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Simple SVN setup on MediaTemple (dv) Hosting

June 25, 2008, 8:37pm by electromute

I just got myself a (dv) account at MediaTemple and set out to install SVN. I found pretty much nothing in their knowledge base on how to do this. I do this task so infrequently (but yet often enough to care), that each time I have to re-familiarize myself with how to set up Subversion repositories. Hopefully this post will save us all some agony when it’s time again to set up a new svn repo.

Contrary to some other blog posts out there, the (dv) hosting package actually DOES include Subversion, but you have to enable it through the developer tools [A complete list of the developer tools you get can be found here].

I have a brand new server and nothing on it yet, so I’m comfy doing this cowboy style. However, if you are adding SVN to an existing server, consider purchasing a snapshot that will preserve all settings prior to starting this process. Unfortunately, the free backup won’t do the trick.

Here’s how to do it

First off, be sure that you have an account that has ssh privileges into your server. This could be your ftp account or another ssh user you set up for these purposes. This can be done in the Plesk control panel (process not covered here but can be found via the MediaTemple knowledge base).

Now that your developer tools are enabled, you want to enable root access so that you can administer your tools.

Now you’ve opened up a can of worms enabling root access. One of the ways to contain those worms is to disable ssh for root as outlined here.

Next, ssh into your server using the user account created prior to starting this task and run the following command:

You will be prompted for the password you created when you enabled root access. You have to install and configure svn as root so that it has the correct permissions to write/save/generally do it’s thing.

We’ll pretend our new repository name is called reponame but you can choose any name you want here and this is what you’ll do each time you make new repositories that are served from this instance of Subversion.

Please note that I did not use Berkeley DB (instead I used fsfs as noted in the create command above). I have not had good experiences with Berkely DB and avoid using it, no offense I’m sure there’s a place for it and good intentions behind it.

(ok, not really sure what realm is for other than it’s cute and displays when you checkout, but if you know a secret awesome benefit, please share!)

Next it’s time to create the authentication piece. Time for more vi

Each name = password pair must be in plain text. There are ways to set this up so that the passwords can be encrypted using Perl’s crypt but that is not covered here as this is the “Simple SVN setup”

Finally you need to start your svn daemon. Please note that there are other options for svnserve and you should familiarize yourself with the documentation just to be sure.

So, there you have it. You have a simple Subversion setup on your MediaTemple (dv) server.

You can check out (or run similiar svn commands) from your local machine thusly:

Note that your domain.com is yours and could also represent a subdomain if you know how to configure that.

There are lots of other fine tunings and tweaks you can do to fit your needs, but this is the Simple svn setup, no? Tools like Eclipse’s SVN plugin make it even easier to utilize this method in terms of password caching and the like.

Lastly, the grad school training in me wants to cite sources, so here you go:
Version Control with Subversion reference
gregsidberry.com
tonyspencer.com
MediaTemple.net (dv) Developer’s Tools and Packages Listing
An Introduction to the Root User
How to disable ssh for root user
MediaTemple backup options

Tags: reference, server admin, svn

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