Lock / Unlock Resources

The idea of version control is based on the copy-modify-merge model of file sharing. This model states that each user contacts the repository and creates a local working copy (check out). Users can then work independently and modify their working copies according to their needs. When their goal has been accomplished, it is time for the users to share their work with the others, to send them to the repository (commit). When a user has modified a file that has been also modified on the repository, the two files will have to be merged. The version control system assists the user with the merging as much as it can, but in the end the user is the one that must make sure it is done correctly.

The copy-modify-merge model only works when files are contextually mergeable: this is usually the case of line-based text files (such as source code). However this is not always possible with binary formats, such as images or sounds. In these situations, the users must each have exclusive access to the file, ending up with a lock-modify-unlock model. Without this, one or more users could end up wasting time on changes that cannot be merged.

An SVN lock is a piece of metadata that grants exclusive access to a user. This user is called the lock owner. A lock is uniquely identified by a lock token (a string of characters). If someone else attempts to commit the file (or delete a parent of the file), the repository demands two pieces of information:

• User authentication - the user performing the commit must be the lock owner
• Software authorization - the user's working copy must have the same lock token as the one from the repository, proving that it is the same working copy where the lock originated from.