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Setting Up SVN Under Windows
(2 votes, average: 3 out of 6)
Loading ...As you might remember I wrote an article a while back on how to set up a basic Subversion system under Linux. Well I thought why not write something similar for Windows, under Apache 2.x. Why Apache, well I like it!
So first I stared of downloading the latest binary for Subversion from Tigris, which at this time was version 1.4.2. Installing it was a peanuts. Configuring the SVN repositories is just as simple and exactly the same as with Linux. Just execute the following command from the ‘command prompt’:
svnadmin create "c:\svnroot\repo1"
So far for the easy part. Now I had to set it up with Apache, which is costing me a headache at the moment. Since I recently made a clean install I choose Apache 2.2, love using the latest versions. What I failed to read anywhere was that subversion officially does not support that version of Apache just yet. So my first attempt of using the default stuff crashed Apache.
I quickly started searching for a solution to this problem, I mean nobody wants a crashing Apache! The quest let me to the find the following binaries for Apache 2.2. No more crashing Apache, thank god!
The configuration I used in my Apache include was as follows:
DAV svn
SVNParentPath c:/SourceControl/svn/
SVNListParentPath on
AuthType Basic
AuthName “Subversion repository”
AuthUserFile c:/wwwroot/password/svn.htaccess
Require valid-user
But as soon as I got this all up and running the next error started occurring. One which so far I haven’t solved, but I’ll keep you up to date on this. Time to show you my next error to resolve:
Well I’ll keep you all updated if I solve this.
Having Backup Servers On Standby
I recently found out the importance of preparing and keeping up to date a few backup servers. Let me explain briefly what happened. Yesterday I tried to check my e-mail on one of my websites. When I tried this the website didn’t load.
So I logged in to the web administration site of my hosting provider. That just kept claiming I wasn’t a member. After contacting the helpdesk I found out that the server my websites were hosted on (including this one) had some problems. No really!!
Getting back online
I didn’t expect the problems to be resolved quickly so I wanted to activate a backup server with the same websites. It’s a slow home served computer, which was kinda outdated with it’s information. It took me three hours just to get it up to date with the latest situation of the website (had to wait until the web administration was up and running at my hosting provider).
After that I still had to modify the DNS settings on a different provider. But I had forgotten to set the refresh rate that other DNS servers use to 5 minutes. Instead it was set to one day, which would mean one day of downtime.
Luckily my hosting provider had the problem fixed in ‘just’ 10 hours. So I never had the change to activate my backup. But after this I have scripted my backup to regularly fetch the websites from the primaries and set the DNS refresh time to 5 minutes. This all to be back up and running very quickly.
In closing
Last piece of advice, next to synching a backup server regularly, have your DNS on a different provider as your website. I could get my website back online because the DNS server was still working. On one of my sites that is, the other has its DNS running on the same box as the hosting.
It may cost a bit more money then single hosting, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Don’t Like The Code, Do Something About It
All developers sometimes get an assignment to modify an already existing program over and over again. Over time that leads to unreadable and badly designed code. Which is a nightmare and is being b*tched about a lot.
I recently had the same problem. I had to modify a class that did some checks to determine if software was allowed to start-up or perform specific tasks. Well I took a look at the code and said forget it. It’s a complete mess.
Now I have only myself to blame, I wrote the entire code (and all updates that were required). To solve it I made the first wise decision in a long time:). Forget the code change for a while. Instead I made the choice to first refacter the entire class.
Making more functions, more comments and a shipload more sense. It may sound like a counter productive thing to rewrite code, but it safes a lot of time in maintenance!
Linux And Its Lack Of Support
Since recently I’ve made the switch to Fedora, as you may have read in the posts earlier this week. Then I had some problems with bridging two network cards, still do actually. Today it’s time to bitch about Fedora in general and it’s lack for the most basic tasks.
I love downloading information from newsgroups, which under Windows is no problem. No shortage of tools (NewsBin, NewsLeecher, Grabit, etc). But in Fedora I spent at least 2 hours finding a newsgroup client. And when I gave up and decided to use a command prompt one called nget it was hell.
It’s just not feasible to download articles from a newsgroup with a command prompt client. First having to search though thousands of lines finding the article you want and then manually downloading it. (Really starting to hate Linux :-S)
Another problem I encountered was with a website. It uses flash to load in some movies, movies that I like to see. Now in Windows with Firefox that was no problem. Loaded the page, clicked the movie and presto. In Fedora it’s a whole different story. Loaded the page, clicked the movie to start playing and gone! I literally mean Firefox just disappeared, went AWAL.
Did I mention how much I hate Fedora and Linux in general!
Switching to Fedora?
When I came into the world of computers it was with MS Dos 6.1. From which I graduately moved towards Windows 2003 and Windows XP, which up until now I’ve been using. Lately I had some problems with spam being sent from my PC without my approval due to a configuration error in Windows (all my fault though :(). Because of this I decided to move this computer to Fedora Core 6.
But what a hell it is. Configuring thousands of different applications in different conf files, maintaining my mind and not freaking out if all hell breaks out. Previously I didn’t think it was worth the switch to Linux because it is to much of a hassile. Now I just know it’s not worth it. I’ve been working for over 5 hours just to get a network bridge up, which I still haven’t even after exploring various options like bctrl.
Not to mention I still have to install proper codecs for MP3 and AVI. Damn it’s almost wanting me to go back to the Windows OS.
