subclipse with svn+ssh solution

I'm using subclipse 0.9.32 on windows and I was having lots of trouble
trying to get svn+ssh to work. After too much wasted time and giving up
several times I finally found the solution and I though that it would be
well worth my while to post it here.

I got the solution from Tim on the subversion mailing list
http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=13453
but I'll repeat it.

First of all the problem is characterised by getting the following message
in the svn console:

    The system cannot find the file specified.
svn: Can't create tunnel: The system cannot find the file specified.

The solution to this is to tell svn where it can find the ssh executable. To
do this you need to add the following line to the svn config file. On
windows the file can be found at:

C:\Documents and Settings\[user_name]\Application Data\Subversion\config

In this file there are sections one of which is [tunnels] . Make sure this
section head is uncommented (there is no # at the beginning of the line)
After the section head look for a like that starts with 'ssh = ' if you
don't find that line then add the following, if you do find it then modify
it to the following:

ssh = [path_to_ssh_client]

for example I use:

ssh = D:/TortoiseSVN/bin/TortoisePlink.exe

I find the tortisesvn version of plink better than the original version of
plink because it doesn't pop up an annoying cmd window every time you use
svn. That's it, it should work now. Next you will want to set up an ssh key
with the server so that you don't need to type in your password an
innumerable number of times. Check out:

http://silenceisdefeat.org/wiki/index.php/SSH_Key_Authentication

for a pretty good howto. The steps are pretty simple: generate the keys,
post the public key on the server, connect. Now you will need to fix up the
Subversion\config file to go along with the changes. Modify the line that
was added before to be:

ssh = [path_to_ssh_client] -2 -i [path_to_private_key_file]

for example I use:

ssh = D:/TortoiseSVN/bin/TortoisePlink.exe -2 -i
D:/TortoiseSVN/bin/ssh2-DSA-1024.ppk

The -2 is because I need to force the use of ssh version 2 from generating a
DSA key. I also don't put a passphrase on my key but that's because I feel
that my workstation is fairly secure. Now subclipse should work with svn+ssh
and have key auth to the server.

Hope you found this helpful.

Alex
Received on Sat Aug 6 17:45:00 2005