Archive for August, 2006

How to Move a Subversion Repository

Friday, August 11th, 2006

I recently had to move our main Subversion repository to a new server the other day, so I thought I would pass along this quick how-to.

To move a Subversion repository from one system to another you only have to enter a couple of easy subversion commands. To start, go to the source system and at a command prompt or terminal window type:

svnadmin dump /path/to/repository > repository-name.dmp

If the dump file is rather large you can compress it with your favorite zip utility. Now you need to get the dump to your new server, so simply transfer the file via FTP, local share, CD, thumbdrive or whatever it takes.

Once the dump file is on the new machine and uncompressed, you need to set up and load the new repo by typing:

cd /path/to/new-repository
svnadmin create repository-name
svnadmin load repository-name< repository-name.dmp

A couple of small things to note - the dump file will be rather large as it represents every commit made on your repository. If your repository is rather large and mature, this file could get quite large. Also this method works across platforms so moving from UNIX to Windows or visa-versa is also possible.

Hundreds of Free Virtual Appliances

Thursday, August 10th, 2006

VMWare has a community site that provides hundreds of Virtual Appliances for use in their free VMWare Server product. What is a virtual appliance? It is a preconfigured operating system that has been tailored to perform a specific set of functions. There are appliances for Ruby on Rails development, Python Web Development and even Jabber servers. Virtual appliances make great test development environments and allow you to try a wide range of services without the pain of installing the systems yourself!

Run Safari on Windows

Tuesday, August 8th, 2006

GetWebKit! is a new browser for Windows that is based on WebKit, the same rendering engine that is used by Safari. The browser you install is named “Swift” and has been released as an alpha product. The interface is very bare-bones, but it looks like it could be a very useful tool to text how your pages might render on a Mac!

A Personal Wiki Notepad

Thursday, August 3rd, 2006

ZuluPad is a desktop application that provides you with a local Wiki. It combines the simplicity of Notepad with the functionality of a Wiki. The application is free and is available for both Mac and Windows!

How Google Earth Is Changing Science

Tuesday, August 1st, 2006

The Mapping Revolution: How Google Earth Is Changing Science explains how biologists, epidemiologists and disaster control experts are discovering Google Earth as a powerful tool in their work. In the CMS that we provide to our clients, each record can have GIS data stored along with it. We’ve recently started transforming this GIS data to Google Earth’s KML format and our clients are loving the way it allows them to visualize their data geographically.