VisualSVN Server 5.4 Released
VisualSVN Team
We are happy to announce the release of VisualSVN Server 5.4, which brings the following main enhancements:
- Improvements in Markdown rendering
- Advanced backup creation policies
- IP-based restrictions for Basic Windows Authentication
This new release also includes many other improvements. For the complete list of changes, see the VisualSVN Server 5.4.0 changelog.
The upgrade to VisualSVN Server 5.4 is recommended for all users. We strongly advise reading the article KB233: Upgrading to VisualSVN Server 5.4 before beginning the upgrade.
You can download VisualSVN Server 5.4 from the main download page.
Improvements in Markdown rendering
The rendering of Markdown documents in the Repository Web Interface now fully supports the widely-adopted CommonMark specification of Markdown syntax. Additionally, the following improvements have been made to Markdown rendering in the Web UI:
- Added support for anchor links (also known as section links). You can now link directly to specific section headings in a Markdown file.
- Added support for the blockquote-based GFM alert syntax. You can use the alert syntax to emphasize important information. Currently five types of alerts are supported: Note, Tip, Important, Warning and Caution, which will now be rendered with distinctive icons and colors in the Web UI.
- Added support for the GFM task list syntax. The Web UI will now render a task list as a list of items with read-only checkboxes, which can be useful for to-do lists.
- Added support for syntax highlighting in fenced code blocks. To enable syntax highlighting for a fenced code block, specify the language name after the triple backticks/tildes (e.g., ```cpp) that mark the start of the code block.
- Added support for HTML tags. This allows you to include parts with raw HTML markup inside Markdown documents.
Advanced backup creation policies
VisualSVN Server 5.4 offers new policy settings for scheduled repository backup jobs, when you use the mixed full/incremental backup scheme. In particular, it now is possible to conditionally make full backups based on the quantity of accumulated incremental backups. This allows you to conditionally skip a full backup for a repository when this repository has not had any commit activity recently.
The new policy settings also allow you to greatly reduce the use of storage space and time spent on making backups, by having longer chains of incremental backups that can now span more than one week. This is especially beneficial when you back up extremely large repositories.
Learn more about advanced backup creation policies
More enhancements
A few other notable improvements in this version are listed below:
- IP-based restrictions for Basic Windows Authentication. In the Windows authentication mode, it is now possible to selectively allow Basic authentication only to specific IP addresses, by setting up IP-based restrictions. Instead of enabling or disabling the Basic Windows Authentication method for everyone, you can now enable it only for specific users that require it, while forcing all other users to use the more secure Integrated Windows Authentication.
- New Test-SvnRepositoryBackup cmdlet for verifying repository backups.
- New Get-SvnRepositoryBackup cmdlet for listing all backups created by a particular backup job and for displaying information about individual backup files.
Upgrading to the new version
Upgrading to VisualSVN Server 5.4 is recommended for all users. Please read the KB233: Upgrading to VisualSVN Server 5.4 article before upgrading.
The upgrade is free for all customers who have an active maintenance subscription for the Enterprise or Essential licenses. The upgrade is also free for all customers who use VisualSVN Server under the Community license.