Install SVN on Ubuntu

To install subversion, open a terminal and type in the following command:

sudo apt-get install subversion

It will install the necessary modules: SubVersion and the SVN libraries for Apache2.
The SVN module should automatically be enabled on Apache after the installation but, if not, you can enable it by the command a2enmod as described below:

sudo a2enmod dav_svn Sudo a2enmod dav_svn

The next step is to create the repository for subversion, which can in example be /svn, although you can choose the path you want, based on your tastes and on the space available in your disk.

sudo svnadmin create /svn

Then we will have to modify the configuration file to the webdav/SVN module. In this case, we're using gedit editor, but you can use the one that you usually use.

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

The "Location" parameter in the configuration file indicate the directory where subversion is accessible, as in the following example:
http://www.mysite.com/svn

<Location /svn>

The "DAV" line should be uncommented to enable dav module (remove the pound before the line).

DAV svn

The "SVNPath" parameter should be equivalent to the location where you created the SVN repository using svnadmin command.

SVNPath /svn

The next section will let you activate authentication. This can only be considered a basic authentication, not very safe. The file that contains username / password associations will be saved at that location described in AuthUserFile parameter, which would be best left to the default value. Uncomment then the following 3 lines to activate the Basic Authentication.

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Subversion Repository"
AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd

To create a user, with the permission of access to the repository, simply run the command:

sudo htpasswd -cm /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd username

The -c option should be used only for the creation of the first user, so that the file is created. After that you have to use only the -m option, which apply a MD5 encryption to the password, but avoids to recreate the file.

Example

sudo htpasswd -cm /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd icelab
New password:
Re-type new password:
Adding password for user icelab

Then make sure you set the permissions of the /svn directory to apache with the following command:

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

At the end of the installation process remember to restart Apache, using the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

After apache rebooting, if you'll visit from your browser (i.e. Firefox) the http://www.mysite.com/svn address, you should see that the repository allows anonymous read-only access, but to run the commit changes will be required username and password.
If you want to require the login for read-only access, you have to insert the following line in the configuration file, under the AuthUserFile line:

Require valid-user

After that, restart apache and you have a working SVN server!