For those of us that like to stay on the "bleeding edge" there's an easy way to keep a local copy of the KDE sources up-to-date. No more trying to log on to ftp.kde.org to get the latest snapshot. No more wandering aimlessly through mirrors looking for one that's up to date. Just a simple command line operation to get up-to-the-minute source updates: anonymous SVN.
Using anonymous SVN is simple:
First, install the subversion (svn) binary if it isn't already on your computer. Your operating system should have a package for it. Alternatively you can download and compile it yourself via the svn project download page. Please read the KDE Subversion tutorial if you are interested in how to use Subversion.
/home/kde/trunk/ (often refered to as trunk, for short) is where the Qt4-based KDE 4 is being developed. The following is the minimal set of modules you will need to check out to build KDE and KDE software:
svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/KDE/kdelibs svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/KDE/kdebase
| Tip |
|---|
| Only use "svn co" for the initial checkout, after which update your local sources afterwards by using "svn up modulename". |
| Tip |
|---|
| If your firewall doesn't allow access to arbitrary ports, you want to substitute svn://anonsvn.kde.org/ with svn://anonsvn.kde.org:443/ above. |
| Tip |
|---|
| Currently, Monday is the day when major changes are allowed to the kdelibs module in trunk. Due to this, you may want to avoid updating your sources on Monday unless you are working on kdelibs as there may be temporary breakages throughout the day. |
qt-copy is a copy of the latest stable Qt release which works with KDE, put into SVN for convenience. It also contains additional patches that fix bugs or add enhancements KDE makes use of and is therefore recommended for those working with KDE from trunk. You can obtain qt-copy by doing:
svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/qt-copy
If you wish to have a complete copy of the KDE distribution, you can simply check out the entire source tree with one command:
svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/KDE
If you want additional software packages you can check out the following modules within trunk/ as well:
koffice extragear kdenonbeta playground kdereview
So, for example, if you want to check out koffice trunk, you can use
svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/koffice
If you want to track KDE 3 rather than the bleeding edge, you may retrieve the KDE 3.5 sources using:
svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/branches/arts/1.5/arts svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/branches/KDE/3.5/
KDE modules are also tagged at each release so that it is possible to get a specific release of KDE. Most KDE modules have a tag name in the format tags/KDE/X.Y. (where X, Y and Z represent the exact version). The arts module (only needed for KDE 2 and KDE 3) has a different format of tag name, tags/arts/X.Y.Z. For instance to get kdelibs as it was shipped in KDE 3.5.0, do:
svn co svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/tags/KDE/3.5.0/kdelibs/
If you then want to update this checkout to KDE 3.5.5, use this command:
svn switch svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/tags/KDE/3.5.5/kdelibs
| Tip |
|---|
| If you used a /branch/ or /trunk/ path, then there is no need to switch, just run svn update. |
If you are looking for translations and other localizations, check out the l10n module.
| Warning |
|---|
| The l10n module is extremely large. Be sure you have lots of time and disk space on hand before checking out the entire l10n module. Most people only check out specific language subdirectories rather than the entire l10n module. |
You are now ready to start building KDE! Visit this page for instructions on building trunk or this page for instruction on compiling the last stable release.
Also of interest:
svn switch --relocate svn://anonsvn.kde.org/ svn://kde.mneisen.org/
If you're interested in setting up a svn mirror, please contact Dirk Mueller.
KDE TechBase 