Mirror SVN Repository [Write-through proxying]

Question

I have a codebase located in Europe and access this codebase from Asia. Codebase is substantially huge, downloading the whole codebase (which is required sometimes) becomes a pain.

I wanted to know whether anything like this.

I want a solution that "I will have a svn server locally which will sync with the main svn and serve my team as the svn is locally hosted."

Thanks in advance
Munim

Answer 1

Try Multisite Repository Replication with VisualSVN Server. That's exactly what you were looking for then.

Multisite Repository Replication enables classic master/slave replication architecture which allows you to setup a master repository at your main codebase location in Europe with multiple slaves at other locations.

In contrast to standard write-through proxy solution, in Multisite Repository Replication feature

• master and slave repository looks and acts just like a regular writeable Subversion repository,

• the replication between master ans slaves is performed automatically and transparently,

• supports advanced authentication mechanisms,

• It's easy to setup, works out-of-the-box with minimal configuration via VisualSVN Server Manager MMC console.

Learn more at http://www.visualsvn.com/support/topic/00068/

Answer 2

You can also try a write-through-proxy which is supported since SVN 1.5 and works fine.

With this setup you have a master and a slave repository.

The slave repo acts as a local read cache while commits will be proxied to your master server and synced back.

This solution comes with subversion / apache.

See this svndevelopers blog for more details. Or the superb SVN book, or last but not least the subtrain admin training presentations

Answer 3

Here is a pretty good article on how to set this up:

http://wordaligned.org/articles/how-to-mirror-a-subversion-repository

The general idea is to use svnadmin hotcopy to do the copy without down time, perhaps triggered by a post-commit hook, or on a timer.

Another option, discussed here:

http://blogs.collab.net/subversion/2007/08/mirroring-repos/

Is to use SVN sync to do a sync, rather than a copy, using the svnsync synchronize command.

Answer 4

Besides the svnsync, you can try the commercial solution from Wandisco.