Version Control with Subversion, 2nd Edition

svnserve

svnserve allows access to Subversion repositories using Subversion’s custom network protocol.

You can run svnserve as a standalone server process (for clients that are using the svn:// access method); you can have a daemon such as inetd or xinetd launch it for you on demand (also for svn://), or you can have sshd launch it on demand for the svn+ssh:// access method.

Regardless of the access method, 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 svnserve, a Custom Server for details of the svnserve.conf file.

svnserve Options

Unlike the previous commands we’ve described, svnserve has no subcommands—it is controlled exclusively by options:

--daemon (-d)

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

--foreground

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

--inetd (-i)

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

--help (-h)

Displays a usage summary and exits.

--listen-host=HOST

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

--listen-once (-X)

Causes svnserve to accept one ...