Starting SVN server (svnserve)

Main >> SVN >> Starting SVN server (svnserve)

To start SVN server that is svnserve, follow the steps below

1. Browse to the path /usr/svn/custom/bin
2. Run the Daemon
   ./svnserve --daemon --root /usr/svn/SVN_REPOS

Thats all it needs to start the SVN server that is served by svnserve.

Configuring access to SVN repository

Main >> SVN >> Configuring access to SVN repository

Now that we have repository, the next step is to access it. Here are a few steps to do so.

1. Browse to the directory /WAS/SVN/SVN_REPOS/conf

2. Open the svnserve.conf file in a text editor, and uncomment the [general], anon-access = read, auth-access = write, and password-db = passwd lines. Save.

   svnserve.conf

   ### This file controls the configuration of the svnserve daemon, if you

   ### use it to allow access to this repository. (If you only allow

   ### access through http: and/or file: URLs, then this file is

   ### irrelevant.)

   ### Visit http://subversion.tigris.org/ for more information.

   [general]

   ### These options control access to the repository for unauthenticated

   ### and authenticated users. Valid values are "write", "read",

   ### and "none". The sample settings below are the defaults.

   anon-access = read

   auth-access = write

   ### The password-db option controls the location of the password

   ### database file. Unless you specify a path starting with a /,

   ### the file's location is relative to the conf directory.

   ### Uncomment the line below to use the default password file.

   password-db = passwd

   ### The authz-db option controls the location of the authorization

   ### rules for path-based access control. Unless you specify a path

   ### starting with a /, the file's location is relative to the conf

   ### directory. If you don't specify an authz-db, no path-based access

   ### control is done.

   ### Uncomment the line below to use the default authorization file.

   # authz-db = authz

   ### This option specifies the authentication realm of the repository.

   ### If two repositories have the same authentication realm, they should

   ### have the same password database, and vice versa. The default realm

   ### is repository's uuid.

   # realm = My First Repository

3. Open the passwd file in a text editor, uncomment the [users] line, and add the username and password you want to use when connecting to your subversion server. Save.

   
   

   passwd

   ### This file is an example password file for svnserve.

   ### Its format is similar to that of svnserve.conf. As shown in the

   ### example below it contains one section labelled [users].

   ### The name and password for each user follow, one account per line.

   [users]

   # harry = harryssecret

   # sally = sallyssecret

   root = pass1234

   admin = admin

   manoharn = mani1234

   amitd = amitd

   ravi = ravik

Thats all here. We have created the repository and also configured access to it. Now try accessing it using the user names given in the passwd file.

Create SVN Repository

Main >> SVN >> Create SVN Repository

Now we have SVN server installed. The next step is to create the repository. The repository is of two formats BDB (Berkeley db database) and FSFS (FSFS database). By default when you create the repository it will choose default repository format.

In Subversion 1.0, a Berkeley DB repository is always created. In Subversion 1.1, a Berkeley DB repository is the default repository type, but an FSFS repository can be created, that I'm going to cover at the end.

As of Subversion 1.2, svnadmin creates new repositories with the FSFS filesystem backend by default. So here with SVN 1.4.5, the default repository format is FSFS.

Here we will learn how to create repository on AIX box, in a very few simple steps.

1. Create a new directory somewhere say /usr/svn/SVN_REPOS. This directory will host your repository, but you will never open those files directly.
   

2. Browse to the path /usr/svn/custom/bin

3. svnadmin create /usr/svn/SVN_REPOS
4. The above command will create the repository for you.
   

As mentioned earlier, we are using SVN 1.4.5 and by default the repository format would have been FSFS. If you still don’t feel satisfied, have a look at the file mentioned below:

/usr/svn/SVN_REPOS/db/fs-type

Going little backward, a question that I kept open was this
"In Subversion 1.1, a Berkeley DB repository is the default repository type, but an FSFS repository can be created, that I'm going to cover at the end."

So here I go, in order to create a repository for SVN 1.1 with the FSFS format. You will have to create the repository using following command
svnadmin create /usr/local/svn/repos --fs-type fsfs

Now if you ask how do we create repository using BDB format in SVN 1.4.5, I will have to check that. Will be back with this next time.

An Overview Of SVN

Main >> SVN >> An Overview Of SVN

SVN is used as version control tool with CDM. With lot of discussion we came to know that, as of CDM 6.1 SVN is the only version control tool that is tested and certified by Chordiant. Certainly there are many other options to choose from, but looks like CDM doesn't support them. One such place where we found dependency on SVN is Decision Planner.

