How to make Subversion use Linux system accounts for authentication?

Question

I\'ve set up a Ubuntu Server for Subversion with Apache/WebDAV interface to share repositories with other developers. My question is, how can I make Subversion use the linux sys

Answer 1

Couldn't you use ssh to access subversion repositories instead of WebDAV?

svn checkout svn+ssh://user@server:/home/svn/repository/trunk

Answer 2

I can't comment yet, but wanted to add that in Ubuntu 12.04 the path of pwauth has changed so now this should be

AddExternalAuth pwauth /usr/sbin/pwauth
SetExternalAuthMethod pwauth pipe

and this can be conveniently placed in a separate file inside etc/apache2/conf.d

Answer 3

Ok! I did it! And I thought it would be very hard to find the answer!

We have to tell Apache to use an "external authentication provider", Apache won't be checking for authentication, but will delegate the task to an external authenticator, in this case, the marvellous pwauth.

So the steps I did to make it work was:

1. Install Mod_Auth_External module for Apache2 and pwauth

   sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-authnz-external pwauth
   

2. Enabled the new module for Apache: sudo a2enmod authnz_external in terminal.

3. Configured my apache.conf (or you may have httpd.conf) to add the external authenticator (based on this article):

   AddExternalAuth pwauth /usr/local/libexec/pwauth
   SetExternalAuthMethod pwauth pipe
   

4. Edited my /etc/apache2/mods-available/dav_svn.conf to set the new external auth provider:

   ...
   AuthType Basic
   AuthName "Subversion Repository"
   AuthBasicProvider external
   AuthExternal pwauth
   Require valid-user
   ...
   

5. Tested and worked fine!