Subversion is currently the most popular version control system. We will show you how to setup Subversion on you server in no time.

apt-get install subversion subversion-tools

I choose to store all of my Subversion repositories inside /home/svn where every project has its own folder.

Create user and group called svn with a home directory in /home/svn that can not log in on the sysem

mkdir /home/svn
adduser --system --group --home /home/svn --no-create-home --disabled-login svn
chown -R svn:svn /home/svn/

To create a new repository named project1 enter:

svnadmin create /home/svn/project1

Edit /home/svn/project1/conf/svnserve.conf and uncomment

anon-access = none
auth-access = write
password-db = passwd

Edit /home/svn/project1/conf/passwd and enter usernames and passwords

[users]
username1 = password1
username2 = password2

Change ownership of /home/svn to user svn

chown svn:svn -R /home/svn

You will probably have to chown every new repository you create.

To be able to access the repository from another computer we need to setup svnserve.

Create a new file /etc/init.d/svnserve and paste this into it:

#!/bin/sh -e
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          subversion 
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start/stop subversion server
### END INIT INFO
#
# svnserve - brings up the svn server so anonymous users can access svn
#

# Get LSB functions
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
. /etc/default/rcS

SVNSERVE=/usr/bin/svnserve
SVN_USER=svn
SVN_GROUP=svn
SVN_REPO_PATH=/home/$SVN_USER/

# Check that the package is still installed
[ -x $SVNSERVE ] || exit 0;

case "$1" in
        start)
                log_begin_msg "Starting svnserve..."
                umask 002
                if start-stop-daemon --start \
                --chuid $SVN_USER:$SVN_GROUP \
                --exec $SVNSERVE \
                -- -d -r $SVN_REPO_PATH; then
                        log_end_msg 0
                else
                        log_end_msg $?
                fi
        ;;

        stop)
                log_begin_msg "Stopping svnserve..."
                if start-stop-daemon --stop --exec $SVNSERVE; then
                log_end_msg 0
                else
                log_end_msg $?
                fi
        ;;                                                    

        restart|force-reload)
                "$0" stop && "$0" start
        ;;

        *)
        e       cho "Usage: /etc/init.d/svnserve {start|stop|restart|force-reload}"
                exit 1
        ;;
esac

exit 0

Make the script executable

chmod +x /etc/init.d/svnserver

This is our init script for starting Subversion server. Since we want this script to run on every boot, we need to add it to the default run levels

update-rc.d svnserve defaults

Run the Subversion server

update-rc.d svnserve start

Change the firewall so we accept incoming connections on port 3609.

You can now checkout your repository from another machine using svn co svn:atlantis.example.com/project1''.