You have several options:
In the past, I have done both approaches. The SVN client library is actually quite easy to use.
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The subversion client library is described in Version Control with Subversion . Pay particular attention to Chapter 3 and Chapter 8 . I started by capturing the source snapshot from subversion.apache.org and reading the source code for the command line client. It is located in <root>/subversion/clients/cmdline . I found that the source is simple enough to observe.
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