svnserve - Server for the 'svn' repository access method

svnserve [options]

svnserve allows access to Subversion repositories using the svn network protocol. It can both run as a standalone server process, or it can run out of inetd. You must choose a mode of operation when you start svnserve. The following options are recognized:

-d, --daemon

Causes svnserve to run in daemon mode. svnserve backgrounds itself and accepts and serves TCP/IP connections on the svn port (3690, by default).

--listen-port=port

Causes svnserve to listen on port when run in daemon mode.

--listen-host=host

Causes svnserve to listen on the interface specified by host, which may be either a hostname or an IP address.

--foreground

When used together with -d, this option causes svnserve to stay in the foreground. This option is mainly useful for debugging.

-i, --inetd

Causes svnserve to use the stdin/stdout file descriptors, as is appropriate for a daemon running out of inetd.

-h, --help

Displays a usage summary and exits.

-r root, --root=root

Sets the virtual root for repositories served by svnserve. The pathname in URLs provided by the client will be interpreted relative to this root, and will not be allowed to escape this root.

-R --read-only

Force all write operations through this svnserve instance to be forbidden, overriding all other access policy configuration. Do not use this option to set general repository access policy - that is what the conf/svnserve.confP repository configuration file is for. This option should be used only to restrict access via a certain method of invoking svnserve - for example, to allow write access via SSH, but not via a svnserve daemon, or to create a restricted SSH key which is only capable of read access.

-t, --tunnel

Causes svnserve to run in tunnel mode, which is just like the inetd mode of operation (serve one connection over stdin/stdout) except that the connection is considered to be pre-authenticated with the username of the current uid. This flag is selected by the client when running over a tunnel agent.

--tunnel-user=username

When combined with --tunnel, overrides the pre-authenticated username with the supplied username. This is useful in combination with the ssh authorized_key file's "command" directive to allow a single system account to be used by multiple committers, each having a distinct ssh identity.

-T, --threads

When running in daemon mode, causes svnserve to spawn a thread instead of a process for each connection. The svnserve process still backgrounds itself at startup time.

-X, --listen-once

Causes svnserve to accept one connection on the svn port, serve it, and exit. This option is mainly useful for debugging.

Once the client has selected a repository by transmitting its URL, svnserve reads a file named conf/svnserve.conf in the repository directory to determine repository-specific settings such as what authentication database to use and what authorization policies to apply. See the svnserve.conf(5) man page for details of that file format.