How to install Apache Subversion on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Apache Subversion (known commonly as SVN) is a very popular open source version control system. A version control system lets you record changes to a file or set of files over a period of time so that you can recall specific versions when there is a need.

In order to have version control for your project, you first need to install SVN server on your Ubuntu machine.

Installing SVN Server on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Here we are going to install and configure Apache subversion on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Step 1. Install Apache

Before we go ahead with the installation, let us first update repository.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install apache2

Check apache status.

sudo systemctl status apache2

If service is not yet started, then .start Apache.

sudo systemctl start apache2

Enable Apache on system boot.

sudo systemctl enable apache2

Verify Apache Installation. Just open your web browser and type web server IP or hostname. If you can see the Apache default page, Apache installation is successful.

Step 2. Install Apache Subversion

Install subversion and required packages

 sudo apt-get install subversion libapache2-mod-svn

After installation, it automatically enables the needed SVN modules (dav_module , dav_svn_module, authz_svn_module ).

List the enabled modules

sudo apachectl -M

If svn modules are not enabled. run below commands and enable it

sudo a2enmod dav

sudo a2enmod dav_svn

sudo a2enmod authz_svn

After enabling those modules, we need to restart the Apache service.

sudo service apache2 restart

Step 3. Configure Apache Subversion

Now we are going to create the SVN repository. Here we use “/opt” directory to create our repository.

Create svn directory.

sudo mkdir -p  /opt/svn

Create svn repository. Here we create a repository called “fosslinuxrepo”

sudo svnadmin create /opt/svn/fosslinuxrepo

Changing ownership of the repository.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /opt/svn/fosslinuxrepo/

Changing permissions of the repository.

sudo chmod -R 775/ opt/svn/fosslinuxrepo

Add Subversion Users. Here we create a password file in the “/etc” directory.

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

Create the second user.

sudo htpasswd -m /etc/svn-auth-users fosslinux2

Create Apache virtual host file for SVN- in order to do this we first need to change directory to “/etc/apache2/sites-available/”

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/

Create a virtual host file and here we create a file called “fosslinuxsvn.conf”.

sudo vim fosslinuxsvn.conf

Add following lines to file.

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName svn.fosslinux.com
        ServerAlias svn.fosslinux.com
        <Location /svn>
     DAV svn
     SVNParentPath /opt/svn
     AuthType Basic
     AuthName "Subversion Repository"
     AuthUserFile /etc/svn-auth-users
     Require valid-user
</Location>
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/svn.fosslinux.com-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/svn.fosslinux.com-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Change “svn.fosslinux.com” to your hostname.

Save and exit the file.

Disable default virtual host file.

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

Enable newly created virtual host file.

sudo a2ensite fosslinuxsvn.conf

Check apache syntax.

sudo apachectl -t

Then restart Apache.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 4. Test Configured Apache Subversion

Open the web browser and type repo URL and hit enter.

http://svn.fosslinux.com/svn/fosslinuxrepo/

Replace sv.fosslinux.com with your hostname.

When you will get the Authentication popup screen, enter the already created Username and Password to access svn repository.

Authentication

Now you can see the created repository.

SVN-Repo

Let us now create a project called “RnD_works ” inside the repository.

svn mkdir file:///opt/svn/fosslinuxrepo/RnD_works -m "added RnD_works repository"

svn mkdir file:///opt/svn/fosslinuxrepo/RnD_works/trunk -m "added RnD_works trunk repository"

svn mkdir file:///opt/svn/fosslinuxrepo/RnD_works/branches -m "added RnD_works branches repository"

svn mkdir file:///opt/svn/fosslinuxrepo/RnD_works/tags -m "added RnD_works tags repository"

Let us check if this new project can be viewed inside the repository.

New Project

Click and Open “RnD_works”

Inside Project

If you want to delete a created project you can use below command to delete it.

svn delete file:///opt/svn/fosslinuxrepo/RnD_works -m "delete RnD_works repository"

Step 5. Schedule Repository Backup

Create a backup folder.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/backcups

Change user to root user.

sudo su -

Edit crontab.

crontab -e

In the following command, we schedule svn backup midnight every day.

0 0 * * * svnadmin dump /opt/svn/fosslinuxrepo > /etc/backcups/svnbackups-$(date +%Y%m%d).dump

CronJob

Then save and exit.

Step 6. Restore Repository

If you need to restore svn repository from backup file use below commands.

Create a new repository.

svnadmin create /opt/svn/restorerepo

Restore backup:

svnadmin load /opt/svn/restorerepo < /etc/backups/svnbackups-20190204.dump

That’s all. We hope this article has helped you to configure subversion successfully. If you have any questions or comments, please visit the Comments section below.