Simplifying VisualSVN Server's URLs

Question

We're currently running an svnserve instance as NT service. While this works, it's needlessly cumbersome to administer, and I'd like to move on to the much simpler VisualSVN Server. (Bonus side benefits include Windows-integrated authentication and, thanks to HTTP/WebDAV, browsing of the latest revision.)

That said, the current server offers up URLs that look like this:

svn://oldserver/path/to/some/file.foo

Rather memorable.

The new one, as set up through VSVNS:

https://newserver:8443/svn/Repos/path/to/some/file.foo

Ouch. For one, the /svn bit is entirely unnecessary. Since VSVNS runs its own HTTP server (that's why it's on the special port 8443, after all), of course everything is related to svn. Moreover, we only have one repository (and no real need for more), so the repository name in /Repos shouldn't be there either — we could turn this off with svnserve, so there should be a way to do it now, too.

• Is it possible to configure VisualSVN Server to drop the /svn? (Why is it there to begin with?)
• Given that there is only one repository, can I tell it not to make the repository name part of the URL?

Answer 1

You can configure the apache location to use SVNPath instead of SVNParentPath. It is inside the <Location>-Block of your httpd.conf you also should rename this block to the name of your repository. Then the ../svn/.. part of your URL is gone.

Answer 2

You can use the stock Collabnet SVN installer and configure Apache to your liking that way.

Is there anything particularly compelling about VisualSVN over and above a normal SVN installation?

Answer 3

Peter's answer didn't work for me with VisualSVN Server 1.6.2. When I change SVNParentPath to SVNPath I get an error "The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading" connecting to the server. If I leave SVNParentPath I end up replacing /svn/ with /repo/ but still get /repo/repo/ instead of /svn/repo/ which isn't much of an improvement.

I'm still looking for a solution to this problem.