windows connecting to subversion server on linux

[K. Tsang]

Hi there, I set up subversion on my CentOS linux server at the path "/svn/test". I start the subversion on the linux server using "svnserve -d" as a daemon. Now when I try to connect to it using my windows computer by "svn://<ip address>/..." it didn't connect. Then I also set up WebDAV so that I can use "http://<ip address>/..." again this failed. Do I also need samba to get subversion to work?

Also if I use the http protocol, what goes in the "..." section. Suppose I have a project/directory call "test" I want to checkout to the subversion server. Do I do "http://<ip address>/test"? Would this possibly conflict with the /var/www/html directories?

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[Peter Johnson]

For running with the svnserver, check that the port is open in the firewall.

For using within HTTP, within the httpd.conf file you should have specified something like this:

<Location /repos>
  DAV svn
  SVNPath /svn/test
</Location>

In which case the URL is http://hostname/repos

You can find out more information by reading the Subversion docs - they have clear guidelines for setting up the server within Apache.

[Tim Holloway]

Although the matter is open to debate, probably a more appropriate location according to the latest LFS would be "/srv/svn/test". But I should talk. I'm still stuck on /usr/local/svn. Which is definitely not recommended anymore.

I've found Apache to be better as a Subversion server than simply running a standalone server. Besides, you can browse source in a web browser.

You don't want to Samba-share the repository. It's a security risk and unless I'm mistaken, any attempt to update from a network share could result in file-locking problems (or problems due to lack of file-locking!). Windows locks files by name. Linux locks by inode.

[K. Tsang]

Thanks Peter and Tim, I will try it out and let you guys know if I connect.

[K. Tsang]

OK after I play with some more, I'm able to connect to the server. But when I try to put (import) files to it, it prompt "no repository found in <location>". I'm currently using svn://

This is what I did on the linux server:

mkdir /svn      //owner is root
svnadmin create /svn/test    //create the repository
//modify my firewall setting to include svn port
svnserve -d   //start svn server

On windows I have a folder "test" with file "test.java". I use TortoiseSVN. When I import and point the "url of repository" to "svn://hostname/test"; => I get "no repository found" error.

However when I open the repo-browser and point it to "svn://hostname/test"; I DID NOT get connection error and get empty screen. So how do I rid of this error? I know that once imported, I should do a checkout to get a versioned copy of the files.

Thanks in advance.

[Peter Johnson]

Try:

svnserve -d --root /svn/test

or maybe it is:

svnserve -d --root /svn

[K. Tsang]

Thanks Pete, I got it to work. Given my path is /svn/test; if I set the -root then I typed svn://<hostname>/test, otherwise I type svn://<hostname>/svn/test.

Now say I have several projects, each have its own repo. Then I would need to "svnadmin create /svn/projx" where x are 1,2,3... Now each repo has its own config file in the config directory. Is it possible to use a single config file?

I don't really want to have one big repo and create many project sub-directories.

OK while I'm at it, for http access, I have set up my httpd.conf with that <Location /svn/test> tags so that I should able to connect like "http://<hostname>/svn/test". Now when I tried to connect using the SVN repo-browser, it refuses because the /svn/test directory owner/group isn't apache content. On linux when I do "ls -Z" I get "root root root: object_r:default_t" now for directories under /var/www/html I have "root root root: object_r:httpd_sys_content_t".

So how can I change that ...default_t to ...httpd_sys_content_t? BTW changing the owner to apache alone doesn't help. OK figured this out chcon command.

Thanks.