As you know, we can't perform svn commands on a Subversion 1.6 working copy using a Subversion 1.7 client. But in Ubuntu 13.04, the default Subversion package is 1.7. 1.7 is certainly far superior in comparison to 1.6 in terms of speed. But I need to be able to do svn operations on 1.6 working copies. So, I needed two versions of subversion client. The only way I found for this is the following. This might help you too.
We need Java for this to work. So, if you do not have Java installed, install it before continuing.
First, install svnkit.. This installs several packages that is needed for svnkit. In 13.04, we get the svnkit 1.7.5 which comes with support for Subversion 1.7.
sudo apt-get install svnkit
Now, uninstall svnkit and libsvnkit-java packages. We do not need the 1.7.5 version of these since we need Subversion 1.6 support.
sudo apt-get remove svnkit libsvnkit-java
Now, go to a Ubuntu mirror site. I have used the Ubuntu mirror site for Sri Lanka.
http://lk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/s/svnkit/
There, download, and install the following two packages.
libsvnkit-java_1.3.5+dfsg-3_all.deb
svnkit_1.3.5+dfsg-3_all.deb
You can install these by using the command "sudo dpkg -i *deb" command or simply double-clicking in these.
Now, you have SVN 1.6 installed. To run, use the command jsvn instead of svn.
jsvn --version
You might need to set the JAVA_HOME variable if jsvn is failing to locate java. If so, open up /usr/bin/jsvn (which is a simple bash script), and edit the JAVA_HOME variable there accordingly.
Good luck!
