Access control client error messages very poor?

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I've just had a look through the mailing lists and the issue tracker for
this topic, and not found it discussed before. So, I'll start in?

Is the current behaviour on performing SVN activities (with Neon RA)
that violate access controls known to be bad?

Environment is:

Client SVN: 1.6.9 with ra_neon
Server SVN: Either of 1.6.12 or 1.5.6

If a directory in a repository is open for read for a particular user,
but closed for write, the following is the error message given to the
user. It's hardly friendly, is it!?

svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: Server sent unexpected return value (403 Forbidden) in response to
CHECKOUT request for '/svn/sources/!svn/ver/43/Read/Only/Area/tags'
svn: Your commit message was left in a temporary file:
svn: 'svn-commit.tmp'

To me, the worst part of this is the "Server sent _unexpected_ return
value". Why is "Forbidden" considered unexpected!? ra_neon is talking to
a mod_dav_svn server, which allows access to the repository to be
restricted - what's unexpected about that access being denied?

Equally, if a user tries to check out an area of the repository they
don't have read access to, they get:

svn: Server sent unexpected return value (403 Forbidden) in response to
OPTIONS request for 'http://svn.example.com/svn/svntest1/Private/Area'

Again, "Forbidden" is "unexpected".

Has no-one else reported this? Is it being worked on - anything?

Cheers,

John.

-- 
John Beranek, Senior Software Engineer, Engineering Tools Group
Pace plc.                                Tel: +44 1274 538356
Victoria Road, Saltaire, Shipley         Fax: +44 1274 538056
West Yorkshire, BD18 3LF, UK.            Web: http://www.pace.com/
[Pace plc is registered in England and Wales #1672847]