SubVersion is meant as the successor to CVS.

It lifts the limitations of CVS by versioning metadata and dealing with commits as a unit, called a change set. Versioning metadata along with the files allows for moving and renaming files within the repository without dissociating them from their history. Change sets guarantee that the repository will always be in a defined and consistent state, allow rolling back large commits as a whole, and are the foundation for SubVersion's vastly improved branch and tag handling.

SubVersion hasn't yet proven itself in practice like CVS has, but is getting rave reviews by users of the system.

The CommandLine client, analogous to cvs(1) and with very similar use for the most part, is called svn. To get a list of all commands and global options, issue

svn help

To get a help about a specific command, issue

svn help command

1. eg.

svn help checkout

Unfortunately, there is no ManPage to speak of.

Detailed information is available in Version Control with Subversion, a book available online freely but also soon to be published by O'Reilly.