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svnserve(8)                                    System Manager's Manual                                    svnserve(8)



NAME
       svnserve - Server for the 'svn' repository access method

SYNOPSIS
       svnserve [options]

DESCRIPTION
       svnserve allows access to Subversion repositories using the svn network protocol.  It can both run as a stand‐
       alone 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 connec‐
            tions 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.

       --version
            Print svnserve's version and the repository filesystem back-end(s) a particular svnserve supports.

       -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.conf 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  connec‐
            tion  over  stdin/stdout) except that the connection is considered to be pre-authenticated with the user‐
            name 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.
            When specified, svnserve will write its process ID to filename.

       -X, --listen-once
            Causes svnserve to accept one connection on the svn port, serve it, and exit.  This option is mainly use‐
            ful for debugging.

       Unless  the  --config-file option was specified on the command line, once the client has selected a repository
       by transmitting its URL, svnserve reads a file named conf/svnserve.conf in the repository directory to  deter‐
       mine  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.

SEE ALSO
       svnserve.conf(5)



                                                                                                          svnserve(8)