Building smarter connectionStrings for use Live / Local

Currently we are running multiple Sitecore projects. Whenever the projects go live we create new repositories in our subversion system. The downside in this case is, that when we go live we edit the connectionstring obviously, so that the connectionstrings correspond to the live servers instead of our local servers we run on. When a person that is joining our project now gets the repository from our SVN system, he will get the project with the live connectionstrings, which will result in alot of errors and frustration while I think this can be done w开发者_JS百科ay more efficiently. My question is:

How can I setup this construction that I can choose wheter I am working live or local, so that my project automatically will use the correct connectionString settings?

I'd strongly suggest you only check in safe connection strings, so nothing to a production environment. You'll run into serious trouble sooner or later.

Most companies change the connection strings in their deployment process, either manually (after copying the binaries to the production server) or automated (in a build script).