Help+Manual News

Installing Tortoise SVN and the SVN runtimes for Help+Manual


Currently, the Tortoise SVN client no longer includes the 32-bit runtime components needed to interface with programs like Help+Manual. This means that you need to either install the older 1.9.2 version of Tortoise SVN that still includes the 32-bit runtimes, or get the free runtime components from Collabnet and install them together with Tortoise. Either way, it is a quick and simple process.

Obviously, this is not an acceptable solution in the long run. However, the supported versions of the Collabnet client and Tortoise can easily handle all the SVN needs of Help+Manual projects. We are also working hard to include the original Apache SVN 32-bit runtime components in our own distribution to solve this problem for good. This will take some time, however, because extensive checks and testing are required.

The simplest solution: Install Tortoise 1.9.2

If you don’t have a special needs the easiest solution is to just install the older Tortoise SVN version 1.9.2, as this still includes the 32-bit runtime components. You can get it here:

https://osdn.net/projects/tortoisesvn/storage/Archive/1.9.2/Application/

Install the 64-bit version for 64-bit Windows, which is virtually all Windows installations now.

Alternative: Combine the Collabnet client with the matching Tortoise version

If you want a more recent version you need to get the latest version of the Collabnet client and then install the Tortoise version with the matching release number. You need to get the Collabnet client first, because the Collabnet release is always at least one version behind the Tortoise release and they must match for correct operation.

Step 1: Download and install the 32-bit Collabnet client

The 32-bit client installer from Collabnet is now available on this page:

https://www.collab.net/downloads/svn-other

The only installer you need is the first, smallest one: “Subversion 1.xx.x (Windows 32-bit)”. It is a tiny installer for the command line client, less than 7MB. You will need to do a free registration from Collabnet to get it, which will not result in spam mails. Then you just need to run it on your system to install, accepting all the defaults if there are any.

Step 2: Install the matching Tortoise SVN version

This is important. Even if you already have Tortoise SVN, you must install the version that exactly matches the Collabnet client version. So if Collabnet is 1.11.1 then that is the Tortoise version you need to install, even if it means downgrading a little. You can get the matching installer for Tortoise on this page:

https://osdn.net/projects/tortoisesvn/storage/

Step 3: Restart and check the SVN setting if necessary

Restart Windows and Help+Manual after installing Collabnet and Tortoise. Subversion functions should then work properly without any further action on your part. In the unlikely event that there are problems, select the Collabnet client manually in View > Program Options > Subversion. It is installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\CollabNet\Subversion Client and the file you need to select is:

libsvn_client-1.dll

Comments are closed.