How To Install Subversion Server

Apache Subversion, often abbreviated to SVN, is a version control system, distributed as open-source software.

Through Subversion, a complete history of the changes made to the files and folders of your server, managed with the versioning system can be accessed. Moreover, previous versions of your data can also be recovered while protecting their reversibility.

In this guide, you will find all the necessary steps to install and configure a SVN Subversion server on Apache Ubuntu 18.04.

Installing Apache

To access the Subversion server install the Apache web server:

                      sudo apt-get update

                      sudo apt-get install apache2 -y

Check the Apache status with the command:

                      sudo systemctl status apache2

If it is not running, enable it with the following command:

                      sudo systemctl start apache2

Now, enable Apache to start at system boot:

                      sudo systemctl enable apache2

Installing the Subversion server

Use the following command to install Subversion (SVN) and all the necessary dependencies:

                      sudo apt-get install subversion libapache2-mod-svn -y

After its installation, to make sure that the necessary modules are enabled, type:

                      sudo a2enmod dav dav_svn authz_svn

Then, restart the Apache service with the command:

                      sudo service apache2 restart

Configuring Apache Subversion

First, create a folder for all the Subversion files:

                      sudo mkdir -p /opt/svn

Create a repository for SVN (here called 'tutorial') and specify the owner:

                      sudo svnadmin create /opt/svn/tutorial

                      sudo chown -R /opt/svn/tutorial/

                      sudo chmod -R 775 /opt/svn/tutorial

At this point, create the authorized users to act on the repository. To do so, type:

                      sudo htpasswd -cm /etc/svn-auth-users user_name

A password to authenticate the user with the system will be required.

Repeat this step to create all the users who can access the repository.

Now, create a configuration file for the Apache Virtual Host.

Go to the "sites-available" folder of apache2:

                      cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/

Create a configuration file for the repository:

                      sudo nano tutorial.conf

Paste the following code in the file just created and opened:

                                    ServerName svn.tutorial.com        ServerAlias svn.tutorial.com                              DAV svn     SVNParentPath /opt/svn     AuthType Basic     AuthName "Subversion Repository"     AuthUserFile /etc/svn-auth-users     Require valid-user                            ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/svn.tutorial.com-error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/svn.tutorial.com-access.log combined

Save and exit.

Disable and re-enable the Virtual Host, to make the configuration file just written effective, using the commands:

                      sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

                      sudo a2ensite tutorial.conf

To verify that everything is written correctly, type the following command and verify that "Syntax OK" is written as the last line.

                      sudo apachectl -t

At this point, restart Apache with the command:

                      sudo systemctl restart apache2

Testing the Subversion server

Open your browser and type in the following URL: http://localhost/svn/tutorial

When required to enter your Username and Password, enter the data used when you created the users.

Svn authentication Subversion repository

Go to the terminal and create a first project by typing:

                      svn mkdir file:///opt/svn/tutorial/project_name -m "added project_name repository"

The "project_name" chosen for this tutorial is "Project".

SVN Repository Folder Creation

Inside the project, create the folders where to store the different files with the following command:

                      sudo svn mkdir file:///opt/svn/tutorial/project_name/folder_name -m "added folder_name to project_name"

SVN Folder Creation

To delete a folder or a project, use the following commands:

Folder:

                              svn delete file:///opt/svn/tutorial/project_name/folder_name -m "delete folder_name folder"

Project:

                              svn delete file:///opt/svn/tutorial/project_name -m "delete project_name repository"

Setting up Automatic Backups

Create a folder where to make backups:

                      sudo mkdir -p /etc/backups

Enter root mode and add a rule to the Crontab:

                      sudo su -

                      crontab -e

Add the following rule to Crontab to make backups run every day at midnight:

                      0 0 * * *  svnadmin dump /opt/svn/tutorial> /etc/backups/backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).dump

Crontab Svn

A manual backup can also be performed, but to avoid file conflicts with the same name, rename the backup file. To have this backup version, type:

                      svnadmin dump /opt/svn/tutorial > /etc/backups/manual_backup_name.dump

Restoring a Repository from Backup

To restore a previous backup, create a new Repository and indicate it as where to restore the desired backup.

                      svnadmin create /opt/svn/restored_repository

                      svnadmin load /opt/svn/restored_repository < /etc/backups/svn_backup_name.dump