Svn – How does AuthzSVNAccessFile work

svnwebdav

I have set up an SVN repo with WebDAV access. For some reason it does not let checkout.

Here is my httpd.conf part:

<Location /svn>
  DAV svn
  SVNParentPath /home/svn/repositories
  AuthzSVNAccessFile /home/svn/dav_svn.authz
  Satisfy Any
  Require valid-user
  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Subversion Repository"
  AuthUserFile /home/svn/dav_svn.passwd
</Location>

I have two repositories named "first" and "second" and the content of dav_svn.authz is:

[first:/]
doe = rw
* = r

[second:/]
doe = rw
grig = rw
* = r

When I'm trying to checkout the second with user doe, I get this in error_log:
user doe: authentication failure for "/svn/second": Password Mismatch

In order to understand what can be the problem I would like to better understand how the AuthzSVNAccessFile is supposed to work.

Best Answer

Does the error only occur for user doe on both repositories? Or does it fail for grig on the second repository? Assuming it fails for all users, and assuming the error isn't in the AuthUserFile and the SVNParentPath is correct, I think you need to add a default access rule for all of your repositories.

[/]
* = r

[first:/]
doe = rw

[second:/]
doe = rw
grig = rw

Or you could put users doe and grig into a group and do it as follows:

[groups]
secondteam = doe, grig

[/]
* = r

[first:/]
doe = rw

[second:/]
@secondteam = rw

You mention that you would like to better understand how the AuthzSVNAccessFile is supposed to work. I recommend reading this tutorial. A full path-based authorization file example from that tutorial for supporting multiple repositories is below: 

[groups]
admin = john, kate
devteam1 = john, rachel, sally
devteam2 = kate, peter, mark
docs = bob, jane, mike
training = zak

# Default access rule for ALL repositories
# Everyone can read, admins can write, Dan German is excluded.
[/]
* = r
@admin = rw
dangerman =

# Allow developers complete access to their project repos
[proj1:/]
@devteam1 = rw
[proj2:/]
@devteam2 = rw
[bigproj:/]
@devteam1 = rw
@devteam2 = rw
trevor = rw

# Give the doc people write access to all the docs folders
[/trunk/doc]
@docs = rw

# Give trainees write access in the training repository only
[TrainingRepos:/]
@training = rw
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