Setting up SVN Usernames

I'm using MATLAB's builtin SVN source control integration. I had to tweak the config file to allow anonymous access. Now that it's no longer just me using the repository, I'd like to use the --username option for my commits. I can't figure out how to do this, so all of my commit logs show "r# | (no author) | [date] ..."

Does anybody know how to get it to take a username, then display that in place of (no author)?

--EDIT: Given my comment describing the SVN side of the problem, I'll update my question to be entirely MATLAB specific. Does anybody know how to get MATLAB to store my SVN credentials across sessions? I'll even take a solution that involves the startup.m file.

[Greg]

I've found a few things through my own research (and some ridiculously deep digging into the svnbook.red-bean link provided by Ed Marquez). Thank you for the help there.

To tell the SVN server to challenge the user, modify [RepositoryRoot]\conf\svnserve.conf

anon-access = none
auth-access = write

Now add a line in the [users] section for each username to [RepositoryRoot]\conf\passwd

bob = somepassword
george =

The second example there works for george to have a username but a blank password.

MATLAB will now display a username/password popup when SVN challenges for credentials. This seems to persist through the MATLAB session, but is cleared when MATLAB closes.

[Greg]

Also, I found the commands for updating the author of a previous commit revision if anybody else is having that problem.

svn propset --revprop -r {revision_number} svn:author {username}

[Guillaume]

Considering how good TortoiseSVN is, I never bother with matlab's integration.

As for configuring the server, if you have several users, you would be better off configuring either svnserve or https to serve your files rather than the very limited file protocol.

[Greg]

I am using svnserve, not the file protocol.

I was turned off Tortoise because it takes over the entire Windows Explorer. Since the only files I version control are my MATLAB code, I don't want to see all the SVN stuff for every file in every folder when I'm just browsing my hard drive.

Also, the native integration with MATLAB's visdiff() is phenomenal. I'm sure I could teach any of the others to use it, but I didn't have to, so time saved.

Answer 1

[Ed Marquez]

Hi Greg,

My suggestion is to check this link:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/set-up-svn-source-control.html

Which leads to:

http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.7/svn-book.html#svn.serverconfig.choosing.recommendations

While you are in that 2nd link, I would also recommend going over Section5: Repository Admisnistration and the Repository Maintenance Subsection.

[Greg]

Can anybody dumb the process down? I see very little in either of those 2 links regarding setting up usernames, and what I do find is too confusing/incomplete to be useful.

Answer 2

[ja]

I don't know if you're having the same problem I was having but just in case:

I was having an issue where I have created a local repository and was using that folder in matlab. But doing anything kept asking for my password, which is weird. I discovered the problem was that I had recently changed my password and, despite being able to navigate the folders just fine, apparantly the permissions were not quite what was expected for matlab use.

Anyway, the fix is to simply go, in Windows, to the folder I was using and try to do an SVN update. It asked for my password. I entered it and checked the "remember me" box. Now matlab works just fine.