Install SVN (Subversion) Server on Fedora 19/18, CentOS/Red Hat (RHEL) 6.4/5.9

What is SVN (Subversion)?

Subversion is a free/open-source version control system. Subversion manages files and directories, and the changes made to them, over time. This allows you to recover older versions of your data, or examine the history of how your data changed. In this regard, many people think of a version control system as a sort of “time machine”.

Install SVN (Subversion) Server on Fedora 19/18/17/16/15/14, CentOS 6.4/6.3/6.2/6.1/6/5.9, Red Hat (RHEL) 6.4/6.3/6.2/6.1/6/5.9


1. Change root user
 su -
## OR ##
sudo -i

 2. Install needed packages (mod_dav_svn and subversion)

yum install mod_dav_svn subversion

Note: If you don’t have Apache installed already, this command installs it also. Read more about installing Apache and PHP >>
3. Modify Subversion config file /etc/httpd/conf.d/subversion.conf

Add following config to /etc/httpd/conf.d/subversion.conf file:

LoadModule dav_svn_module     modules/mod_dav_svn.so
LoadModule authz_svn_module   modules/mod_authz_svn.so

<Location /svn>
   DAV svn
   SVNParentPath /var/www/svn
   AuthType Basic
   AuthName "Subversion repositories"
   AuthUserFile /etc/svn-auth-users
   Require valid-user
</Location>

 4. Add SVN (Subversion) users

Use following command:

## Create testuser ##
htpasswd -cm /etc/svn-auth-users testuser
New password:
Re-type new password:
Adding password for user testuser

## Create testuser2 ##
htpasswd -m /etc/svn-auth-users testuser2
New password:
Re-type new password:
Adding password for user testuser2

Note: Use exactly same file and path name as used on subversion.conf file. This example use /etc/svn-auth-users file.

5. Create and configure SVN repository

mkdir /var/www/svn
cd /var/www/svn

svnadmin create testrepo
chown -R apache.apache testrepo


## If you have SELinux enabled (you can check it with "sestatus" command) ##
## then change SELinux security context with chcon command ##

chcon -R -t httpd_sys_content_t /var/www/svn/testrepo

## Following enables commits over http ##
chcon -R -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /var/www/svn/testrepo

Restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/httpd restart
## OR ##
service httpd restart

Goto http://localhost/svn/testrepo address and you should see something like following, write username and password:
 Enter SVN Subversion username and password

SVN testrepo revision 0:
SVN Subversion Repository Revision 0
 
6. Configure repository
To disable anonymous access and enable access control add following rows to testrepo/conf/svnserve.conf file:
## Disable anonymous access ##
anon-access = none

## Enable access control ##
authz-db = authz

7. Create trunk, branches and tags structure under testrepo

Create “template” directories with following command:

mkdir -p /tmp/svn-structure-template/{trunk,branches,tags}

Then import template to project repository using “svn import” command:

svn import -m 'Initial import' /tmp/svn-structure-template/ http://localhost/svn/testrepo/
Adding         /tmp/svn-structure-template/trunk
Adding         /tmp/svn-structure-template/branches
Adding         /tmp/svn-structure-template/tags

Committed revision 1.

Check results on browser and see testrepo revision