Chapter 5. Repository Administration

The Subversion repository is the central storehouse of versioned data for any number of projects. As such, it becomes an obvious candidate for all the love and attention an administrator can offer. While the repository is generally a low-maintenance item, it is important to understand how to properly configure and care for it, so that potential problems are avoided and actual problems are safely resolved.

In this chapter, we discuss how to create and configure a Subversion repository, and how to expose that repository for network accessibility. We also talk about repository maintenance, including the use of the svnlook and svnadmin tools (which are provided with Subversion). We address some common questions and mistakes, and give some suggestions on how to arrange the data in the repository.

If you plan to access a Subversion repository only in the role of a user whose data is under version control (that is, via a Subversion client), you can skip this chapter altogether. However, if you are, or wish to become, a Subversion repository administrator,^[1] you should definitely pay attention to this chapter.

^[1] This may sound really prestigious and lofty, but we're just talking about anyone who is interested in that mysterious realm beyond the working copy where everyone's data hangs out.