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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Version Control
  4. Version Control System
  5. SVN (Subversion) vs Vault

SVN (Subversion) vs Vault

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

SVN (Subversion)
SVN (Subversion)
Stacks791
Followers629
Votes43
GitHub Stars614
Forks188
Vault
Vault
Stacks816
Followers802
Votes71
GitHub Stars33.4K
Forks4.5K

SVN (Subversion) vs Vault: What are the differences?

SVN vs Vault: Key Differences

Subversion (SVN) and Vault are both version control systems used in software development, but they have several key differences.

  1. Repository Structure: SVN uses a centralized repository structure, where all files and their versions are stored in a central server. On the other hand, Vault utilizes a distributed repository structure where each user has their own local copy of the repository, allowing for greater flexibility and faster performance.

  2. Branch and Merge: SVN follows a copy-modify-merge approach for branching and merging. This means that when a branch is created, changes are made directly to the branch, and merging involves merging the changes from one branch to another. In contrast, Vault uses a lock-modify-unlock approach, where files are locked for exclusive editing during the branch, and merging involves merging the changes made in one branch with the main branch.

  3. Performance: SVN can experience performance issues with large repositories as the centralized structure requires frequent network traffic and can slow down operations. Vault's distributed structure offers better performance, as it reduces network traffic and allows for faster access to files and versions.

  4. Security and Permissions: SVN relies on server-side access control mechanisms, where access permissions are managed centrally. Vault, on the other hand, allows for finer-grained control over permissions by providing client-side access control, enabling users to control access to different parts of the repository directly.

  5. Atomic Transactions: SVN supports atomic commits, which means that changes are either fully committed or entirely rolled back. This ensures data integrity even in case of failures. Vault, however, does not provide built-in support for atomic transactions, making it less reliable in terms of data integrity.

  6. Tool Integration: SVN integrates well with numerous third-party tools and provides a wide range of plugins, making it easier to extend its functionality. Vault, although it does offer some integrations, has a lesser number of available plugins and integrations, limiting its extensibility.

In summary, SVN and Vault differ in their repository structure, branch and merge strategies, performance, security and permissions, support for atomic transactions, and tool integration. SVN follows a centralized approach, while Vault follows a distributed approach, offering different advantages and limitations in various aspects of version control.

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Advice on SVN (Subversion), Vault

Kamaldeep
Kamaldeep

CEO at Zhoustify Agency

Nov 13, 2020

Decided

SVN is much simpler than git for the simple stuff (checking in files and updating them when everyone's online), and much more complex than git for the complicated stuff (branching and merging). Or put another way, git's learning curve is steep up front, and then increases moderately as you do weird things; SVN's learning curve is very shallow up front and then increases rapidly.

If you're storing large files, if you're not branching, if you're not storing source code, and if your team is happy with SVN and the workflow you have, I'd say you should stay on SVN.

If you're writing source code with a relatively modern development practice (developers doing local builds and tests, pre-commit code reviews, preferably automated testing, preferably some amount of open-source code), you should move to git for two reasons: first, this style of working inherently requires frequent branching and merging, and second, your ability to interact with outside projects is easier if you're all comfortable with git instead of snapshotting the outside project into SVN.

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Detailed Comparison

SVN (Subversion)
SVN (Subversion)
Vault
Vault

Subversion exists to be universally recognized and adopted as an open-source, centralized version control system characterized by its reliability as a safe haven for valuable data; the simplicity of its model and usage; and its ability to support the needs of a wide variety of users and projects, from individuals to large-scale enterprise operations.

Vault is a tool for securely accessing secrets. A secret is anything that you want to tightly control access to, such as API keys, passwords, certificates, and more. Vault provides a unified interface to any secret, while providing tight access control and recording a detailed audit log.

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Secure Secret Storage: Arbitrary key/value secrets can be stored in Vault. Vault encrypts these secrets prior to writing them to persistent storage, so gaining access to the raw storage isn't enough to access your secrets. Vault can write to disk, Consul, and more.;Dynamic Secrets: Vault can generate secrets on-demand for some systems, such as AWS or SQL databases. For example, when an application needs to access an S3 bucket, it asks Vault for credentials, and Vault will generate an AWS keypair with valid permissions on demand. After creating these dynamic secrets, Vault will also automatically revoke them after the lease is up.;Data Encryption: Vault can encrypt and decrypt data without storing it. This allows security teams to define encryption parameters and developers to store encrypted data in a location such as SQL without having to design their own encryption methods.;Leasing and Renewal: All secrets in Vault have a lease associated with it. At the end of the lease, Vault will automatically revoke that secret. Clients are able to renew leases via built-in renew APIs.;Revocation: Vault has built-in support for secret revocation. Vault can revoke not only single secrets, but a tree of secrets, for example all secrets read by a specific user, or all secrets of a particular type. Revocation assists in key rolling as well as locking down systems in the case of an intrusion.
Statistics
GitHub Stars
614
GitHub Stars
33.4K
GitHub Forks
188
GitHub Forks
4.5K
Stacks
791
Stacks
816
Followers
629
Followers
802
Votes
43
Votes
71
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 20
    Easy to use
  • 13
    Simple code versioning
  • 5
    User/Access Management
  • 3
    Complicated code versionioning by Subversion
  • 2
    Free
Cons
  • 7
    Branching and tagging use tons of disk space
Pros
  • 17
    Secure
  • 13
    Variety of Secret Backends
  • 11
    Very easy to set up and use
  • 8
    Dynamic secret generation
  • 5
    AuditLog

What are some alternatives to SVN (Subversion), Vault?

Git

Git

Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

Mercurial

Mercurial

Mercurial is dedicated to speed and efficiency with a sane user interface. It is written in Python. Mercurial's implementation and data structures are designed to be fast. You can generate diffs between revisions, or jump back in time within seconds.

Plastic SCM

Plastic SCM

Plastic SCM is a distributed version control designed for big projects. It excels on branching and merging, graphical user interfaces, and can also deal with large files and even file-locking (great for game devs). It includes "semantic" features like refactor detection to ease diffing complex refactors.

Pijul

Pijul

Pijul is a free and open source (AGPL 3) distributed version control system. Its distinctive feature is to be based on a sound theory of patches, which makes it easy to learn and use, and really distributed.

Doppler

Doppler

Doppler’s developer-first security platform empowers teams to seamlessly manage, orchestrate, and govern secrets at scale.

IBM SKLM

IBM SKLM

It centralizes, simplifies and automates the encryption key management process to help minimize risk and reduce operational costs of encryption key management. It offers secure, robust key storage, key serving and key lifecycle management for IBM and non-IBM storage solutions using the OASIS Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP).

Docker Secrets

Docker Secrets

A container native solution that strengthens the Trusted Delivery component of container security by integrating secret distribution directly into the container platform.

AWS Secrets Manager

AWS Secrets Manager

AWS Secrets Manager helps you protect secrets needed to access your applications, services, and IT resources. The service enables you to easily rotate, manage, and retrieve database credentials, API keys, and other secrets throughout their lifecycle.

EnvKey

EnvKey

Securely store config and manage access in an end-to-end encrypted, auto-syncing desktop app. Connect your apps in minutes in any language with an environment variable and a line or two of code.

Knox-app

Knox-app

Knox is a SaaS (Secrets as a Service) that helps you manage your keys, secrets, and configurations. Start in minutes and close the widest security breach. You cannot keep storing secrets in your git repo or sharing them by email or slack me

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