Getting the last revision number in SVN?

Question

Using PHP, Perl, or Python (preferably PHP), I need a way to query an SVN database and find out the last revision number sent to SVN. I don't need anything other than that. It needs to be non-intensive (so I do it every 5 minutes as a cron job; SVN's performance should not be affected).

SVN is located on my Intranet, but not my specific computer.

I have SVN installed, but no bindings installed for PHP/Perl/Python. I'm running Windows XP, but I would prefer a platform-independent solution that can also work in Linux. If you have a Linux-only (or XP-only) solution, that would also be helpful.

Answer 1

If you want to analyse a local working copy, the best tool is svnversion, which comes with Subversion and produces output like 968:1000M. The documentation says:

The version number will be a single number if the working copy is single revision, unmodified, not switched and with an URL that matches the TRAIL_URL argument. If the working copy is unusual the version number will be more complex:

4123:4168     mixed revision working copy 4168M         modified working copy 4123S         switched working copy 4123:4168MS   mixed revision, modified, switched working copy 

Answer 2

<?php     $url = 'your repository here';     $output = `svn info $url`;     echo "<pre>$output</pre>"; ?> 

You can get the output in XML like so:

$output = `svn info $url --xml`; 

If there is an error then the output will be directed to stderr. To capture stderr in your output use thusly:

$output = `svn info $url 2>&1`;