Re: Backup a repository - Resolution

Guys,

We have a winner: dump/load procedure!

After all your answer I decided to take it up to the Big Guy and give
the dump/load a shot. The points in my favour were:

1. tar a repository is not safe
2. tar a repository is neither platform nor svn-version
independent, while dumping a repository is
3. a dump of a repository can be used also when upgrading
Subversion, which we should do soon (this point is not really related to
the backup but I threw it in anyway)
4. after days I've been trying to make a restore of a repository
work, and after days browsing the net and the mailing lists in search
for answers, I still couldn't manage to make it work (well, it hasn't
been days, but he didn't need to know, did he?)

Well, the Big Guy didn't really put up the fight I was expecting (I'd
like to believe because of my strong arguments), and we have now decided
to change the backing up procedures. Hurray!

Although I still don't know why it didn't work I'd still like to reply
to some of you, and if you're not interested, then you can stop reading
now :-)

To Karen

No, my svn doesn't show the FS modules

svn, version 1.3.2 (r19776)

   compiled May 26 2006, 13:10:00

Copyright (C) 2000-2006 CollabNet.

Subversion is open source software, see http://subversion.tigris.org/

This product includes software developed by CollabNet
(http://www.Collab.Net/).

The following repository access (RA) modules are available:

* ra_dav : Module for accessing a repository via WebDAV (DeltaV)
protocol.

  - handles 'http' scheme

  - handles 'https' scheme

* ra_svn : Module for accessing a repository using the svn network
protocol.

  - handles 'svn' scheme

* ra_local : Module for accessing a repository on local disk.

  - handles 'file' scheme

But I thought ra_local was enough for the file protocol, which is what
the output of svn -version says too.

Yes, the output is *really* 'vn and not svn. I thought too that that was
a hint that something was wrong but I couldn't guess what.

To Eric

That's what I was doing. The backup/restore procedure was in place
before I took charge (i.e. someone else decided how to back up and wrote
the restore documentation). Because I have to update/check/rewrite the
docs I thought I tested it before saying they're fine. And, behold, it
didn't work!

 
 
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From: Karen Tracey [mailto:kmtracey@gmail.com]
Sent: 19 April 2007 16:36
To: users@subversion.tigris.org
Subject: Re: Re: Backup a repository

What's the output of "svnserve --version"? Mine lists the fs back-ends
supported:

The following repository back-end (FS) modules are available:

* fs_base : Module for working with a Berkeley DB repository.
* fs_fs : Module for working with a plain file (FSFS) repository.

If you do not see fs_fs, then that would explain the error you are
seeing. How you manage to get an svn without fsfs support would be the
next question.

Does the error message really start -->'vn:<--and not -->svn:<--? That
just looks broken, and might be a hint.

I'll re-iterate that the backup method is dangerously broken. Even if
you get the restore to work once, it's no guarantee that any particular
backup file is going to work. Depending on what is going on with the
repository when the backup is taken, you may or may not get a usable
file. Really it would be best to go to the Big Guy and tell him the
process needs to be changed.

Karen
Received on Fri Apr 20 11:01:13 2007