As announced by mailing list:

The default version of the subversion (svn) revision control software will
change on DICE SL6 desktop and compute servers. This brings the version
into line with our new SL7 desktops and will allow working copies to be
shared between all DICE machines again.

The change will take place early in the morning of Thursday, 5h November.
You can check the current version as you’d expect:

  [hostname]you$ svn --version                                                                                                 
  svn, version 1.7...                                                                                                            

This change will have one particularly noticeable effect: *any* attempt to
work with an existing subversion working copy (i.e. “checkout”) with a
subversion 1.7 client will fail with the following message:

  [hostname]you$ svn up ./myrepo                                                                                              
  svn: E155036: Please see the 'svn upgrade' command                                                                              
  svn: E155036: Working copy [...] too old (format 10, created by Subversion 1.6)                                                 

You might already have seen this message on SL7 desktops; if you have
already upgraded then the sole effect of the DICE update will be to
restore access from SL6 desktops. Note that unlike historical releases of
subversion this will *not* affect your repository in any way.

If you wish to continue working with other, older clients you
will need to check out two working copies in different locations.

We do not intend to upgrade any of our running subversion servers to 1.7
until they are moved to DICE SL7 (for which there’s no immediate
timetable). If you run your own subversion server on SL6 you may wish to
let us know in advance; we can hold back subversion on your machine if
it’s critical.

subversion upgrade on SL6 / Computing Systems by is licensed under a