OS X Subversion Client

Posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 7:06pm by Rob Wilkerson

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good Subversion client for Macs? It must:

  • Have a GUI
  • Be Intel-compatible
  • Offer complete functionality

I’d also like it to be free, but frankly the free ones I’ve tried make me willing to pay for a good one.

I’ve tried Subclipse since I’m an Eclipse user, but it doesn’t let me check out a repository folder into a project folder as far as I can tell. Whatever I checkout, I can only check out to a project root or create a new project from scratch. Sometimes I need partial projects.

I’ve also tried SCPlugin, but frankly that’s just not where it needs to be. The other day I needed svn rename functionality and it was nowhere to be found. Again, not good enough.

I’ve been trying to try SmartSvn, but I can’t even get it to open.

I use the command line just fine, but sometimes I want a visual sanity check on what’s been changed. A good GUI client is a really handy supplement to have around sometimes. A crappy one is…well, just crappy.

I don’t miss much when I leave my PC at work and go home, but I sure as hell miss TortoiseSVN.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

, 7 Comments

Subscribe7 Comments on OS X Subversion Client

  1. Caleb said...

    Well, this one isn’t release yet and I’m not sure if you know about it, but check out (no pun intended) Versions. You can find it here: http://versionsapp.com/

    ...on
  2. Rob Wilkerson said...

    Think I saw something about this on the Chyrp IRC channel last night. I guess I can’t do much with it until it’s released. :-) Thanks for the suggestion.

    ...on
  3. Chad said...

    svnX has served well when I’ve needed a GUI.

    ...on
  4. Rob Wilkerson said...

    Interesting that you mention that. I downloaded and installed it last night after writing this post, but it’s odd. I’m not quite sure what to make of the two separate UIs. How do I use the “Working Directories” UI? Do I even need it?

    If I could convince the TSVN guys to develop a Mac port, the Adium guys to develop a Windows port and anyone at all to develop a robust financial management package for Mac then my life would be just about perfect. Technologically speaking, at least…

    ...on
  5. jonese said...

    versions looks promising. let us know if you find anything i know this topic has been brought up by more then one mac user.

    ...on
  6. Chad said...

    @Rob Yeah, the separate UIs is a bit odd and to be honest I’ve only used svnX to check out portions of repositories and to handle svn moves. I just keep the portions of the app that I need open and ignore/close the rest.

    ...on
  7. Rob Wilkerson said...

    In case anyone’s still got an eye on this thread, it appears that Versions, as mentioned by Caleb above, has finally gone into public beta.

    I don’t know exactly when this happened, but I only noticed it moments ago.

    ...on

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