Configuring the biowikifarm subversion repository

Configuring a subversion repository, with svn already installed through apt-get, on Debian 5. The procedure was contributed by an anonymous helper. First: in /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dav_svn.conf enable several lines:

<Location /svn>
DAV svn
SVNPath /var/lib/svn
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Subversion Repository"
AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd
Require valid-user
AuthzSVNAccessFile /etc/apache2/dav_svn.authz
</Location>

Create password file and users:

 sudo htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd user ## only for first user
 sudo htpasswd /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd user1
 sudo htpasswd /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd user2 ## etc.

Create access control file and reload:

 sudo nano /etc/apache2/dav_svn.authz

 # Read/write permission for all SVN users:
 [/]
 * = rw

 sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Creating SVN-Repository, access only to Webserver:

 sudo mkdir /var/lib/svn
 sudo svnadmin create /var/lib/svn/
 sudo chown -R www-data.www-data /var/lib/svn/

Now one can check versions directly inside the browser using https://biowikifarm.net/svn/ or check locally out using a svn client:

 svn co https://biowikifarm.net/svn/

To increase comfort we can ensure that webserver shows the most recent version:

 sudo htpasswd /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd www-data
 <PASSWORD>
 sudo -s
 # chown -R www-data.www-data /var/www/v-artenquiz
 # www-data needs a folder to store svn-configuration:
 sudo mkdir /var/www/.subversion
 sudo chown www-data.www-data /var/www/.subversion/
 su - www-data # change user to www-data
 (www-data$) cd /var/www/v-artenquiz
 (www-data$) svn co https://biowikifarm.net/svn
 (<PASSWORD> angeben)

Continuing as normal user, create file /var/lib/svn/hooks/post-commit with:

 #!/bin/sh
 cd /var/www/v-artenquiz
 HOME=/var/www 
 /usr/bin/svn update

…and set this file as executable:

 sudo chmod +x /var/lib/svn/hooks/post-commit

By means of this commit-hook, whenever a commit to SVN occurs, www/v-artenquiz is automatically updated as well!

Adding log edit feature

cd /var/lib/svn/hooks/
# use templates provided by subversion
sudo cp  pre-revprop-change.tmpl pre-revprop-change 
# make it executable
sudo chmod +x pre-revprop-change

Now you are able to edit/or set log entries from a specific subversion revision number -r by:

1 cd /path/to/versioned/directory/
2 # edit log entry with editor
3 sudo svn propedit -r123 --revprop svn:log
4 # set log entry
5 sudo svn propset -r123 --revprop svn:log "new log message"

See also http://subversion.apache.org/faq.html#change-log-msg.