So, this is the second time I have tried to address the problem I was getting with some Subversion repositories I was trying to configure to be served by Apache. I was trying to use the SVNPath directive to serve one repository but it was not having any of it, so instead I ended up serving them as a temporary measure using SVNParentPath in the format http://svn.example.com/~name/repos/ which is not what I wanted. I am using the Location container in Apache configuration to configure up my repositories, the path I had specified was /~name/. This is where the problem comes in, I would try to checkout the repository over the network and be greeted with a 405 Method Not Allowed error like so:
svn: PROPFIND request failed on '/~name' svn: PROPFIND of '/~name': 405 Method Not Allowed (http://svn.example.com)
This stuck me as odd, it seemed the Apache was not serving the repository URI using the WebDAV module. When I gave up on an earlier attempt I reverted to using SVNParentPath and accessing the repository over the URI http://svn.example.com/~name/repos/ which worked perfectly and I couldn’t spot why. Turns out I made a single character mistake, my Apache configuration was set to use the path of /~name/ I should have used /~name because SVN truncates the trailing slash even if you specify it on the command line. Bugger!
