subversion

• Installing security/ca_root_nss allows Subversion to verify the identity of HTTPS repository servers. The root SSL certificates can be installed from a port:

# cd /usr/ports/security/ca_root_nss
# sudo make install clean

# cd /usr/ports/devel/subversion
# sudo make install clean

Subversion uses URLs to designate a repository, taking the form of protocol://hostname/path. The first component of the path is the FreeBSD repository to access. There are three different repositories, base for the FreeBSD base system source code, ports for the Ports Collection, and doc for documentation. For example, the URL https://svn.FreeBSD.org/ports/head/ specifies the main branch of the ports repository, using the https protocol.

repository is one of the Project repositories: base, ports, or doc.
branch depends on the repository used. ports and doc are mostly updated in the head branch, while base maintains the latest version of -CURRENT under head and the respective latest versions of the -STABLE branches under stable/9 (9.x) and stable/10 (10.x).

lwcdir is the target directory where the contents of the specified branch should be placed. This is usually /usr/ports for ports, /usr/src for base, and /usr/doc for doc.

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/svn.html

• Upgrading to the latest -STABLE version provides all this new code without breaking installed programs.

The name "-STABLE" is frequently misunderstood. It does not mean solid or steady. -STABLE means that while code can change, the ABI (Application Binary Interface) will remain stable and not change. Programs compiled to run on FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE, or 10.1-RELEASE, or 10.2-RELEASE will continue to work on FreeBSD 10-STABLE. Effectively, -STABLE is the latest version of FreeBSD you can get without breaking installed software.
http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/stable.html