Redhat – Subversion Checkout Yields Could Not Open the Requested Subversion System

httpd.confredhatsvn

I've installed subversion on our RHEL server and also installed dav_svn_module. My location tag in httpd.conf is as follows:

<Location /subversion>
DAV svn
SVNPath /subversion
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Subversion Repository"
AuthUserFile /etc/svn-auth.htpasswd
Require valid-user
</Location>

I've setup a password for svnuser with

htpasswd -c -m /etc/svn-auth.htpasswd svnuser

After restarting httpd, I try to checkout files from the subversion repository to my local machine and receive the error message above. Note that when I try to view the repository via HTTP, I recieve a HTTP 500 error as well.

The httpd error log shows the following entries:

error: Can't open file /subversion/format No such file or directory
Could not fetch resource information [500, #0]
Could not open the requested SVN filesystem [500, #2]

Note that /subversion/format doesn't exist. Not sure why error log is referencing this non-existent file??

What changes are needed to ensure I can both checkout/commit and authenticate via http?

Thanks!

Best Answer

Well, if /subversion is a subversion repository (as you've configured it to be in your Apache config), then it sure better have a format directory.

How did you create the repository, or where did you create the repository?

If you intended for /subversion to be the repo itself, then it wasn't created correctly. Run svnadmin create /subversion.

If you intended for /subversion to be a directory which contains repos, then your Apache config should be SVNParentPath /subversion instead of SVNPath /subversion - and the repositories in that location still need to be created with svnadmin create.

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SVN Repository – Cannot Commit via HTTP on Linux

I would guess that you have SELinux turned on (normal for the default install of CentOS). I believe that the security policy for httpd forbids it accessing files outside of /var/www by default. It certainly does not allow access to /usr/local. Using /var/www/svn as the repository location will prevent access denials by SELinux.

Svn – Subversion gives Error 500 until authenticating with a web browser

I'm using a Debian "Lenny" setup, running Apache2/SVN with LDAP being authenticated through Apache directly to AD, while also hosting a Trac site on the same machine. I'll take a stab at it, but I need some more info...

The SVN access is the built-in module through Apache, so the first question I have is - are you running this as the SVN stand-alone process, or through Apache (it appears to be Apache but I just want to be sure)? The second question is, are you using Apache2 or Apache (1.x)? The third question is, do you use LDAP authentication through PAM, or through Apache's built-in support?

Just for reference, here's a (sanitized) version of the config for Trac, along with the LDAP settings that authenticate through AD (yes, it's open to anyone because Trac has its own permissions system that on my setup defaults to read-only for authenticated users):

#Rudimentary Apache2 authentication for Active Directory (without group controls)
<Location /trac>
  SetHandler mod_python
  PythonInterpreter main_interpreter
  PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend
  PythonOption TracEnvParentDir /srv/trac
  PythonDebug on
  Order deny,allow
  Deny from all
  Allow from 10.0.0.0/8
  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Trac Projects"
  AuthBasicProvider "ldap"
  AuthLDAPURL "ldap://enterprise-dc.mycompany.com:3268/DC=localsite,DC=mycompany,DC=com?sAMAccountName?sub?(objectClass=user)"
  AuthLDAPBindDN       apache-account@local-site.mycompany.com
  AuthLDAPBindPassword "supersecretpasswordthatnoonewillguess"
  authzldapauthoritative On
  require valid-user
  # require ldap-group "CN=Users,DC=local-site,DC=mycompany,DC=com"
</Location>

More importantly for your purposes, using that form of authentication as a template, we can get the settings for /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dav_svn.conf, which will control your SVN access:

<Location /svn>
  DAV svn
  SVNParentPath /srv/svn
  SVNAutoversioning on
  Order deny,allow
  Deny from all
  Allow from 10.0.0.0/8
  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Subversion Repository"
  AuthBasicProvider "ldap"
  AuthLDAPURL "ldap://enterprise-dc.mycompany.com:3268/DC=local-site,DC=mycompany,DC=com?sAMAccountName?sub?(objectClass=user)"
  AuthLDAPBindDN apache-account@local-site.mycompany.com
  AuthLDAPBindPassword "supersecretpasswordthatnoonewillguess"
  authzldapauthoritative On
  require valid-user
</Location>

Our desktops have fairly tight controls on program installation so I'm not as concerned about someone (a) installing an SVN client (b) figuring out the exact server name to connect to (c) getting into the repo and mucky-mucking things up, which is why the security is so low. However, with a little tweaking, you should be able to re-use this arrangement by enforcing an AD group (note the commented out cruft in the first example) and get much tighter control on access.

Hope this is of help to you.

Update (based on new information)

I think the problem is that you are not authenticating against the Global Catalog. Change the port number to the one I have in my example, and be sure to point it at a Domain Controller that is at the "Enterprise" level i.e. not a member of a child domain. So instead of site.enterprise.com, point it to enterprise.com at the new port number. Note that you might not need to specify the domain name in your setup for the user name, so if it refuses to authenticate, be sure to try it without as well (see the example I posted); and use the "email-style" account name as well vs. the "domain-style" layout.

My suspicion: The Global Catalog "flattens" the search space for users; but by asking a standard LDAP query on the child DC, I think that the initial failure occurs because there is no "answer" to be had initially, until the DC in the child domain can run out and get one. On the second attempt, the answer is cached, and you succeed.

Best Answer

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