Setting up Subversion Version control in Ubuntu
When developing a project, you may want to keep a version control of all your files so that you can easily revert to an earlier page (or the previous revision) to fix any bugs or in the event that someone accidentally deleted your files.
In Ubuntu, the easiest way to do version control is to set up a Subversion (SVN) server.
Install SVN and Apache
sudo apt-get install subversion libapache2-svn
Next, we are going to create a directory to hold your repository.
sudo svnadmin create /var/lib/svn
Give apache the access right to the repository
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/lib/svn
sudo chmod 770 -R /var/lib/svn
Configure Apache for SVN access
gksu gedit /etc/apache2/mods-available/dav_svn.conf
Uncomment the codes by removing the ‘#’ in front of the following lines:
<Location /svn>
…
DAV svn
…
AuthType Basic
AuthName “Subversion Repository”
AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd
…
<LimitExcept GET PROPFIND OPTIONS REPORT>
Require valid-user
</LimitExcept>
</Location>
If you have only one repository for your SVN, uncomment the following line
SVNPath /var/lib/svn
Else if you are setting up multiple repositories, uncomment this line
SVNParentPath /var/lib/svn
Remember that at any time, only SVNPath or SVNParentPath is uncommented. Do not uncomment both at the same time.
Create a password for your username
sudo htpasswd -cm /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd yourusername
Restart apache
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Now open your browser and go to http://localhost/svn. If you see the following, the your installation is successful.
Importing your project into SVN
You have successfully installed and configured SVN, now we need to import our project files to the SVN.
sudo apt-get install rapidsvn
Go to Applications->Programming->RapidSVN
In the RapidSVN, go to Repository->Import
In the window, enter the following:
Click OK. Enter your username and password. Your project should be in the SVN now.
Tags: Linux, subversion svn, Ubuntu, version control
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Thanks for the article! I noticed one quick change due to renaming of htpasswd2 in apache-utils- when configuring the password, the line should be updated from:
sudo htpasswd2 -cm /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd yourusername
to:
sudo htpasswd -cm /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd yourusername
Best,
-Scott
Reply
Damien Reply:
March 1st, 2009 at 7:02 am
Thanks for informing. I have make the changes.
Reply
Hi i just want to setup subversion for the first time.I followed your howto but when i go to http://localhost/svn i get:
Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access /svn on this server.
Apache/2.2.11 (Ubuntu) DAV/2 SVN/1.5.4 Server at localhost Port 80
Can i do something to fix it?
Reply
Damien Reply:
August 19th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Did you set the correct permission for the svn folder:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/lib/svn
sudo chmod 770 -R /var/lib/svn
Reply
Thanks for your reply.I created /home/pavlos/Documents/programming/code/svn as mine svn folder with the permissions below :
$ sudo ls -lah /home/pavlos/Documents/programming/code/svn
[sudo] password for pavlos:
total 32K
drwxrwx— 6 www-data www-data 4.0K 2009-08-17 22:01 .
drwxrwxrwx 11 pavlos pavlos 4.0K 2009-08-23 22:37 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K 2009-08-17 22:01 conf
drwxr-sr-x 6 root root 4.0K 2009-08-17 22:06 db
-r–r–r– 1 root root 2 2009-08-17 22:01 format
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K 2009-08-17 22:01 hooks
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K 2009-08-17 22:01 locks
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 229 2009-08-17 22:01 README.txt
The strange thing is that with SVNPath is working ok but with SVNParentPath no.
Reply
Walleye Reply:
August 28th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Try to add this line in your dav_svn.conf:
SVNParentPath on
This worked fine for me
Reply
Ups.. following is correct:
SVNListParentPath on
Reply
sry, it is:
SVNListParentPath on
Reply