$ svn update
svn: This client is too old to work with working copy '.'; please get a newer Subversion client

So this is what my development setup looks like, I run a vm of JeOS and mount it on my mac using macfusion. So I have access to my code on both via ssh and via terminal. I got the above error as I accidentally did this update on the host machine side which had svn version 1.6.5 running where as on my vm I was still running 1.4.6. So searching for a couple of mins on the internet, I managed to update my version of svn on JeOS (which is actually another version ubuntu but for servers). I am documenting the steps below just in case anyone else might find it useful.

Open the sources.list and update it with the new source.

$ sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

and add the following two lines at the bottom

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/anders-kaseorg/subversion-1.6/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/anders-kaseorg/subversion-1.6/ubuntu hardy main

hardy can be replaced by your version ubuntu, I am still on ubuntu as its just a development server with the latest version of apache, mysql and it works very well for me, so no reason to upgrade yet. Also JeOS is available on the not so latest version of ubuntu anyway.

Add the related key signature

$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 413576CB

413576CB is the signing key on the home page of the project https://launchpad.net/~anders-kaseorg/+archive/subversion-1.6.

Signing key:
1024R/413576CB
Fingerprint:
026491A5DD081BDC6CDFC0DE6298AD34413576CB

Now all you need to do is update your aptitude cache and upgrade the version of svn.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get --reinstall install subversion

After the update is done, run the following command to get rid of the dynamic lib sshnodelay.so

busybox:~ rp$ rm /Applications//Macfusion.app/Contents/PlugIns/sshfs.mfplugin/Contents/Resources/sshnodelay.so

That’s pretty much you need to do, restart MacFusion and it works again.I am currently running version 2.1.5 (Beta) but once its out of Beta you wouldn’t need to do any of this fancy stuff to get it working.

defaults write com.macromates.textmate OakDocumentDisableFSMetaData 1

There are times when your work environment is setup such that your dev environment is setup on another box and you have to edit code on that code a quick an easy solution is to login to the box, over ssh and update the code over vi. However most people wouldn’t want to leave the luxury of leaving their favorite text editor and working on the unfriendly text based editor.*

So on a mac, you can mount a remote file system as a drive using a free software called Macfusion which is awesome.

On linux if you just want to edit a couple of files, you have the option accessing files over sft provided by nautilus.

Places -> Connect To Server and then choose sftp for Service Type.

It gets tricky when you want to be able to load the entire directory inside a code editor and work as if you were working locally. Using macfusion allows you to do that it mounts the files as a drive. Doing it on Linux requires a little more work.

Get the sshfs and fuse code packages and do the regular configure, make and sudo make install on it.
The following steps are for the redhat enterprise settings but can be adopted for your distro.

$ wget http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/fuse/fuse-2.6.5.tar.gz
$ tar -zxvf fuse-2.6.5.tar.gz
$ cd fuse-2.6.5
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

Once compiled and installed the dynamic linker needs to be run so that the new libraries are added to the search path.

$ sudo vi /etc/ld.so.conf.d/fuse.conf

add /usr/local/lib to the file and then run the linker.

$ ldconfig

With that done, its time to compile and install sshfs on your box.

$ wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/fuse/sshfs-fuse-1.7.tar.gz
$ tar -zxvf sshfs-fuse-1.7.tar.gz
$ cd sshfs-fuse-1.7
$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install

Now to mount the directory this is what you would need to do.

$ mkdir ~/localdev
$ sshfs -o port=<place_your_port_here_if_non_standard> rpandit@devbox.dom ~/localdev

The user mounting should obviously have write permission on the directory being used. Now you can browse the directory like your local directory and any changes done to files are automatically synced to the remote ssh file system.

Now the only other thing remaining is un-mouting the file, which can be done with one of the two commands.

$ fusermount -u ~/localdev

or

$ umount -u ~/localdev

Further Reading:

• Fuse Home Page
• sshfs home page

* Having called it unfriendly, its a really nice tool to use and if I wasnt lazy enough to read the manuals and remember the shortcut keys, I would have preferred using vi.