svn: Can't create directory '/subversion/main/db/transactions/0-1.txn': Permission denied

Question

Hi, I created a local subversion directory and I'm having problems. I tried checking in my first file with the following command:

svn ci TestCommenterParseFilter.java

and I got the following error message

svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: Can't create directory '/export/svn/db/transactions/1-1.txn': Permission denied
svn: Your commit message was left in a temporary file:
svn:    '/export/speedplane/nutch-0.9/src/plugin/commenter/src/test/org/commenter/nutch/svn-commit.tmp'

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I don't think it'll fix the issue (usually gives a different error message) -- but still something to try...

Make sure you include a commit message (-m or -F options):

$ svn ci TestCommenterParseFilter.java -m "Commit message."

$ svn ci TestCommenterParseFilter.java -F commit_message.txt

Answer 2

The "permission denied" error, and the pathnames you have used, indicate that your user account doesn't have file permission to write to the /export/svn directory tree. There are at least two approaches to solving this:

1. Change the file permissions (perhaps with a group +w bit) on /export/svn so that you can write to the files. This is finicky and doesn't always stick.

2. Set up svnserve as a server process that you talk to using the svn:// protocol. In this case the server process is the only one that needs to have write (or read) access to the repository directory.

Answer 3

Just make sure you start the svnserve -d and start it as root

Answer 4

I posted a similar question on SO. You can see if the solution works for you too.