How to configure Subversion (SVN)

About Subversion

Subversion, also known as SVN, is a replacement for the Concurrent Versions System (CVS). Like all version control systems, Subversion enables you to track multiple revisions of files and directories. It is installed on all Hostvento Hosting shared servers.

Only setting up Subversion on a Hostvento Hosting account is covered in this article. Not every feature or method of using Subversion is covered. Links to information about using Subversion can be found in the More Information section below.

Creating a repository

To create an SVN repository, all you have to do is log in to your Hostvento Hosting account using SSH, and then type the following command:

Copysvnadmin create /home/username/repository

Replace username with your Hostvento Hosting account username, and replace repository with the name of the directory where you want to create the repository (if the directory does not already exist, the svnadmin create command creates it).

Selecting an authentication method

To access SVN repositories on an Hostvento Hosting server from another computer, you must use an SVN client that supports SSH (Secure Shell). HTTP and HTTPS connections are not supported.

SSH supports several authentication methods, including passwords and public-key authentication. Every time an SVN client connects to a repository, it must authenticate using SSH. To avoid the hassle of typing a password over and over, you can:

• Use a SSH password caching tool, such as ssh-agent on a Unix-like system, or Pageant on a Microsoft Windows system.
• Generate a key pair and use public-key authentication.

This article assumes that you will use public-key authentication with SSH and SVN.

Configuring an SVN client

You are aware of how to set up an SVN repository; however, at this point, you are limited to file import and checkout directly from the server. It goes without saying that in order to work with repositories from another computer, you will want to install an SVN client.

Configuring an SVN client to work with repositories is a three-step process:

1. Generate a key pair for SSH public-key authentication, and then deploy the public key to the Hostvento Hosting server.
2. Configure the SSH client to connect to the Hostvento Hosting server using the private key.
3. Configure the SVN client.

The exact steps to do this depend on the client computer’s operating system. Follow the appropriate procedures below for your computer’s operating system.

Microsoft Windows

Follow these procedures to set up an SVN client if the computer is running a Microsoft Windows operating system.

Steps 1 and 2: Generating a key pair and configuring the SSH client to connect to the Hostvento Hosting server

To complete steps 1 and 2, follow the step-by-step procedures described in this article. After you complete these procedures, you will have a fully-functioning SSH client installation that authenticates to the Hostvento Hosting server using keys. You do not have to type a password to access your account on the server.

• These procedures instruct you to install PuTTY, a popular SSH client for the Microsoft Windows operating system. PuTTY is the default SSH handler used by the popular TortoiseSVN client.
• When you generate a key pair, we recommend that you do not specify a passphrase. The TortoiseSVN client connects to the server many times during a session. If you have a passphrase-protected key pair, you must retype the password every time the client connects to the server.

Step 3: Configuring the SVN client

TortoiseSVN is a popular client for managing SVN projects. The following procedure describes how to set up TortoiseSVN to access repositories on an Hostvento Hosting server.

By default, TortoiseSVN uses PuTTY to handle SSH connections. During installation, TortoiseSVN registers itself as a handler for the svn+ssh protocol, and calls an application named TortoisePlink (which is a modified version of PuTTY) to handle the SSH connection. TortoisePlink uses the profile and session settings you create in PuTTY. This entire process is normally invisible to users.

To set up the TortoiseSVN client, follow these steps:

1. Download and install the TortoiseSVN client. You can download TortoiseSVN at http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.html.
2. Start the TortoiseSVN Repository Browser. To do this, right-click on the desktop or on a folder, click TortoiseSVN, and then click Repo-browser. The URL dialog appears.
3. In the URL text box, type the URL to your repository. The URL should be in the following format:
   svn+ssh://profile/home/username/repository
   Replace profile with the name of the session profile that you saved in PuTTY when you set up the keys, replace username with your Hostvento Hosting account username, and replace repository with the path to your SVN repository on the server.
4. Click OK. If the connection succeeds, after a few seconds the Repository Browser displays the repository files. You can expand folders to view their contents, and browse different revisions as well. To view a complete list of options, right-click a repository folder in the Repository Browser.

Mac OS X and Linux

Follow these procedures to set up an SVN client if the computer is running Mac OS X or a Linux-based operating system.

Steps 1 and 2: Generating a key pair and configuring the SSH client to connect to the Hostvento Hosting server

To complete steps 1 and 2, follow the step-by-step procedures described in this article. After you complete these procedures, you will have a fully-functioning SSH client installation that authenticates to the Hostvento Hosting server using keys. You do not have to type a password to access your account on the server.

When you generate a key pair, we recommend that you do not specify a passphrase. If you have a passphrase-protected key pair, you must retype the password every time the client connects to the server.

Step 3: Configuring the SVN client

Although there are GUI-based clients as well, the svn command line client is frequently the fastest and most straightforward way to work with SVN. However, clients access SVN via SSH in both scenarios. Hostvento Hosting use custom port 7822 for SSH connections rather than the standard port 22 for security reasons. For this reason, you need to set up your Subversion client (or clients) to utilize port 7822 for SSH.

The simplest method to accomplish this is to design a unique Subversion protocol that is exclusive to Hostvento Hosting servers. This permits you to continue using the traditional SSH port 22 protocol with other servers that support the Svn+Ssh protocol.

To create a custom SSH protocol for Subversion, follow these steps:

1. On the client computer, open the ~/.subversion/config file in a text editor.
2. Locate the [tunnels] section, and then add the following line of text:Hostventohosting = ssh -p 7822 -q
3. Save the changes and exit the text editor.
4. You can now use the custom protocol svn+Hostventohosting:// to access a SVN repository over SSH. For example, the following command demonstrates how to check out files from a repository on an Hostvento Hosting server to your client computer. Replace both instances of username with your Hostvento Hosting account username, example.com with your domain name, and repository with the path to the repository:
   Copysvn co svn+Hostventohosting://username@example.com/home/username/repository

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