Working with repositories on svn.void.bd

This server stores project files in Subversion (SVN) repositories. You upload a project by committing it, and download it by checking it out. Everything below works from a terminal, a CI job, or an automated agent — there is nothing to click.

Endpoints

Replace <repo> with the repository name throughout. Repository names contain letters, digits, ., _ and -.

Before you start

You need the svn command-line client. On Debian or Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install -y subversion

Check that your account can reach the repository. This is the one command worth running first, because it distinguishes "wrong password" from "no permission" from "no such repository":

svn info https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo> \
  --username <user> --password <pass> \
  --non-interactive --no-auth-cache

Exit status 0 means the repository exists and you may read it. Anything else is explained under When something fails.

Flags to use in scripts

To keep the password out of your shell history and out of ps, use svn 1.10 or newer and pass it on standard input instead:

printf '%s' "$SVN_PASSWORD" | svn --password-from-stdin --username "$SVN_USER" \
  --non-interactive --no-auth-cache info https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo>

Download a project

A working copy you can edit and commit back

svn checkout https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo> my-project \
  --username <user> --password <pass> --non-interactive --no-auth-cache
cd my-project

This is what you want almost always. It brings down every file and remembers where it came from, so svn commit later sends your changes back.

Just the files, with no version-control metadata

svn export https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo> my-project \
  --username <user> --password <pass> --non-interactive --no-auth-cache

export omits the .svn directory. Use it for a build or a release artefact — you cannot commit from an exported directory.

An older version, or a single file

# the project as it stood at revision 42
svn checkout -r 42 https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo> my-project-r42

# print one file to standard output, without downloading the project
svn cat https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo>/trunk/README.md

Upload a project

Into an empty repository

svn import copies a directory into the repository in one commit. It is the fastest way to get an existing project in, and it leaves your directory untouched — nothing becomes a working copy.

svn import ./my-project https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo> \
  -m "Initial import" \
  --username <user> --password <pass> --non-interactive --no-auth-cache

If the repository was created with the standard layout, import into trunk instead so branches and tags stay usable:

svn import ./my-project https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo>/trunk -m "Initial import" \
  --username <user> --password <pass> --non-interactive --no-auth-cache

After importing, check the project out to keep working on it:

svn checkout https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo> my-project-wc \
  --username <user> --password <pass> --non-interactive --no-auth-cache

Connecting a folder you already have to a repository

Use this when the files must stay exactly where they are — an existing project directory you are already working in. --force lets a checkout land in a directory that is not empty; your files are kept, and the repository's files are merged alongside them.

cd /path/to/my-project

# 1. tie this directory to the repository
svn checkout https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo> . --force \
  --username <user> --password <pass> --non-interactive --no-auth-cache

# 2. schedule everything that is not yet versioned
svn add --force . --quiet

# 3. send it
svn commit -m "Initial import of my-project" \
  --username <user> --password <pass> --non-interactive --no-auth-cache

From then on the directory is a working copy: svn status, svn commit and svn update all work in place.

Sending later changes

svn status                  # what changed
svn add --force . --quiet   # pick up new files
svn commit -m "What I changed" \
  --username <user> --password <pass> --non-interactive --no-auth-cache

svn commit sends every modified file in the working copy. Name a path to send only part of it: svn commit src/ -m "...".

Leave build output out

Committing node_modules, bin, obj or .venv wastes the storage limit and slows every checkout. Mark them ignored once:

svn propset svn:ignore "node_modules
bin
obj
.venv
*.log" .
svn commit -m "Ignore build output" \
  --username <user> --password <pass> --non-interactive --no-auth-cache

Everyday commands

Storage limits

Each administrator has a storage limit that covers every repository they own, together with every repository owned by the repository managers under them. A commit that would push the total past the limit is refused before anything is written — the repository is left exactly as it was.

A refused commit looks like this:

svn: E165001: Commit blocked by pre-commit hook (exit code 1) with output:

Commit refused — storage quota exceeded.

  administrator : admin
  quota         : 30.0 GB
  already used  : 30.0 GB
  this commit   : 42.1 MB

Nothing was written. Remove data, or ask for a higher limit.

There is nothing to retry. Either remove data from the repositories, or ask an administrator to raise the limit. Large binaries and build output are the usual cause; see Leave build output out.

When something fails

For automated agents

This section is the short, deterministic version. Every command is non-interactive and reports success through its exit status.

Set these once:

SVN_URL="https://svn.void.bd/svn/<repo>"
SVN_USER="<user>"
SVN_PASS="<pass>"
SVN_OPTS="--non-interactive --no-auth-cache --username $SVN_USER --password $SVN_PASS"

Step 1 — confirm the repository is reachable. Stop here if this fails; nothing later will work, and the error text says which of the three causes it is.

svn info "$SVN_URL" $SVN_OPTS || exit 1

Step 2 — find out whether it is empty. No output means an empty repository, so import is the right upload path; output means use the checkout path instead.

svn ls "$SVN_URL" $SVN_OPTS

Step 3a — upload every file, empty repository.

svn import ./my-project "$SVN_URL" -m "Initial import" $SVN_OPTS

Step 3b — upload every file, repository already has content, or the local folder must stay in place.

cd ./my-project
svn checkout "$SVN_URL" . --force $SVN_OPTS
svn add --force . --quiet
svn commit -m "Import" $SVN_OPTS

Step 4 — download every file.

svn checkout "$SVN_URL" ./my-project $SVN_OPTS   # editable, can commit back
svn export   "$SVN_URL" ./my-project $SVN_OPTS   # plain files only

Step 5 — confirm what landed.

svn info "$SVN_URL" $SVN_OPTS | grep "Last Changed Rev"

Rules worth encoding

• Never retry a commit that failed with storage quota exceeded. It is a limit, not a

transient error, and retrying cannot succeed.

• Retry once, after a pause, on a network error (E730054, E170013 with "Unable to

connect"). Do not retry an authentication or authorization failure.

• Run svn add --force . --quiet before every commit if new files may have appeared;

svn commit alone will not send files that were never added.

• Exclude node_modules, bin, obj, .venv, dist, target and log files before

the first import. Storage is capped, and history is permanent — data committed once keeps costing space even after it is deleted in a later revision.

• One project per repository. Do not put several unrelated projects in one repository.

Machine-readable copies

This page and /doc.md are public and require no credentials. Everything else on the server does.