View source for Setup a SVN Server on a Shared Hosting

You'll need SSH access for this, so pick your hosting wisely!

I've setup mine on [http://www.hostmonster.com HostMonster].

In the code samples, things to customize to your liking are in '''bold'''.

=== Prepare SVN ===

On your hosting server, download the latest version of SVN (this was 1.6.17, as of writing), and build and install it.

 cd '''~/some/temp'''
 wget http://subversion.tigris.org/downloads/subversion-1.6.17.tar.gz
 wget http://subversion.tigris.org/downloads/subversion-deps-1.6.17.tar.gz
 tar xfz subversion-1.6.17.tar.gz
 tar xfz subversion-deps-1.6.17.tar.gz
 cd subversion-1.6.17/
 ./configure --prefix=$HOME --without-berkeley-db --with-editor=/usr/bin/vim --with-neon=$HOME --without-apxs --without-apache --without-neon
 make && make install

At this point, you may delete all files in <tt>'''~/some/temp'''</tt>, you're done with the SVN build.

The SVN binaries are now located in the <tt>~/bin</tt> folder. This folder is typically already included in <tt>$PATH</tt>; you can verify it running

 svn --version

=== Create the SSH keys ===

For ease of use, and security at the same time, you should use SSH keys for authentication.

The easiest way is to use passphrase-less keys, that you'll use ''only'' for the SVN access.

 # create the keys - choose where to put the keys, and enter empty passphrase;
 # name the keys something like '''mysvn_id_rsa''', so you can easily recognize them
 # be sure to chmod 600 both keys afterwards; SSH even refuses to work with non-600 keys!
 
 ssh-keygen -t rsa
 
 # now transfer - scp/sftp - the '''mysvn_id_rsa'''.pub (and '''''only''''' this key -
 # not the private one!) to your hosting account and register it as a valid key:
 
 cat '''mysvn_id_rsa'''.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

=== Setting Up the SVN on Local Machine ===

On your local machine, put the keys somewhere safe - typically in <tt>~/.ssh</tt> folder and make sure the folder is set to 700.

SVN allows you to define named tunnels to use, with any protocol you want.

Edit your <tt>~/.subversion/config</tt> file, adding the following line under the <tt>[tunnels]</tt> section:

 '''mysvn''' = ssh -i /'''home/user'''/.ssh/'''mysvn_id_rsa'''

Notice that you have to use a full path to the key, otherwise you'll get the following error:

 Warning: Identity file ~/.ssh/mysvn_id_rsa not accessible: No such file or directory.

=== Setting Up the Server Side ===

Due to security concerns, SSH does not see user's <tt>$PATH</tt> until the user is logged in.
This means that the <tt>svnserve</tt> command won't work via SSH, as your ''svnserve'' executable is in your home.
If you try to checkout the repository now, you'll get the following error:

 bash: svnserve: command not found

It's simple to overcome (and the reason why the created key should/can be used only for SVN connections) by updating the <tt>~/.ssh/authorized_keys</tt> file on your server, adding the following to the start of the line where your public key part is:

 command="/'''home'''/'''user'''/bin/svnserve -t -r /'''home'''/'''user'''/svn/"

where <tt>/'''home'''/'''user'''/svn/</tt> is the folder where you want to store your repositories. You can also find the path to <tt>svnserve</tt> using <tt>`which svnserve`</tt>.

Here you can see that "the only thing" that can be done with the key is to run the <tt>svnserve</tt> command.

=== Using It All ===

Now, once you [[Creating a SVN Repository|create some repositories]] on the server, or [[Moving a SVN Repository|move them from previous hosting]], you can check out - on your local machine - the <tt>/'''home'''/'''user'''/svn/repo</tt> like this:

 svn co svn+'''mysvn'''://my.host.com/repo

Note the ''mysvn'' named tunnel from the SVN config file; this way, on a single development machine, you can use as many different SSH keys and setups as you need.

Also note what the <tt>-r</tt> parameter did - it specifies the SVN's fake root on server, i.e. starting point from which the <tt>svnserve</tt> should start looking for the repositories. This has two advantages:
* makes your setup more secure - the <tt>svnserve</tt> cannot access files outside this folder,
* makes your repository easier to use - in the above URL, the ''repo'' part translates to <tt>/'''home'''/'''user'''/svn/''repo''</tt>; without the <tt>-r</tt> parameter to <tt>svnserve</tt>, you'd have to use the full path:

 svn co svn+'''mysvn'''://my.host.com/'''home'''/'''user'''/svn/repo