Running Subversion as Windows Service

Download the source package of subversion for windows from http://subversion.tigris.org
Unpack the Zip package to some Directory
Eg: C:\usr\svn-win32-1.4.5\

Now add the subversion binaries to system PATH. Binaries are located in “C:\usr\svn-win32-1.4.5\bin\“. To set this either you can go through the Advanced menu of system applet or use “set” command from command line.

Now you will be able to use the svn commands from command prompt. As the first step, create a root folder for all projects that will run under this server, say C:\svnroot. Now we need to run the svn server.

C:\Temp\>svnserve -d -r C:\svnroot

This will start svn server listening on default port 3690. To verify, start another command window
C:\Temp>netstat -ano|find “3690″
TCP 0.0.0.0:3690 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING 2820
The process with PID 2820 is listening on port 3690, to verify that the process is svnserve,
C:\Temp>tasklist |find “svnserve.exe”
svnserve.exe 2820 Console 0 3,264 K

This confirms that snvserve is running and listening for connections on port 3690

This method has the drawback that the svnserve command is running in foreground which means,
*A command window will be running in the foreground all the time
*If the windows is closed or the server is rebooted the service will require to be manually started again.
*A user has to be logged in to the server and he cannot log off for another user to use the system.

So to make life easier, we will have to automate the whole thing. This means that the svnserver should be run as a windows service. Subversion has a Windows installer which will install itself as a service, bu I feel it is not that flexible and hence wanted to implement the serive in my way. Svnserve supports running as windows service with the command line switch –service. To make use of this feature we should use the Windows Service Control command line tool(sc.exe).

First, create the service with name SVNSVC
C:\Temp>sc create SVNSVC binpath= “C:\usr\svn-win32-1.4.5\bin\svnserve.exe –service -r C:\svnroot” displayname= “Subversion Server” depend= Tcpip
[SC] CreateService SUCCESS

Configure the service to start at boot time
C:\Temp>sc config svnsvc start= auto
[SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS

Start service
C:\Temp>net start svnsvc
The Subversion Server service is starting.
The Subversion Server service was started successfully.

If you mis configure the service option or run into problems, you can always remove the service from the system with the command
C:\Temp>sc delete svnsvc
[SC] DeleteService SUCCESS
and create a fresh service.

You can configure, start and stop services from the services MMC console in administrative tools instead of using the command line. But you can’t add or delete service.