Important Warning

With lighttpd 1.4.18, and probably several other versions, you might not be able to commit to the repository! You'll get errors like: 

svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: OPTIONS request failed on '/svn/a/b/c'
svn: OPTIONS of '/svn/a/b/c': 200 OK (https://dev.yoursite.com)

See ticket #631 for more information.

Apache+Subversion Recipe

This recipe shows how to setup an example subversion repository using Apache 2.2, mod_dav_svn, and lighttpd 1.4.11.

We will create a subversion repository hosted at the example address: http://projects.example.com/svn/test/.

Before you continue, make sure you have installed:

Create test repository

Create the subversion repository, and set its owner and group to svn: 

# mkdir -pm700 /var/svn/projects.example.com
# svnadmin create /var/svn/projects.example.com/test
# chown -R svn:svn /var/svn/projects.example.com

NB: This implies that you are running Apache from that user:group too.

Setup Apache

Create the directory for the projects.example.com domain public files: 

# mkdir -p /var/www/projects.example.com/httpdocs

Setup a virtual host inside httpd.conf: 

<VirtualHost *:8080>
	ServerName projects.example.com
	DocumentRoot /var/www/projects.example.com/httpdocs

	<Location /svn/test>
		DAV svn
		SVNPath /var/svn/projects.example.com/test
		AuthType Basic
		AuthName "Test Subversion repository"
		AuthUserFile /var/svn/projects.example.com/test/conf/users
		Require valid-user
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Location>
</VirtualHost>

Create a users database for the example user: 

# htpasswd -cm /var/svn/projects.example.com/test/conf/users example

For more information, see the Version Control with Subversion book chapter httpd, the Apache HTTP server.

Notice: If using SSL with Lighttpd change ServerName to https://projects.example.com or some Subversion commands may not work.

Setup Lighttpd

Setup Lighttpd to use mod_proxy to proxy requests to Apache at port 8080: 

$HTTP["host"] == "projects.example.com" {
	server.document-root = "/var/www/projects.example.com/httpdocs"
	proxy.server = (
		"/svn/test" => (("host" => "127.0.0.1", "port" => 8080))
	)
}

Test the setup

Restart Apache and Lighttpd.

Checkout the test repository, and commit some stuff: 

$ svn checkout --username example http://projects.example.com/svn/test
$ cd test
$ svn mkdir testbranches tags trunk
$ svn commit

And you should be up and running!

If you have any question, contact us using our Forum!