trying to solve IT problems

This is a guide for installing subversion on a Ubuntu server, using svnserve (easiest installation, I personally always handle security by only allowing remote (off-site) access using a ssh tunnel), and with e-mail notification on commits.

For starters, you need to install subversion.

apt-get install subversion libsvn-notify-perl

As root, create a file “/etc/init.d/svn” with the following content

#! /bin/sh

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/usr/bin/svnserve
NAME=svn
DESC="Subversion Server"

SVNOPTS="--listen-port 3692 -r /data/svn -d"
USER="svn"

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

set -e

case "$1" in
  start)
        echo -n "Starting $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon -u $USER --start --quiet --exec $DAEMON -- $SVNOPTS
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  stop)
        echo -n "Stopping $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon -u $USER --stop --oknodo --quiet --exec $DAEMON
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  restart|force-reload)
        echo -n "Restarting $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon -u $USER --stop --oknodo --quiet --exec $DAEMON
        sleep 1
        start-stop-daemon -u $USER --start --quiet --exec $DAEMON -- $SVNOPTS
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  *)
        N=/etc/init.d/$NAME
        echo "Usage: $N {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

exit 0

You should modify the part and base directory where the repositories are stored in the SVNOPTS line. I changed the default port (normally 3690) as this makes it easier for me to access the repository from either the local network or remotely when tunnelled through ssh as the port can be the same in both cases (and not clash with a local svn installation).
Make sure this is executable, link as startup file, create svn user and start.

chmod a+x /etc/init.d/svn
ln -s /etc/init.d/svn /etc/rc2.d/S99svn
adduser --system svn
/etc/init.d/svn start

You can now create your first repository.

svnadmin create /data/svn/test

To assure password login, edit “/data/svn/test/conf/svnserve.conf” and uncomment the line “password-db=passwd”. Then edit the /data/svn/test/conf/passwd file to set login and password for each of the users.

If you want post-commit e-mail messages, then enable the post-commit hook script.

mv /data/svn/test/hooks/post-commit.tmpl /data/svn/test/hooks/post-commit

Now edit this script to assure the e-mail address is correct (should be a mailing list address).
The script send the messages by the local smtp server, so make sure this is installed (possibly to forward the mail to a suitable mail server).