Is there any way with subversion or any other VCS that i can keep the checked out files in the .svn directory in a different place then the directory where they "belong". For example having some toplevel /work/my-source-tree and a /work/my-source-tree-svn directory?
I know why the files are duplicated in .svn directories (fast detection of changed files at checkin and easy tool support). But i often want to do a backup of the files for example on an USB stick and transfering the double number of files is a showstopper.
svk is a layer on top of subversion that adds a few additional features. One key feature is that metadata is kept in $HOME/.svk/ instead of within each working copy. This separates the two and would make your backups easier and working copies smaller.
Plus, it also provides some distributed version control features, like git and others - but still using svn as the backend. Might be worth a try.