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 it-
self 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 provided by the client will be interpreted rela-
tive 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 repository 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 re-
stricted SSH key which is only capable of read access.
-t, --tunnel
Causes svnserve to run in tunnel mode, which is just like the in-
etd mode of operation (serve one connection over stdin/stdout) ex-
cept 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 user-
name with the supplied 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 committers, each hav-
ing a distinct ssh identity.
-T, --threads
When running in daemon mode, causes svnserve to spawn a thread in-
stead 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. The password and autho-
rization configurations referenced from filename will be loaded on
each connection. 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.
SEE ALSO
svnserve.conf(5)svnserve(8)