DoingWritableCheckouts

Public Subversion Writable Checkouts

Below are instructions for hooking up with our Public Subversion repository with checkin ability. (The instructions will only work for "those that have checkin privileges", see WriteAccessRationale...)

Overview

Public Subversion checkin access uses the Subversion SSH tunneling mode. You get registered for checkin access by the cvs master, which provokes an email message with instructions for depositing your SSH public key(s) via the web. Once that's done, you're set to do the checkouts, all detailed below.

See SVNResources for leads on Subversion info, and we suggest the Open SSH Project for guidance and resources for SSH.

Depositing Your SSH Public Keys

When you're registered for public access, go to:

• https://cvs.zope.org/upload-key.html

where you can deposit your SSH public keys. Your key deposit is protected by your zope.org account name and password.

You can use RSA or DSA, ssh v1 or v2 keys, or any combination.

You can revisit the key deposit page any time to put in your keys.

See WriteAccessHintAndTips for some of the common pitfalls to avoid.

Doing Checkouts (not Windows)

Any time ssh makes an RSA-key connection for subversion it will require your key passphrase. You can use ssh-agent to stash that key once for your shell, and not have to specify it again while you're issuing commands from the same shell. It's worthwhile getting acquainted with ssh-agent - check the man pages.

Now you're ready to do a checkout. The best way to convey the specifics is with an example:

      % svn co svn+ssh://[email protected]/repos/main/Zope/trunk Zope

You, of course, should substitute the zope.org account name by which you are registered.

Subversion commands using SSH this way will require you to provide the passphrase for the key being invoked - you will be prompted for it unless you have ssh-agent taking care of that for you.

The same sort of thing applies when you do updates or other Subversion commands on a checked-out hierarchy. You do not need to specify the repository, however - Subversion has stashed that info in its checkout bookkeeping (in the Subversion directories) - so the command to do an update (with all the trimmings) would look like:

      [From inside the checked-out Zope directory:]
      % svn up

Doing Checkouts (Windows)

Some of the command line access methods that work on non-Windows systems don't work on Windows. The TortoiseSVN project also offers a very nice integration of svn commands into the Windows Explorer GUI.

The easiest way to set up both (command line and TortoiseSVN) for svn+ssh access is to first download the popular PuTTY set of connection tools for Windows. Then, as a one-time setup cost, run putty.exe to create a new PuTTY session for Zope svn+ssh access:

• Under Session, use Host Name svn.zope.org, and select the SSH protocol.
• Under Connection, put your zope.org username in the "auto-login username" box.
• Under Connection -> SSH -> Auth, enter the path to your private key file (whether generated by puttygen.exe, or otherwise).

  (Note that private keys generated with OpenSSH will not work with TortoisePlink.exe - you'll have to convert your private key to PuTTY's format using puttygen.exe or, conversely, generate a key with puttygen.exe saving it in the OpenSSH format and update your public key(s) at https://cvs.zope.org/account.php .)

• Back under Session, save the session under some unique name. For example, svnzope. Do note that svn.zope.org can be used as the name! The examples here do not, just to make the distinction clear, but setting the name to svn.zope.org can be a good idea, especially if you run on Windows and Linux (simply because it's less confusing if you can type the same strings on all your platforms).
• Click "Open". You should then be asked to accept the server's key. Do so, then log out.
• Close putty.exe.

PuTTY saves this config info in the Windows registry, where other programs can get at it via the session name you chose.

Now when using any TortoiseSVN action where a svn+ssh svn.zope.org URL is needed, just use svnzope (or whatever name you picked for your session) instead of svn.zope.org For example:

       svn+ssh://svnzope/repos/main/ZConfig/trunk

instead of:

       svn+ssh://svn.zope.org/repos/main/ZConfig/trunk

If you have an SSH passphrase, you can also run PuTTY's pageant.exe to supply it for you for as long as you leave pageant running (pageant is like ssh-agent on non-Windows systems).

For command-line access, first set environment variable SVN_SSH to the path to PuTTY's plink.exe (use forward slashes instead of back slashes in the path or it won't work) -- or you can set this once in your local svn config file. Look for the definition of ssh in it, which is commented out by default. Uncomment and edit so that this section looks like:

        [tunnels]
        ssh = $SVN_SSH plink.exe

Then, again, use the name of your saved PuTTY session instead of svn.zope.org in svn command lines that need to reference the repository explicitly.

For the rest, follow the instructions in the non-Windows section above, but use your PuTTY session name as the hostname.

Line endings

See the important note on SubversionConfigurationForLineEndings.

Rules

If you plan to do any checkins, make sure you know and follow the CommitterGuidelines!

Windows --[adamg]?, 2006/02/13 03:55 EST reply
On windows the procedure works with SSH-1 RSA keys.