Subversion on OS 6.10.0

So after the hauntingly painful update to 6.10.0, my subversion setup instructions need some changes.

 

To avoid a lot of confusion, the original instrutions are here:

 

https://community.netgear.com/t5/ReadyNAS-Storage-Apps-Current/subversion-configuration/m-p/860158#M...

 

That thread is now closed (which is actually not very helpful as it prevents having all the information in one place). Hence this update.

 

** Note that I have not tried to follow those older instructions on a stock 6.10.0 system, so don't know if they still apply. After doing that install 4 years ago, that configuration updated just fine on every release until OS 6.10. **

 

So here's what to then do to get subversion working again on 6.10.

 

This is a recap to some degree of the painful details of the journey, see here: 

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS-in-Business/RN-102-update-firmware-from-6-9-5-to-6-10-0-and-now-won-t-boot/m-p/1743043/highlight/true#M179312

 

Summarising:

 

Subsequent updates of the OS have clearly updated SVN as I see that in /usr/lib/apache2/modules, the file mod_dav_svn.so is dated May 21, 2018.  It does not seem easy to find if that module will be loaded, or what version of apache it is for (but we don't care if it all works in the end).

 

The change seems to be from apache2.2 to apache2.4, where the debian structure of the configuration files has significantly changed.

 

Here's what I did to fix it:

 

Step 1.

Locate the SUBVERSION.conf file that was set up (in the previous instruction), it should be in /etc/apache2/conf.d

 

Move that to /etc/apache2/conf-available

 

Step 2.

Make a softlink from /etc/apache2/conf-enabled, called SUBVERSION.conf, and linked to the file in /etc/apache2/conf-available:

 

cd /etc/apache2/conf-enabeld

ln -s ../conf-available/SUBERSION.conf SUBVERSION.conf

 

Step 3.

edit the SUBVERSION.conf file in /etc/apache2/conf-available, to REMOVE all references  to loading libraries (for whatever reason it does not seem to be needed).

 

Here is what my configuration file looks like now:

 

#LoadModule authz_svn_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_svn.so
#LoadModule dav_svn_module    /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_dav_svn.so
#LoadModule authn_file_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authn_file.so
#LoadModule authn_default_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authn_default.so

<Location /svn/>
        DAV svn
        SVNParentPath "/data/.svn/repos"

        SVNListParentPath On

        AuthType Basic
        AuthBasicProvider file
        AuthName "Source Repository"
        AuthUserFile "/data/.svn/htpasswd-file"
        AuthzSVNAccessFile "/data/.svn/svn-access-control"
        Require valid-user
</Location>

Those commented out lines could be removed completely, perhaps by leaving them in at least we show intent. That might be helpful at some future time.

 

Step 4.

Restart apache:

 

systemctl restart apache2

 

This got my subversion via HTTP working again (bear in mind my configuration in that file gives me a subversion URL of HTTP://nas/svn/ )

 

(A further note: Its possible that subversion install would be quite straightforward, as for example, apt-get install libapache2-svn seems in my case to show a sensible state (its up to date), so presumably those packages are readily available.)