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In Brief: Installing Subversion

9 sep 2006, Simon Strandgaard

subversion server is Ubuntu linux
tortoiseSVN client is Windows XP

prompt> uname -a
Linux 2.6.15-26-server #1 SMP Thu Aug 3 04:09:15 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux

See Server Configuration

SERVER-STEP1: install the package

prompt> sudo aptitude

choose subversion for installation.

prompt> svn --version
svn, version 1.3.1 (r19032)
   compiled May  8 2006, 07:38:44
prompt>

SERVER-STEP2: create subversion account

prompt> sudo adduser svn
prompt> sudo edit /etc/group

change "svn:*:56:svn,neoneye,depth,undercover"

prompt> sudo su svn
prompt> pwd
/home/svn
prompt> exit

SERVER-STEP3 (A): either create an empty repository

prompt> svnadmin create repo
prompt>

somehow this step was trivial!

SERVER-STEP3 (B): or restore from backup

prompt> sudo chown svn:svn repo.tgz
prompt> sudo cp repo.tgz ~svn/.
prompt> sudo su svn
prompt> cd
prompt> tar xzvf repo.tgz

SERVER-STEP4: permissions

prompt> sudo su svn
prompt> cd
prompt> chmod -R 775 repo
prompt> chown -R svn:svn repo

SERVER-STEP5: run as service

prompt> sudo edit /etc/inetd.conf

insert this line in the top

svn stream tcp nowait svn /usr/bin/svnserve svnserve -i

reboot the system!

CLIENT-STEP1: verify that checkout is working

Create the directory 'ubuntu_svn_test'
with tortoiseSVN, right click and choose 'checkout'

URL of repository:
svn+ssh://neoneye@192.168.1.2/home/svn/repo/

click OK

you will 4 times!! experience a password requester

CLIENT-STEP2: verify that commit is working

with tortoiseSVN, add some textfile to the repository and click commit.
No errors then subversion is installed successfully :-)

In case you get this error, then check SERVER-STEP4 and SERVER-STEP5.

Error: Commit failed (details follow):
Error: Can't create directory 'path/to/textfile': Permission denied