---
layout: default
title: Release notes for 1.4
description: TortoiseSVN release notes, version 1.4
keywords: release notes
lang: en
---


<div class="post" id="news">
    <h2>What's New in TortoiseSVN 1.4</h2>

    <p>TortoiseSVN 1.4 is a superset of all previous TortoiseSVN releases.
    Anything in 1.0.x, 1.1.x, 1.2.x or 1.3.x is also in 1.4, but 1.4 contains
    features and bugfixes not present in any earlier release. It is
    linked with Subversion 1.4.</p>

    <ul>
       <li>Action dialogs (commit/check for modification/add...)
           <ul>
           <li>
           "Compare with BASE" is now possible for added and deleted files too.
           The diff viewer will show the diff against an empty file in that case.
           </li>
           <li>
           The columns shown are configurable. You can choose which columns are
           shown and what sizes they have. The configuration is saved between
           sessions.
           </li>
           <li>
           The 'OK' button is disabled until at least one file/folder is selected
           to avoid empty operations.
           </li>
           <li>
           Files and folders shown can be dragged to other applications. Also files and
           folder can be dragged from the explorer on to those dialogs.
           </li>
           <li>
           The dialogs can be interrupted while the status is fetched by clicking on 'Cancel'.
           </li>
           <li>
           Switched files/folders are indicated with an '(s)' after the status text.
           </li>
           <li>
           Subversion properties can be edited/set/deleted directly from these dialogs with
           a right-click.
           </li>
           </ul>
       </li>
       <li>Log dialog
           <ul>
           <li>
           New column showing the bugtraq ID string assigned to the revision.
           </li>
           <li>
           You can now specify a range for which the log messages should be fetched
           to avoid having to either click on 'Next 100' repeatedly or fetch all
           messages at once.
           </li>
           <li>
           The log messages can contain simple formatting. You can write text in <strong>*bold*</strong>, <em>^italic^</em>
           or <u>_underlined_</u>. Of course, the formatting is also done in the commit dialog while you are
           writing the log message.
           </li>
           </ul>
       </li>
       <li>Explorer
           <ul>
           <li>
           The context menu shows different icons depending on what entry the menu is
           for. If you right-click on a shortcut, two entries are shown, one with a link icon
           and one with a folder or file icon (depending on what the shortcut points to).
           If you right-click on a file, again two entries are shown. One with a file icon for
           the file itself, and one with a folder icon for the parent folder.
           </li>
           <li>
           New "Move and rename" entry in the context menu.
           </li>
           <li>
           New column for showing the <code>svn:eol-style</code> property.
           </li>
           </ul>
        </li>
        <li>Revision graph
            The Revision graph got some major improvements. It has been rewritten
            almost completely to address some issues users reported in the past.
            <ul>
            <li>
            Analyzing the data is much faster.
            </li>
            <li>
            Ability to show all revisions, not just the ones where there was a copy
            operation.
            </li>
            <li>
            Ability to have the graph sort the nodes by path.
            </li>
            <li>
            Better zooming support.
            </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>Repository browser
            <ul>
            <li>
            When dragging items, folders are opened and closed automatically
            if hoovering over them for more than two seconds.
            </li>
            <li>
            Dragging items beyond the visible area makes the browser scroll the
            view automatically.
            </li>
            <li>
            Checkout of multiple urls at once.
            </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>Status cache
            <ul>
            <li>
            An option to disable the cache process completely and either fetch the status
            only for the currently visible folder or not show any overlays at all.
            </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>TortoiseMerge
            <ul>
            <li>
            Changes inside lines are colored differently to better see what exactly has
            changed.
            </li>
            <li>
            Changed blocks which have only changed in whitespace are marked with a white
            circle. Such changes usually happen due to code cleanups and have no functional
            changes. Now those blocks are clearly marked so you can easily go over them.
            </li>
            <li>
            Files in UTF-8 format are recognized automatically.
            </li>
            <li>
            Files in UTF-16 format can be diffed.
            </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>TortoiseIDiff
            <ul>
            <li>
            This is a new tool which shows two images side-by-side. If you have images in
            your working copy (e.g. screenshots or partial screenshots for the helpfile/documentation)
            then you can now easily compare the new version of the image with the old one.
            This tool is for images what TortoiseMerge is for text files.
            </li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>Comparing two branches/tags
            <ul>
            <li>
            Due to a new function available in the Subversion 1.4 library, comparing
            two branches/tags is now much faster and reliable. Also it's now immediately clear
            if the file or property contents were changed.
            </li>
            </ul>
        </li>

       <li>
           Many many more small improvements and bug fixes.
           See the <a href="https://svn.osdn.net/svnroot/tortoisesvn/tags/version_1.4.0/src/Changelog.txt">Change Log</a> for full details.
       </li>
    </ul>

</div>

<div class="post" id="compatibility">
    <h2>Compatibility Concerns</h2>

    <p>
    Subversion 1.4 uses a new format for the working copy. The update is
    done automatically, you won't even notice it. But once the working copy
    has been updated, you won't be able to access it with clients linked
    to older versions of the Subversion library.
    </p>
    <p>Due to the upgrade process to the new working copy format, you might
    run into slight problems with the overlays not showing up or not showing
    the correct status. Just run <em>update</em> or <em>cleanup</em> on
    your working copy to get the overlay icons back to normal.
    </p>

    <p>Older clients and servers interoperate transparently with 1.4
    servers and clients. Of course, some of the new 1.4 features may not
    be available unless both client and server are the latest version.
    There is <strong>no need</strong> to upgrade your repositories;
    </p>

    <p>If you access a BDB repository using <code>file://</code> access
    you will need to update that repository to BDB 4.3 format. But this is
    only necessary if you're upgrading from a TortoiseSVN version before
    1.2.
    Instructions on how to do that can be found on the
    <a href="http://subversion.apache.org/faq.html#bdb43-upgrade">
    Subversion FAQ page</a></p>
</div>