Subversion depends on a number of third party tools and libraries. Some of them are only required to run a Subversion server; others are necessary just for a Subversion client.

Now we know why SVN is so important. The bottleneck is to install SVN and configure it. Initially there will be lot of pain in doing so. There are number of SVN version available and installing the right version is the challenge. The one I'm going it use is subversion-1.4.5 on AIX box. You can certainly install SVN on Windows and AIX as well.

So, in order to install SVN, you will need SVN server and a client. I am using TortoiseSVN as the repository browser.

Installation of SVN

Main >> SVN >> Installation of SVN

Installing SVN on windows is quite strainght forward. I found VisualSVN quite interesting on Windows as it will complicate your life much. VisualSVN will help you certainly in managing repository on Windows box very easily. But the most scaring part is configuring the SVN server on AIX box.


Installing SVN client on AIX box (SVN 1.4.5)

If you're just installing a Subversion client, the Subversion team has created a package containing the minimal prerequisite libraries (Apache Portable Runtime, Neon, and Zlib) called the "dependency package" tarball or zipfile. You should be able to find it at the same place that you downloaded the Subversion tarball itself from. If you don't have these libraries installed already, you can simply unpack the dependency package "on top of" the Subversion package; for example, if you are using a .tar.gz bundle on AIX/Unix, you could type:

1. $ tar xzvf subversion-1.x.x.tar.gz
2. $ tar xzvf subversion-deps-1.x.x.tar.gz
3. $ cd subversion-1.x.x
   

This will place 'apr', 'apr-util', 'neon', and 'zlib'directories directly into your unpacked Subversion distribution, where they will be automatically configured and built by Subversion's build process.


Installing SVN server on AIX box (SVN 1.4.5)

Subversion has two servers you can choose from: svnserve and Apache. svnserve is a small, lightweight server program that is automatically compiled when you build Subversion's source. Apache is a more heavyweight HTTP server, but tends to have more features.

'svnserve' has built-in CRAM-MD5 authentication (so you can use non-system accounts), and can also be tunneled over SSH (so you can use existing system accounts). It's also capable of using Cyrus SASL if libsasl2 is detected at ./configure time.

Before I start any further. Let me tell you what all you will need to install SVN on AIX. The required files are listed below. You will find all those files on internet.

1. subversion-1.4.5.tar.gz
2. subversion-deps-1.4.5.tar.gz
3. rpm.rte
4. libgcc-4.2.0-3.aix5.3.ppc.rpm
5. libstdcplusplus--4.2.0-3.aix5.3.ppc.rpm
6. gcc-cplusplus-4.2.0-3.aix5.3.ppc.rpm
7. libstdcplusplus-devel-4.2.0-3.aix5.3.ppc.rpm
8. gcc-4.2.0-3.aix5.3.ppc.rpm

The client speaks to the repository through SVN protocol. The default SVN port is 3690.

Now you need to follow these steps to install SVN (svnserve) on AIX.
Note! you will require root privileges to install SVN on AIX.

1. mkdir /usr/svn
2. cd /usr/svn
3. Make sure you have above mentioned files (1.. 8) files under /usr/svn
4. gunzip subversion-deps-1.4.5.tar.gz
5. gunzip subversion-1.4.5.tar.gz
6. tar -xvf subversion-1.4.5.tar
7. tar -xvf subversion-deps-1.4.5.tar
8. chown -R root:system /usr/svn/subversion-1.4.5
9. installp -qacXgd rpm.rte rpm.rte
10. rpm –i gcc-4.2.0-3.aix5.3.ppc.rpm
11. rpm –i libgcc-4.2.0-3.aix5.3.ppc.rpm
12. rpm –i libstdcplusplus-4.2.0-3.aix5.3.ppc.rpm
13. rpm –i libstdcplusplus-devel-4.0.0-1.aix5.3.ppc.rpm
14. rpm -i gcc-cplusplus-4.2.0-3.aix5.3.ppc.rpm
15. mkdir /usr/svn/custom
16. cd /usr/svn/subversion-1.4.5/zlib
17. ./configure --prefix /usr/svn/custom
18. ./configure –s --prefix /usr/svn/custom
19. make
20. make install
21. cd ..
22. ./configure --prefix /usr/svn/custom CPPFLAGS="-Izlib/ -Lzlib/"
23. make
24. make install

Enough is enough, no more steps please. Hmm! now that we have SVN server (svnserve) on AIX. Please note that all the above steps have been succeeded in sequence. In case something might have failed please reinstall that.

To test whether its successful or not

1. PATH=/usr/svn/custom/bin:$PATH
2. ./svn --version