By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: June 4, 2016
I just got a Subversion (svn) server running on my MacBook Pro, and thought I'd put this svnserve man page out here as reference:
svnserve(8) svnserve(8)
NAME
svnserve - Server for the 'svn' repository access method
SYNOPSIS
svnserve [options]
DESCRIPTION
svnserve allows access to Subversion repositories using the svn network
protocol. It can both run as a standalone server process, or it can
run out of inetd. You must choose a mode of operation when you start
svnserve. The following options are recognized:
-d, --daemon
Causes svnserve to run in daemon mode. svnserve backgrounds
itself and accepts and serves TCP/IP connections on the svn port
(3690, by default).
--listen-port=port
Causes svnserve to listen on port when run in daemon mode.
--listen-host=host
Causes svnserve to listen on the interface specified by host,
which may be either a hostname or an IP address.
--foreground
When used together with -d, this option causes svnserve to stay in
the foreground. This option is mainly useful for debugging.
-i, --inetd
Causes svnserve to use the stdin/stdout file descriptors, as is
appropriate for a daemon running out of inetd.
-h, --help
Displays a usage summary and exits.
-r root, --root=root
Sets the virtual root for repositories served by svnserve. The
pathname in URLs provided by the client will be interpreted rela-
tive to this root, and will not be allowed to escape this root.
-t, --tunnel
Causes svnserve to run in tunnel mode, which is just like the
inetd mode of operation (serve one connection over stdin/stdout)
except that the connection is considered to be pre-authenticated
with the username of the current uid. This flag is selected by
the client when running over a tunnel agent.
--tunnel-user=username
When combined with --tunnel, overrides the pre-authenticated user-
name with the supplied username. This is useful in combination
with the ssh authorized_key file's "command" directive to allow a
single system account to be used by multiple committers, each hav-
ing a distinct ssh identity.
-T, --threads
When running in daemon mode, causes svnserve to spawn a thread
instead of a process for each connection. The svnserve process
still backgrounds itself at startup time.
-X, --listen-once
Causes svnserve to accept one connection on the svn port, serve
it, and exit. This option is mainly useful for debugging.
Once the client has selected a repository by transmitting its URL,
svnserve reads a file named conf/svnserve.conf in the repository direc-
tory to determine repository-specific settings such as what authentica-
tion database to use and what authorization policies to apply. See the
svnserve.conf(5) man page for details of that file format.
svnserve(8)

