Which repository access method is used to create a new “working copy”, file:/// or svn:// in same machine?

Question

Hi!, I have setup svnserve server (1.6.5,plain, without apache) on Fedora. The users, who has accounts in same machine want to checkout a working copy. I have read svnbook and other sites and found file:/// access method is being used to checkout as

svn checkout file:///var/svn/repos/myproject/trunk myproject ( ref:svnbook)

I am little confused! As svnbook also says "Clients contact an svnserve server by using URLs that begin with the svn://" So, my question is, which method user will use to create their working copy?

Thankyou. Banani

Answer 1

The svn:// scheme goes to a socket. If you want to checkout directly from the filesystem, use the file:// scheme (you don't use the server in that case).

(You could use file://, svn://, svn+ssh://, http:// or https:// to check out a working dir on the same machine, but except for file:// those all require running some kind of server.)

Answer 2

If the users have file system access to the repository, they can use file://. However, this is probably a bad idea.

The recommended practice for a multi-user environment is to set up svnserve and access the repository via the svn:// protocol (or http:// or https:// as the case may be).

From the Choosing a Server Configuration section of the svnbook

Do not be seduced by the simple idea of having all of your users access a repository directly via file:// URLs. Even if the repository is readily available to everyone via a network share, this is a bad idea. It removes any layers of protection between the users and the repository: users can accidentally (or intentionally) corrupt the repository database, it becomes hard to take the repository offline for inspection or upgrade, and it can lead to a mess of file permission problems (see the section called “Supporting Multiple Repository Access Methods”).