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Re: strange error with subversion: "client denied by server configuration: /htdocs"

From: Ryan Schmidt <subversion-2009b_at_ryandesign.com>
Date: Fri, 15 May 2009 04:45:11 -0500

On May 15, 2009, at 03:30, John Pye wrote:

> We're having some strange errors with our Subversion server at the
> moment in our open source project, ASCEND.
>
> For *some* clients, we see errors like this:
>
> jpye_at_ascend:~$ svn co
> http://ascendsvn.cheme.cmu.edu/ascend/code/trunk/solvers test1
> svn: PROPFIND request failed on '/ascend/!svn/vcc/default'
> svn: PROPFIND of '/ascend/!svn/vcc/default': 403 Forbidden
> (http://ascendsvn.cheme.cmu.edu)
>
> which is accompanied by an error in the Apache logs:
>
> [Fri May 15 04:20:58 2009] [error] [client 128.2.52.249] client denied
> by server configuration: /htdocs
>
> but for *other* clients, there is no error at all, and the command
> works
> just fine.
>
> Our host server is running Ubuntu Hardy, with subversion 1.4.6, all
> standard Ubuntu packages. This error as above is seen on the same
> server, but I have tested and the same command runs find on a Fedora 9
> machine running the exact same version of the Subversion client. I
> also
> have no problems on an Ubuntu Jaunty machine running 1.5.4.
>
> When I access the subversion server using a web browser, it also all
> works fine:
> http://ascendsvn.cheme.cmu.edu/ascend/code/trunk/
>
> Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this annoying bug?
>
> Below is the relevant Apache configuration...
>
> Cheers
> JP
>
>
> <VirtualHost *:80>
> ServerAdmin john.pye_at_anu.edu.au
> ServerName ascendsvn.cheme.cmu.edu
>
> ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/svn-error.log
>
> RedirectMatch ^/stats/?$
> http://ascend.cheme.cmu.edu/awstats/awstats.pl?
> config=ascendsvn.cheme.cmu.edu
>
> RedirectMatch permanent ^/$ /ascend
>
> # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
> # alert, emerg.
> LogLevel debug
>
> CustomLog /var/log/apache2/svn.log combined
> ServerSignature On
>
> <Location /ascend>
>
> DAV svn
> SVNPath /home/svn/ascend
>
> AuthType Basic
> AuthName "Subversion Repository"
> AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/dav_svn.passwd
>
> # Uncomment the following line to enable Authz Authentication
> # AuthzSVNAccessFile /etc/apache2/dav_svn.authz
>
> # The following three lines allow anonymous read, but make
> # committers authenticate themselves.
> <LimitExcept GET PROPFIND OPTIONS REPORT>
> Require valid-user
> </LimitExcept>
>
> </Location>

What is the DocumentRoot in effect for this VirtualHost? Since one
isn't defined in the VirtualHost, what is the server's global
DocumentRoot?

My thought is that you may be experiencing some variant of this
issue, wherein your svn path inadvertently overlaps with some path
inside the DocumentRoot -- or possibly with some global Alias,
RedirectMatch, RewriteRule or similar directive.

http://subversion.tigris.org/faq.html#http-301-error

Try setting the DocumentRoot to something useful inside the
VirtualHost, for example to /var/empty or some other empty directory,
to rule out any conflicts with the server's global DocumentRoot. If
that doesn't help, examine your server's global Alias, RedirectMatch,
RewriteRule and similar directives for possible conflicts with the
path you're trying to check out from svn.

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Received on 2009-05-15 11:46:27 CEST

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