SVN Branch level commit permissions

Question

We have multiple development branches and want to restrict commits to a particular branch to only a specific group of developers.

Is it possible to restrict access at a branch level in SVN?

Answer 1

Yes it is. You must configure in the svn config file called 'authz', located in the repository folder or directory. You can specify specific permissions by doing the following

[/branches/branch-name]

harry = rw

sally = r

Hope it helps.

Answer 2

You can use commit hook to check for paths, so only selected users can commit to certain files under certain paths.

Answer 3

You could block off a specific portion of the repository to everyone by using a pre-commit hook which checks the pathname, and fails (bars the commit) if the path matches.

Alternatively, if you are using HTTP as the access method (the server repository is reached via http://) you can use basic authorization in your httpd.conf to set up read-only (or unreadable) areas: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightl/en/svn.serverconfig.httpd.html#svn.serverconfig.httpd.authz

If you're using a stand-alone svn server (the server repository is reached via svn://), the setup is totally different, with a file referenced by the authz-db file: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.serverconfig.pathbasedauthz.html