Configuration Management question (Subversion)

[defenseman]

This probably isnt the normal thing to post in Data Storage Systems, but I thought I would go ahead and see what some of you say.

I recently been researching Subversion as a way manage projects files but I'm not sure its the correct thing to use.

The thing is, I'm not just storing code, but PDFs, binaries, tools, and a bunch of other kinds of files. On the lowest layer, I need a system to store multiple versions of a system and have users be able to rely of taking a repository and being able to implement the entire system with no problems. A new system may use certain files from another system, thus some type of good branching system would be nice. For example, I wouldn't want System A Rev15 to be called System A Rev25 after a change has been made to System B Rev24. I'm not too concerned with the copy-modify-merge technique but at least something that will tell me a file and/or project is being tasked for modification. It would be nice to have a database too where if a revision doesnt work, the end user can log exactly what it didnt work and at what time.

I'm not sure Subversion is what I'm looking for. If something else is developed with more of what I've layed out above, that would be great.

 

[defenseman]

Here is a revised question...

Say a project has only two files (to keep things simple):
1. code.c
2. design.pdf

Project lifestyle:
1. Make a new base repository
2. Users checkout, modify, merge, commit
3. More users checkout, modify, merge, commit
4. One branch is made (aka Alpha), another branch his made (aka Bravo)
5. Users under the Alpha configuration need the code and design to look a specific way. Users checkout, modify, merge, commit under their branch.
6. Users under the Bravo configuration need the code and design to look a specific way. Users checkout, modify, merge, commit under their branch.

Problem...
7. Users under Alpha or Bravo find some bugs in the base code and/or design, but Alpha and Bravo can't exactly merge because their specific configurations will always be different.

How does Subversion handle this problem? Because the Alpha and Bravo guys have different configurations, they can merge code, but constantly have to ignore certain changes. Furthermore, they can't really merge the design since the design is in PDF format.

How should I handle this scenario?