SVN on Apache failing (errcode="13") Could not open the request SVN filesystem

Question

I have the same symptoms as Error number 13 - Remote access svn with dav_svn failing. However, the solution to that problem does not work for me.

The error message:

<D:error xmlns:D="DAV:" xmlns:m="http://apache.org/dav/xmlns" xmlns:C="svn:">
<C:error/>
<m:human-readable errcode="13">Could not open the requested SVN filesystem</m:human-readable>
</D:error>

The relevant apache log entry:

(20014)Internal error: Can't open file '/svn/testrepo/format': Permission denied

The subversion conf file:

<Location /svn>
   DAV svn
   SVNPath /svn/testrepo
</Location>

However, I've further confirmed that user apache can, indeed, open the file /svn/testrepo/format, and can not only open it, but move it, duplicate it, delete it, and overwrite it. (su apache -> do all that stuff.) What can I do next?

=========== FURTHER INFORMATION ===========

In response to crazyjul, here are the results of ps aux | grep apache

apache   14019  0.0  0.2  11248  2112 ?        S    16:40   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   14020  0.0  0.2  11248  2112 ?        S    16:40   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   14021  0.0  0.2  11248  2112 ?        S    16:40   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   14022  0.0  0.2  11248  2112 ?        S    16:40   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   14023  0.0  0.2  11248  2112 ?        S    16:40   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   14024  0.0  0.2  11248  2112 ?        S    16:40   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   14025  0.0  0.2  11248  2112 ?        S    16:40   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   14026  0.0  0.2  11248  2112 ?        S    16:40   0:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
root     14032  0.0  0.0   5412   772 pts/4    R+   16:41   0:00 grep apache

The results of ps aux | grep www

root     14034  0.0  0.0   5412   772 pts/4    S+   16:42   0:00 grep www

The results of ls -as on my repo folder:

drwxrwxrwx 7 apache apache 4096 2011-10-07 16:13 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 apache apache 4096 2011-10-07 14:04 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 apache apache  229 2011-10-07 13:50 README.txt
drwxr-xr-x 2 apache apache 4096 2011-10-07 15:50 conf
drwxr-xr-x 2 apache apache 4096 2011-10-07 13:50 dav
drwxr-sr-x 5 apache apache 4096 2011-10-07 14:25 db
-rwxrwxrwx 1 apache apache    2 2011-10-07 13:50 format
drwxr-xr-x 2 apache apache 4096 2011-10-07 13:50 hooks
drwxr-xr-x 2 apache apache 4096 2011-10-07 13:50 locks

Solution 1

I was researching and I find this.

Problably you have SELinux anabled, is a security system that I don't understad very well how does it work exactly but that's the problem. If you want to know if is on type

[root@localhost ~]# getenforce

If says enforcing, is on

In order to deactivate it type

[root@localhost ~]# chcon -R -t httpd_sys_content_t /var/www/svn/your/path

[root@localhost ~]# chcon -R -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /var/www/svn/your/path

Solution 2

Do you have selinux enabled? I typically disable it for mod_dav_svn but you can get it working with some configuration.

vince@fedora12 /etc/httpd/conf.d > cat /etc/selinux/config
# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
#       enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
#       permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
#       disabled - SELinux is fully disabled.
SELINUX=disabled
# SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are:
#       targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
#       strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

Solution 3

Apache generally have another user to access data. Generally it is called www-data. You can check by calling ps auxand search for apache processes

Comments

[Admin]

I thought it uses whatever user is set in the httpd.conf file. Which, for some versions, defaults to "www-data", but in more recent versions defaults to "apache".

[crazyjul]

can you do a ls -al on your repository?

[crazyjul]

Another clue : Is your apache server chrooted?

[Admin]

I'll admit here that I'm a noob. I don't know what that means, and I don't know how to check...

[ATG]

Yes, changing SELinux context is the last step once your standard file system permissions are set correctly. For clarity, the commands above don't deactivate SELinux on the system, but just change the security context of the SVN directory so that Apache can access it.