The official WordPress plugin repository uses Subversion to manage all code files, provide version control services to developers, and find information to populate the extension's page. When your new repository is created, it contains three main directories: trunk, tags, and branches.

The trunk directory is usually the main location where you place the latest version of your plugin files. Following the steps in the recipe, we copy our files to this location and commit them to the server. Once uploaded, the WordPress.org servers take care of creating a zipped copy of your work.

The tags directory is designed to hold pointers to various versions of your creation over time, as discussed in the Creating a README file for your plugin recipe. This functionality used in conjunction with the Stable tag field of your plugin's readme.txt file allows you to redirect users to a known working version of your work while you commit and test potentially unstable work to the trunk. New tags are created using the Branch/Tag item of the TortoiseSVN menu and associating a name to a specific revision. The branches directory has a similar function to tags, but is more focused toward the creation of alternate versions of plugins or in-development revisions that include specific functionality.