Why won't svn let commit .htaccess files?

Question

Try as I might, I can't commit .htaccess files from my windows svn client (tortoise svn). The error that is returned is:

Could not read status line: Existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.

And here is basically what my vhost looks like in Apache:

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/mydomain.com/legacy/trunk/html
ServerName mydomain.com

<Directory /var/www/>
  FileETag MTime Size
  AllowOverride All
</Directory>

<Directory /var/www/tools>
  AllowOverride All
</Directory>

<Location /svn>
  DAV svn
  SVNPath /var/svn/repos/MyRepo

  # Limit write permission to list of valid users.
  # Require SSL connection for password protection.
  # SSLRequireSSL
  ErrorDocument 404 default

  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Authorization Realm"
  AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/conf/.htpasswd
  Require valid-user

Any ideas as to how to solve this would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Subversion is being served from an Apache server that's also using .htaccess for access control, so it might be preventing you from doing something you don't quite intend.

Answer 2

check the apache error log file. You might see additional info about why the svn server failed to finish the commit.

Answer 3

Check other apache config files. In my default /etc/apache2/modules.d/00_default_settings.conf (on a gentoo install), I have a FilesMatch "^.ht" section that does Deny from all.

I'd suggest running a grep -r -i "\\.ht" * from the /etc/apache or /etc/httpd or /etc/apache directory, to see what you come up with.

It may also be an AccessFileName directive, so grep for that too.

Answer 4

Are other files committing from TortoiseSVN?

If the commit is working from an SVN client on the same box as TortoiseSVN on the same working copy (can you verify?), then my guess would be different SVN and TortoiseSVN client versions causing the problem.

TortoiseSVN -> About will report the SVN client version is was built with. Check that your client/server versions are compatible.