How to Install SVN Server on Ubuntu 18.04 & 16.04 LTS

Subversion is an open-source version control system. It helps you keep track of a collection of files and folders. Any time you change, add or delete a file or folder that you manage with Subversion, you commit these changes to your Subversion repository, which creates a new revision in your repository reflecting these changes. You can always go back, look at and get the contents of previous revisions.

This article will help you for step by step setup of Subversion (svn) server on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS & 16.04 LTS systems.

Step 1 – Install Apache

First of all, you need to install the Apache webserver to access the svn server using HTTP URLs. Skip this step if you already have Apache web server on your system.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apache2

Step 2 – Install SVN Server

Use the following command to install subversion packages and their dependencies. Also, install svn module for Apache libapache2-mod-svn packages on your system.

sudo apt-get install subversion libapache2-mod-svn libapache2-svn libsvn-dev

After installation, enable required Apache modules and restart Apache service.

sudo a2enmod dav dav_svn
sudo service apache2 restart

Step 3 – Create First SVN Repository

Use the following commands to create your first svn repository with name myrepo. Also, set the required permissions on newly created directories.

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/svn/
sudo svnadmin create /var/lib/svn/myrepo

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/lib/svn
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/lib/svn

Step 4 – Create Users for Subversion

Now create first svn user in /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd file. These users will use for authentication of svn repositories for checkout, commit processes.

sudo touch /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd
sudo htpasswd -m /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd admin

To create additional users, use following commands.

sudo htpasswd -m /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd user1
sudo htpasswd -m /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd user2

Step 5 – Configure Apache with Subversion

Subversion Apache module package creates an configuration file /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dav_svn.conf. You just need to make necessary changes to it.

sudo vi /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dav_svn.conf

Alias /svn /var/lib/svn
<Location /svn>

   DAV svn
   SVNParentPath /var/lib/svn

   AuthType Basic
   AuthName "Subversion Repository"
   AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd
   Require valid-user
     
</Location>

Save the file and restart the Apache service to apply the new configuration.

sudo service apache2 restart

Step 6 – Access Repository in Browser

Use HTTP URLs to access your repository in the browser. It will prompt for authentication. Use login credentials created in Step 5. Change example.com with your system hostname, domain name or IP address.

 http://example.com/svn/myrepo/

Thank You for using this article. Read our next article How to Backup and Restore SVN Repository in Linux.