Nerdstock.org - Subversion on Windows

Subversion via SSH on Windows

So… You're behind a Windows machine, the project you're working on is managed through Subversion, and all the SVN admin said to you was

The URL is svn+ssh://svn.example.com and the username is user01. Make sure to first send me your pubkey.

And there you are. Not a clue what all that means. What now?
Read on, and your SVN admin will never need to know what a newbie you are… ;)

Premises
Downloads
PuTTY installatie
TortoiseSVN installatie
Genereren van een SSH sleutel
Pageant
TortoiseSVN
Warning

Premises

While writing this HOWTO, I will assume:

SVN is correctly installed and configured at the server (the repository)
the repository's URL svn+ssh://svn.example.com
your username is user01
you accept that I will not accept any responsibility for anything you do or don't do based on this manual

Downloads

First we'll need to download some things:

PuTTY downloads
- Installer
or, if you don't want to use the installer:
- PuTTY
- Plink
- Pageant
- PuTTYgen
TortoiseSVN downloads
- TortoiseSVN installer

PuTTY installation

If you've downloaded the installer, doubleclick it and the applications will be installed automatically, complete with icons in your startmenu.
If you've downloaded the separate applications, save them to a location that makes sense to you.

TortoiseSVN installation

The TortoiseSVN installation is started by doubleclicking the TortoiseSVN-*.msi.

After installing TortoiseSVN you'll need to reboot the PC, because that's how it works in Windows.
So make sure you've created a bookmark to this page.

When the PC has rebooted and you open Windows Explorer (which is not the same as Internet Explorer), you'll see that there are 2 new options in the right mouse menu: SVN Checkout and TortoiseSVN (a submenu). More about this later.

Generating an SSH keypair

First we'll need to generate an SSH key. Start PuTTYgen for this.
The PuTTYgen window consists of 3 fields: Key, Actions and Parameters. Funnily, the workflow is the exact opposite:

Parameters:
For Type of key you select SSH-2 RSA; this means you'll be generating an RSA type key for SSH version 2. If you'd need another type of key, your SVN admin would have told you so.
Number of bits defines the size of the key; a larger key will give better encryption, but will also need more time for the encryption. My choice would be 4096, but I'm a security freak; 2048 should suffice.
Actions:
When you've filled in the parameters, press the button labeled Generate.
Key:
After some time, and some mouse movements to generate random data, your public key will be displayed in the field, including some input fields.
Give your email address as the Key comment; this will enable the SVN admin to recognize the key.
Type a passphrase for the key in the Key passphrase and Confirm passphrase fields.
(Yes, you will. I won't accept you saving an SSH key without a passphrase. That way you would open up the repository to the world; think of what could happen if your PC gets stolen, lost, dumped in the garbage, or whatever. You only need to type this passphrase once per session; I'll explain later.)
Now copy the contents of the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file field and save this as a text file (e.g. user01_ssh_pubkey.txt).
Actions:
Now press the buttons labeled Save public key and Save private key to save the generated keys; for this you could create a directory ssh in My Documents. The secret key will have a .ppk extension, for the public key the extension doesn't matter.

The file user01_ssh_pubkey.txt should now be mailed to your SVN admin, and you won't be able to continue until (s)he notified you that the key has been installed.

PuTTYgen may now be closed.

Pageant

Start Pageant; this will add an icon to your system bar. Rightclick this icon and select Add key; then select the private key you have just generated.

Pageant will now remember your key passphrase for you, so you won't need to type it over and over again.

Make sure Pageant starts when you start Windows; this could be accomplished by adding a shortcut to startmenu -> Programs -> Startup.
See the Pageant documentation to learn how to make Pageant load the keys when it starts.

TortoiseSVN

Open Windows Explorer, go to My Documents, create a new subdirectory named Development, open the new directory, rightclick and select SVN Checkout. Fill in these data in the window that opens:

URL of repository: svn+ssh://user01@svn.example.com/
Note: you type your username, followed by an at-sign, between the double slash and the rest of the URL.
Checkout directory: the name of the directory where you want the files saved
Checkout depth: Fully recursive
Revision: HEAD revision

Then press the button labeled OK; the files will now be downloaded from the repository to your PC.

You can now edit the files like you're used to. The directory icons show which directories contain edited files; you can send these changes to the repository by rightclicking and then selecting SVN Commit (this will also work for entire directories, and only the actual changes will be transmitted).
You can update your version to the version in the repository by selecting SVN Update; do this regularly, especially if you're not the only one using this repository.

And that's it.
Subversion works, and you know how to get files from and to the repository.
The rest is left up to your Google capabilities.

Have fun,
Nerdstock.org

Warning

Windows' filesystem does not know the difference between uppercase (capital) and lowercase (small) letters.
This will lead to problems if there are multiple files with the same name, but different case, in the same directory (e.g. index.html and Index.html).
The only way around this is to make sure there are never multiple files with the same name and different case in the same directory.
The default Mac OS filesystem (HFS) has this same problem.
One solution here is to convert your filesystem to HFS+, which is case-sensitive.
If you do not want to convert your entire system, you could create a disk image with HFS+ as it's filesystem, and use that as a container for your working copy.

Responses are welcomed:
rob[at]nerdstock.org

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en