This is very easy as Subversion ships with Fedora Core 4. As of writing (7 November 2005) the RPMS are being kept up to date with version 1.3.x releases. Be aware that the RedHat policy on updates is to roll security fixes into their current release.

This will be an Apache based Subversion server.

Installing Subversion

Start up the package management tool system-config-packages. Make sure these items are ticked:

• Web Server
• Development Tools - subversion

Hit update and feed it the CDs. You should also do a yum update to get the most recent version of Subversion.

Once the install completes make sure mod_dav_svn is installed - if it isn't do a yum install mod_dav_svn.

Note: the Berkely DB libraries as shipped with Fedora Core 4 are built to use the Native Posix Thread Library (nptl). If you install Fedora Core 4 on an i386, i486 or i586 processor the version of glibc which is installed does not support nptl so when you get to do the svnadmin create command you will see an error like this:

svn: Berkeley DB error
svn: Berkeley DB error while creating environment for filesystem /tmp/x1/db:
Invalid argument

See this bug report for full details.

The fix is to install a version of Berkely DB which has been compiled to not use nptl and which can be downloaded from here (you will have to right click on the file name and choose to download it as the server these files are on thinks that .rpm files are some kind of music file). Use a comand like this to install the RPMS you require:

rpm -Uhv --replacepkgs --replacefiles rpmfilename

I am hoping that installs all you need! Check that the mod_dav_svn module is installed - if it isn't then find it in the Fedora distribution and install it (using yum install mod_dav_svn is a good option).

Creating a Repository

You will need to be the root user to do this.

Let's say you want your repository to be in /svn/repos, type in this command:

svnadmin create /svn/repos

Now make sure that httpd can access all the files in the repository:

chown -R apache.apache /svn/repos
chmod g+s /svn/repos/db

The chmod means that were you to access the repository as a user other than apache there is a fighting chance that the apache httpd server will still be able to access the database files.

Configure Apache

The installation of the Subversion RPMS created a file in /etc/httpd/conf.d called subversion.conf. This configuration file loads the Subversion modules into Apache. You need to set up the URL for the repository in Apache. This is done using the Location directive.

The Location directive in subversion.conf as installed looks like this:

#<Location /svn/repos>
#   DAV svn
#   SVNPath /home/svnroot
#
#   # Limit write permission to list of valid users.
#   <LimitExcept GET PROPFIND OPTIONS REPORT>
#      # Require SSL connection for password protection.
#      # SSLRequireSSL
#
#      AuthType Basic
#      AuthName "Authorization Realm"
#      AuthUserFile /path/to/passwdfile
#      Require valid-user
#   </LimitExcept>
#</Location>

The SVNPath must point to the repository created by the svnadmin command so uncomment the first three lines and the last one and change the
path to /svn/repos to get this (comment lines omitted):

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

If the httpd service is not yet running type this to start it:

service httpd start

If httpd is started type this to reload the configuration:

service httpd reload

The Subversion server should be running. Point your browser at http://your.server.name/svn/repos and you should see something like this:

Revision 0: /
Powered by Subversion version 1.0.4 (r9844).

Securing Your Server

You have a working server but with no user authentication so anyone can use it. This has the knock on effect that the server doesn't know who is making commits and so cannot set the svn:author propery on that revision.

Subversion supports http basic authentication. To use this you need to add the following to the Apache Location directive:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Subversion Repository"
AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/passwd/passwords
Require valid-user

Then you must create the passwords file:

mkdir /etc/httpd/passwd
htpasswd -c /etc/httpd/passwd/passwords username password

You don't have to put the password file at this location, change the paths if you would prefer to store it somewhere else. The -c flag creates a new file, to add more users leave out the -c.

Now if you visit the URL http://your.server.name/svn/repos you should be prompted for your user name and password.

That's it, you now have a fully functional Subversion server.

Authorisation

This is implemented by the mod_authz_svn Apache module. Make sure the module is loaded, this should be in the Apache configuration file:

LoadModule authz_svn_module   modules/mod_authz_svn.so

Create a permissions file /etc/httpd/passwd/svnauthz.conf. When using the SVNPath directive this file will give read write access to fred and read-only access to bill:

[/]
fred = rw
bill = r

For more detailed information see the book.

Now add this to the Location directive for the Subversion repository in the Apache configuration file:

AuthzSVNAccessFile /etc/httpd/passwd/svnauthz.conf

Reload the Apache configuration using service httpd reload and these permissions will take effect.