version control service

Subversion is my version control of choice for this project. I could always use my home-assembled linux pc as server for it. But then, that would mean there’s nowhere else I could work. I don’t have a static public IP for my pc at home, and I don’t think it’s worth switching my machine on when not in use. So I can’t access my Subversion server from outside the house.

So I would need Subversion hosting from somewhere else online. So I could easily have access to my codes wherever and whenever an idea pops in my head, or I get to steal a few moments to work. But being on a shoestring budget, I could only hope for free but dependable service at the moment. Good thing there are.

I first tried OpenSVN, a project by “several enthusiastic students at Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, R.O.C.” First impression: scary! Index page displays this message:

” Due to errors in our backup scripts, we have gone two weeks without backups of the repositories. Unfortunately, we made an error when cleaning our filesystems. As a result, some repositories have been deleted. Some of them have been recovered from our last backup, which we regret is two weeks old. If you can’t access your repository, mostly likely it is lost. We sincerely apologize for any loss of data and inconvenience.”

Although dated Nov. 14, 2007, still this is a very uncomfortable historical event for a version control server. Regardless, I gave it a shot anyway. It was very easy to sign up. Same goes with administration. But when it went down to interacting with the actual server, it was fucking crawling. I know it’s free service so that don’t give me no right to demand for quality or even a prettier looking website to say the least. There should be something else.

Googling around, I landed on the Assembla site. A commercial service, but with a free package. The plan looks decent. There are also a lot of bonus bells and whistles here and there like a wiki, project management tools, hell even a job posting service. None of which that I’m interested in (at least for the moment). So I dove right in. And what do you know. Really speedy connection. Administration was easy as well. There’s just one thing though. 500MB limit. I don’t know if by the time I get to reach this number, I’m already able to pay for an upgrade to their service. So, shit, need to google some more.

I don’t know how, but I eventually got to DevjaVu. Another commercial service with a freebie package for the cheapskates like me. Unlike Assembla, you get to be limited to only 3 committers, which won’t matter in my case. It doesn’t have as many miscellaneous thingos, although it does come with Trac (again, with little interest on my part). But the kicker here is 1gig allowance for subversion storage. Now that’s what I’m talking about. Signing up for the free account was quite a bitch though. You need an invite to get in. But it so happens it wasn’t hard to get. I just googled for one! I don’t know really what the fuck this invite shit is for when it’s so easy to find one. They should just allow public registration, beta or not. Anyways, been using the service for the past few weeks now. Connection is fast. No downtime that I’m aware of since I’ve used it. Let’s see where this goes.