SVN secure Access using Apache on Centos 5

gvanto · 10-24-2009, 02:26 AM

Linux version 2.6.18-028stab057.4-ent (root@rhel5-32-build) (gcc version 4.1.2 20070626 (Red Hat 4.1.2-14)) #1 SMP Fri Aug 1 13:37:30 MSD 2008

When googling haven't had much luck, found this article which seems good http://ricardo.strangevistas.net/set...on-centos.html - but the files (config) are in different places (older Centos version) and while I've done what I think is right, I now get an -12263 access error when trying to access https://myserver.com.au/repos/ ... hooray ! (not)

The aim is to get a secure SVN server up which can be accessed remotely using repository URLs
and after that to install Trac on top of it as wiki software.

If anyone has advice / links to good tutorial, would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
gvanto

carltm · 10-24-2009, 04:33 AM

Here are some brief notes I kept the last time I did this.
This assumes that you already have SSL set up for the
apache webserver.

Quote:

yum install subversion mod_dav_svn httpd mod_ssl
start/configure/test httpd
mkdir -p /var/svn; cd /var/svn; svnadmin create repo; chown -R apache. repo
edit /etc/httpd/conf.d/subversion.conf
set Location and SVNPath e.g. /var/svn/repo #not SVNParentPath
set AuthName and AuthUserFile e.g. /etc/svn/svn.users
include <LimitExcept OPTIONS> #if not readable by all
htpasswd -c /etc/svn/svn.users admin
service httpd restart
htpasswd /etc/svn/svn.users otheruser

The <Location> entry would be similar to this.

Quote:

<Location /repo>
DAV svn
SVNPath /var/svn/repo
# Limit write permission to list of valid users.
#<LimitExcept GET PROPFIND OPTIONS REPORT>
<LimitExcept OPTIONS>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "My Subversion Server"
AuthUserFile /etc/svn/svn.users
Require valid-user
</LimitExcept>
</Location>

gvanto · 10-24-2009, 07:10 AM

Thanks a million for your helpful response carltm.

The line 'edit /etc/httpd/conf.d/subversion.conf' is where it starts to diverge for me, because the folder 'conf.d' does not exist in my httpd folder, there's only a 'conf' folder in it, which itself does not contain a 'subversion.conf' file in it ...

Any idea why this folder 'conf.d' would NOT exist? (recently the webserver was upgraded to apache2, because all the tutorials were covering apache2)

Grrrrr this is taking soooooooooo long.

I followed this article: http://blog.sharedigest.com/subversi...pache-and-ssl/ and got it working on my Kubuntu (hardy) box within a couple of hours - if only it were that easy on this centos server!!!!!

Thanks again for the help,
gvanto

Quote:

Originally Posted by carltm

Here are some brief notes I kept the last time I did this.
This assumes that you already have SSL set up for the
apache webserver.

The <Location> entry would be similar to this.

carltm · 10-24-2009, 07:37 AM

When you install httpd from the distro it creates the /etc/httpd/conf.d
directory. I'm not sure why it's not there.

Try running "rpm -qc httpd" to find all the configuration files for
apache. Also "rpm -qc subversion" for those files.

This will let you know where the configuration files are on your
system, provided that you installed the Centos versions.

gvanto · 10-24-2009, 05:46 PM

Hi carltm,

I ran that command and lo and behold, it finds a file 'welcome.conf' within folder 'httpd/conf.d', but then when doing an 'ls -al' command (which I believe shows hidden files as well), the folder does NOT appear?!

Code:

[09:41:21][root@host:/etc/httpd]# rpm -qc httpd
/etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf
/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
/etc/httpd/conf/magic
...


[09:41:58][root@host:/etc/httpd]# pwd
/etc/httpd
[09:44:22][root@host:/etc/httpd]# ls -al
total 84
drwxr-xr-x  17 root root   4096 Oct 21 05:03 ./
drwxr-xr-x  22 root root   4096 May  7 19:26 ../
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Oct 21 04:51 bin/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Oct 21 04:51 build/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Oct 21 04:51 cgi-bin/
drwxr-xr-x  11 root root   4096 Oct 25 06:00 conf/
drwxr-xr-x   9 root root   4096 May  7 19:27 conf_pre_ea3/
drwx--x--x  17 root wheel 12288 Oct 25 09:44 domlogs/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root   4096 Oct 21 04:51 error/
drwxr-xr-x   5 root root   4096 Oct 21 04:51 htdocs/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root   4096 Oct 21 04:51 icons/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Oct 21 04:51 include/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root   4096 Oct 21 04:51 lib/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Oct 25 06:00 logs/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root   4096 Oct 21 04:51 man/
drwxr-xr-x  14 root root  12288 Sep 24 09:29 manual/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Oct 21 04:57 modules/


[09:44:26][root@host:/etc/httpd]# ls conf.d
/bin/ls: conf.d: No such file or directory

Strange huh? I have never seen anything like this ...

thanks again for your help!
gvanto

gvanto · 10-24-2009, 05:57 PM

It is Centos 4.8 on the server, not Centos 5 (as I was told by server admins a while back).

carltm · 10-25-2009, 04:53 AM

You've got some non-standard files directories, and the permissions are
not the ones that come with Centos. My guess is that this is not the
standard httpd package for Centos, or the server admins have done some
modifications, or both.

I'd suggest that you check in with the admins to find out the location
of the configuration files for apache and any customizations that they
have implemented.