Perforce Versus Subversion ?

The two leading light-weight source control tools on the market at the moment ? What are their pros and cons ?

What they have in common:

• database backend
• atomic transactions
• fast branching and labeling operations
• work over TCP/IP
• client/server architecture
• multi-platform support
• strong command line tools (you can do everything you need on the command line)

Where things differ:

• Perforce stores all information about developer's sandboxes and checkouts on the server . Perforce uses 'workspaces' (client specs) to track the relationship between checked-out code and its location on the server.
• With perforce you have to open a file for edit before you can work on it
• You can't move things around in the repository
• Supports multiple change lists (you can break up your commit into smaller chunks)
• Doesn't version directories
• Can checkout single file
  
• Limited integration with eclipse
• Merge tracking
  

Subversion

• SVN Creates .svn directories in developer's sandboxes on checkout.
• You can move things (files, directories) around in the repository directly
• Branching and tagging are all 'copy' operations
• Subversion works offline
• Have to checkout a directory (not a single file)
  
• No easy way to split a commit into chunks with their own message
• Does version directories (implications for refactoring)
• Slick integration with eclipse
• Merge tracking (coming)