Question

I have an apache svn server running on a shared hosting linux account.

The symptom is that i can connect to the server that is hosting svn with PuTTY just fine,
but the TortoiseSVN Repository Browser can’t connect.

I have tried svn, svn+ssh,

If I try just svn I get:

E730060: Unable to connect to a repository at URL
‘svn://50.97.138.99:36901 /test’ svn: E730060: Can’t connect to host
‘50.97.138.99’: A connection attempt failed because the connected
party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established
connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

If I try svn+ssh,
I get repeatedly prompted for the password and end up having to cancel the pwd dialog several times, and the error is:

Unable to connect to a repository at URL ‘svn+ssh://wren.arvixe.com’
To better debug connection problems, remove the -q option from ssh in
the [tunnels] section of your Subversion configuration file. Network
connection closed unexpectedly

I’ve been working on this two whole days now, googled my heart out, and am starting to get delirious.

Thanks for any help. Ill be happy to provide more details / do experiments / etc.
I didn’t know what details anyone would want to get started, so sorry if not enough details initially.

Answer 1

There seems to be some confusion about how your repository is accessible. You can’t simply browse via svn+ssh:// without someone setting it up. Did someone set this up?

I’m surprised you can log onto the server via SSH (using PuTTY) since it’s a shared hosting server. That’s usually not allowed. Most shared hosting sites don’t allow shell access.

You mention apache svn server in your opening statement. Then, you try both svn:// and svn+ssh://. There are FOUR separate ways of setting up a Subversion server and accessing Subversion:

• Use Apache httpd as the server. To do this, you need Apache httpd to be configured and compiled correctly. You need several Apache plugins such as mod_dav_svn.so and mod_dav.so. Do you have this setup? If you do, you need to access your repository with http:// and not svn:// as you show.
• Use svnserve as the server. This is simple to setup. You access your repository with svn:// as you show. Did someone configure svnserve and have it running?
• Use svnserve over ssh. This uses the svnserve, but integrates with ssh and can use the Unix file access. This is very, very tricky to setup, and I have seen extremely few instances of people actually using this. Each user, when they access the repository, fires off their own svnserve process. The repository has direct access to it, and you must set up the individual accounts to prevent any shell access. Otherwise users could directly manipulate the repository.
• Use direct file access This is highly not recommended when sharing a repository since all users must be granted direct read/write access on the repository.

The problem is that it becomes impossible to help you without knowing how Subversion was setup on your system. Did you create the repository? If so, did you start a svnserve process to access it? Did someone else setup your Subversion repository on that system? If someone else setup the repository, you’ll have to get the exact directions from them on how to access it.

If you are the one who setup the repository, did you setup Apache or did you setup svnserve? If you have setup svnserve, did you use the default port 3690, or setup another port to use? Can you determine if this port is blocked by your firewall? You can use the telenet command to try accessing the port directly:

C> telnet 50.97.138.99 3690

If you can’t connect, you’ll see an “Unable to connect to remote host” message, and that means either svnserve isn’t running, or your firewall is blocking that port. Since you can log into the server, try logging into the server, and acesssing that repository directly:

$ svn log svn://localhost

If you can access the repo, you have svnserve running, but your firewall blocking it. If you can’t access svnserve, you might not have it running.

Try that and see what you get.