Question

I’m just getting started/familar with Subversion and was wondering which protocol gives the best performance file:// or svn://, when accessing a Subversion repository over the network? If we don’t use the svn:// protocol, will be missing out on any features that we couldn’t mitgate using the file:// protocol? We’re all on the same NT domain & plan on using Windows Auth and use NTFS/UNC security.

TIA!

Answer 1

The SVN Book recommends that you do not use the file:// protocol for multiple users

Choosing a Server Configuration:

Do not be seduced by the simple idea of having all of your users access a repository directly via file:// URLs. Even if the repository is readily available to everyone via a network share, this is a bad idea. It removes any layers of protection between the users and the repository: users can accidentally (or intentionally) corrupt the repository database, it becomes hard to take the repository offline for inspection or upgrade, and it can lead to a mess of file permission problems (see the section called “Supporting Multiple Repository Access Methods”). Note that this is also one of the reasons we warn against accessing repositories via svn+ssh:// URLs—from a security standpoint, it’s effectively the same as local users accessing via file://, and it can entail all the same problems if the administrator isn’t careful