SVN Locking (For Binary Files)

Subversion's “copy-modify-merge” model is optimal when users are collaborating on projects that consist of line-based text files, such as program source code. However, as discussed in When Locking is Necessary, sometimes one has to use the “lock-modify-unlock” model instead of Subversion's standard concurrent model. When a file consists of binary data, it's often difficult or impossible to merge two sets of changes made in parallel by different users. For this reason, Subversion 1.2 and later offers a feature known as locking, often known as “reserved checkouts” in other version control systems. [read more]