In this project…
Subversion is a version-control tool. That is, when changes are made to files, Subversion is responsible for preserving a history of those changes. Subversion can also operate as a client-server system, which means that there can be a central server for each repository, collating the changes made by each of the clients which connect to it.
The Kernel Source Archive uses the Subversion facilities provided by Sourceforge as a central, flexible, store of the sources of the projects hosted by it. Subversion allows sources to be ‘checked out’, examined and compared. Because Subversion deals with individual source files rather than compressed packages of sources, it's possible to check out a specific sub-directory from the repository and restrict activities to that sub-directory.
Sourceforge provides a web-based tool, ViewVC, which allows you to browse the contents of the repository using a web browser.
With a Subversion client, such as the official svn command-line tool,
or TortoiseSVN, you can check out all or part of the repository to
your computer's hard disk and do whatever you wish with them
(provided the individual projects' licensing terms are adhered to).
The ‘root’ of the repository has the following URL:
https://kernelsource.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/kernelsource
Checking out that URL will check out the entire contents of the repository.
Whilst many users of Subversion will organise repositories into a ‘trunk’ and a number of ‘branches’, reflecting different states of development of a project, this sort of organisation is unnecessary for the Kernel Source Archive: because no active development takes place in the archive (the repository is simply used to collate the sources), there are sub-directories for each kernel (and piece of additional software) directly beneath the root. For example, the repository location for FreeDOS can be found at:
https://kernelsource.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/kernelsource/FreeDOS
Each of the individual software pages provides direct links to the relevant repository location, ViewVC page, and any available packaged downloads.