Apache SSL + SVN notes

Recently I started to use Apache http server again. I am trying to build a SVN repository which can be accessed through HTTPS.

Environment

Ubuntu
Apache 2.2.17 source

Doc: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/

Build

  ./configure --prefix=/home/gerald/servers/httpd-2.2.17 --enable-ssl --enable-dav --enable-so
  make
  make install

add bin directory to your PATH

add man pages:

function addManPath() { 
    if (($# != 1)); then return 0; fi

    path="$1" 
    if [ "x$MANPATH" == "x" ]; then 
        export MANPATH="$(manpath):$path" 
    else 
        export MANPATH="${MANPATH}:$path" 
    fi  
}

addManPath "~/servers/httpd-2.2.17/bin/man"

start up apache server: apachectl start

benchmarking: ab -n 10000 -c 100 http://localhost:80/

Show modules:
  httpd -M  //show all loaded modules
  httpd -S      // show parsed virtual host settings
  httpd -l    //listed compiled in modules
  httpd -L   //list available configuration directives
  httpd -V  //show compile settings (not settings for compiling the whole package, the settings for compiling the server - httpd).

Configure SSL

Prepare your certificate and private key.
Uncomment line "Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf" in httpd.conf.
Change file "conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf". The most important directives are SSLCertificateFile and SSLCertificateKeyFile.
Test whether you can access your website through HTTPS.

SSL + SVN

Get modules dav_svn and authz_svn

wget http://altruistic.lbl.gov/mirrors/ubuntu/pool/universe/s/subversion/libapache2-svn_1.6.5dfsg-1ubuntu1_i386.deb

dpkg-deb -x libapache2-svn_1.6.5dfsg-1ubuntu1_i386.deb

copy two module (.so files) to apache modules directory.

Configure modules

Edit file <Apache>/conf/extra/dav_svn.load

    LoadModule dav_svn_module modules/mod_dav_svn.so
    LoadModule authz_svn_module modules/mod_authz_svn.so

Edit file <Apache>/conf/extra/httpd.conf, add following two lines

    Include conf/extra/dav_svn.load
    Include conf/extra/dav_svn.conf

Edit file <Apache>/conf/extra/dav_svn.conf

<Location /svn/> <!-- trailing / is necessary!! -->
  DAV svn
  
  SSLRequireSSL  # enforce use of HTTPS
  #SVNPath /var/lib/svn
  SVNParentPath /home/svn/projects
  SVNListParentPath on 
  
  AuthType Basic
  AuthName "Subversion Repository"
  AuthUserFile Apache_Dir/conf/dav_svn.passwd

  # To enable authorization via mod_authz_svn
  AuthzSVNAccessFile Apache_Dir/conf/dav_svn.authz

  Require valid-user
</Location>

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/488778/how-do-i-list-all-repositories-with-the-svnparentpath-directive-on-apachesvn

Create authentication and authorization files

Create password file: htpassword -cm <Apache>/conf/dav_svn.passwd gerald

Edit file <Apache>/conf/dav_svn.authz

[groups]
admin=gerald
guests=guest

[/]
@admin=rw

[repository_name:/directory]
@admin=rw

Test

Restart Apache httpd server.
Go to https://your_ip/svn/ (note: the trailing / is necessary!)

 

Permission Problem

If you see following error when you try to commit some code:

svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: Can't open file '/path/to/your/repo/db/txn-current-lock': Permission denied

follow these steps:

1. Execute command: ps -wwf $(pgrep httpd)
   You should say one of the processes is run as root. All other processes are run as daemon (in my case).
2. To make httpd able to access(read/write) your svn repository, you should set the file permissions of svn repository correctly.
   chown -R gerald:daemon /path/to/svn/repo
   chmod -R 770 /path/to/svn/repo