with was using the command line client using svn add * –force. This was messy, and essentially added all unversioned files to the repository.

Enter ZigVersion

This is where a little application called ZigVersion comes in. I’ve been using it for a few weeks, and I think it’s absolutely wonderful. Right now it’s still in Beta, so it’s lacking a few features (like resolve conflict) — but it’s got all the essentials packed up and ready to go. Just load up the app — point it to a local working copy and you’re on your way.

The interface is a little rough right now, but it gets the job done. Folders with an letter/symbol next to them indicate they have a file within them that differs from the svn copy. An “M” indicates modified, “A” indicates added, “D” indicates deleted, and a “?” indicates that the file isn’t in version control.

From this screen you can do all sorts of things by right clicking on the files. You can move, delete, add, compare files, and read change-logs.

The commit screen

However, out of all this — the commit button is the best feature of all. Just do a quick cmd+a to select all the files and click the Check-in button (even if you haven’t properly “added” a file). From here you get a status list of all the files you’re about to commit. I’ve found this feature incredibly useful as it will throw up a flare if you accidentally deleted something you didn’t mean to. Oh, and looky here — new files are shown with question marks next to them, and you can right click and add them right from the screen.

Try it out for yourself

So go ahead and run on over to ZigVersion and try out the demo. If you’re on OSX and have been looking for a reason to try out svn - now is the time.

1. 

   Colin D. Devroe

   July 3^rd | #

   Great write up. I was planning on giving Zig a run, and now I definitely will.

2. 

   Mike Stickel

   July 3^rd | #

   Ditto. I’ve been playing around with svn locally but haven’t been too keen on keeping the repository up to date. Thanks for the tip on Zig.

3. 

   Erik Scrafford

   July 3^rd | #

   Thanks for the great write up on ZigVersion. :)

4. 

   stephen tudor

   July 6^th | #

   Thanks for the review, looks like a real cool app. I too had been spoiled by TortoiseSVN, and the lack of a suitable app (till now) for OS X kind of forced me to learn the command line svn client.

   A couple of guys shared their sh and ruby scripts, respectively, about halfway down the page. Both scripts offer that coveted add+commit all functionality from command line without having to svn add * --force. I modified and use the ruby script all the time now… it’s kind of addicting.

5. 

   erik porter

   July 6^th | #

   I’ve been using svnX for a while and haven’t had any issues. It has a checkbox called “Smart Mode” which will show only files that have been modified locally, you can select as many of the files as you want, at the file or folder level, and then commit them all at once.

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

   I’ll give ZigVersion a shot though.

6. 

   Wincent

   July 7^th | #

   I’ve been using SmartSVN (http://smartsvn.com/) for a few months now. It is a bit bloated and slow (Java) but it has this and many other features too. Will check out ZigVersion though because a native (non-Java) implementation with a proper Mac “look and feel” would be great.

7. 

   Boris Mann

   August 13^th | #

   How does it compare to svnX (http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/community/subversion/svnx/features/?sid=arj8hubk6egfu44741e99vlea5)

8. 

   Abraham Irawan

   August 19^th | #

   thanks for the info
   i love svnX more, best of all: free and powerful svn GUI + Universal

9. 

   Chad

   September 15^th | #

   For quick SVN actions, I’ve liked svplugin which adds SVN actions to the finder. Just right-click/control+click to update, add, commit, just about anything.

10. 

    Bernd

    May 29^th | #

    Hi !

    How do i reset the saved passwords in Zig for a known SVN ? I have to change the user ??

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