svnserve(8) - phpMan

svnserve(8) System Manager's Manual svnserve(8)

NAME
svnserve - Server for the 'svn' repository access method

SYNOPSIS
svnserve [options]

DESCRIPTION
svnserve allows access to Subversion repositories using the svn network protocol. It can
both run as a standalone server process, or it can run out of inetd. You must choose a
mode of operation when you start svnserve. The following options are recognized:

-d, --daemon
Causes svnserve to run in daemon mode. svnserve backgrounds itself and accepts and
serves TCP/IP connections on the svn port (3690, by default).

--listen-port=port
Causes svnserve to listen on port when run in daemon mode.

--listen-host=host
Causes svnserve to listen on the interface specified by host, which may be either a
hostname or an IP address.

--foreground
When used together with -d, this option causes svnserve to stay in the foreground.
This option is mainly useful for debugging.

-i, --inetd
Causes svnserve to use the stdin/stdout file descriptors, as is appropriate for a
daemon running out of inetd.

-h, --help
Displays a usage summary and exits.

--version
Print svnserve's version and the repository filesystem back-end(s) a particular
svnserve supports.

-r root, --root=root
Sets the virtual root for repositories served by svnserve. The pathname in URLs pro-
vided by the client will be interpreted relative to this root, and will not be
allowed to escape this root.

-R --read-only
Force all write operations through this svnserve instance to be forbidden, overriding
all other access policy configuration. Do not use this option to set general reposi-
tory access policy - that is what the conf/svnserve.conf repository configuration
file is for. This option should be used only to restrict access via a certain method
of invoking svnserve - for example, to allow write access via SSH, but not via a
svnserve daemon, or to create a restricted SSH key which is only capable of read
access.

-t, --tunnel
Causes svnserve to run in tunnel mode, which is just like the inetd mode of operation
(serve one connection over stdin/stdout) except that the connection is considered to
be pre-authenticated with the username of the current uid. This flag is selected by
the client when running over a tunnel agent.

--tunnel-user=username
When combined with --tunnel, overrides the pre-authenticated username with the sup-
plied username. This is useful in combination with the ssh authorized_key file's
"command" directive to allow a single system account to be used by multiple commit-
ters, each having a distinct ssh identity.

-T, --threads
When running in daemon mode, causes svnserve to spawn a thread instead of a process
for each connection. The svnserve process still backgrounds itself at startup time.

--config-file=filename
When specified, svnserve reads filename once at program startup and caches the
svnserve configuration and any passwords and authorization configuration referenced
from filename. svnserve will not read any per-repository conf/svnserve.conf files
when this option is used. See the svnserve.conf(5) man page for details of the file
format for this option.

--pid-file=filename
When specified, svnserve will write its process ID to filename.

-X, --listen-once
Causes svnserve to accept one connection on the svn port, serve it, and exit. This
option is mainly useful for debugging.

Unless the --config-file option was specified on the command line, once the client has
selected a repository by transmitting its URL, svnserve reads a file named
conf/svnserve.conf in the repository directory to determine repository-specific settings
such as what authentication database to use and what authorization policies to apply. See
the svnserve.conf(5) man page for details of that file format.