Server requirements

To be able to use this guide, the following requirements need to be met:

Component	Recommended characteristics
Subversion server	Should be based on Subversion 1.14.x or later.
Repository	The repository’s Filesystem Format should be FSFS 8 or later.

To make sure that the server requirements are met, you may need to contact your system administrator or the Subversion server administrator. Checking the Subversion server version and the repository’s filesystem format requires performing actions on the server computer that runs the Subversion server.

Information for the administrator

Over the course of many Subversion releases, Subversion’s server-side libraries and the filesystem format for repositories have evolved, adding features and fixes that are necessary for the modern branching and merging functionality. Although up-to-date Subversion clients can communicate even with extremely old Subversion servers, some of the modern branching or merging functionality will either not work at all or will work less efficiently when using an old Subversion server and an old repository filesystem format.

Technically, the minimum Subversion release that has the server-side features and fixes expected by this guide is Subversion 1.9.x. However, the Subversion 1.9.x family is no longer maintained, and using a Subversion server based on a newer Subversion release is recommended. Also, technically, the minimum repository filesystem format that supports the features used in this guide is FSFS 3, however upgrading to FSFS 8 is recommended for improvements in speed and storage efficiency.

Checking and upgrading the repository filesystem format

You should upgrade the Subversion server before upgrading the repository filesystem format, because newer repository filesystem formats are not backward compatible with older Subversion servers. Upgrading the Subversion server also allows you to get an up-to-date svnadmin utility, which normally comes bundled with the Subversion server.

To check the filesystem format of a repository, run the svnadmin info command (available since Subversion 1.9) on that repository. The argument in the command should be the path at which the repository is stored on disk. In the output, see the Filesystem Type and Filesystem Format fields.

To upgrade the filesystem format of a repository, run svnadmin upgrade on that repository, using an up-to-date svnadmin utility.

If you are using VisualSVN Server, refer to the article titled KB142: Upgrading the filesystem format of a repository. In case the Filesystem Type of the repository is vdfs, the filesystem format version should be VDFS 108 or later.