how to start svnserve with systemctl systemd

Question

subversion package in debian jessie does not include a systemd service file. what is the simplest solution for automatic start. i try

[Unit]
Description=Subversion protocol daemon
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
#EnvironmentFile=/etc/conf.d/svnserve
#ExecStart=/usr/bin/svnserve --daemon $SVNSERVE_ARGS
ExecStart=/usr/bin/svnserve -d -r /svnFolder/repositories
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
KillMode=process
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=svnserve.service

it is an adaptation of https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=190127 but i have put the arguments directly for svnserve directly here.

what can be improved?

Answer 1

Here is a proposal to setup svnserve service "the-Debian-way" running with a dedicated svn service account with proper logging. According to FHS, repositories should be stored in /srv/:

First, the service configuration for systemd /etc/systemd/system/svnserve.service:

[Unit]
Description=Subversion protocol daemon
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
RuntimeDirectory=svnserve
PIDFile=/run/svnserve/svnserve.pid
EnvironmentFile=/etc/default/svnserve
ExecStart=/usr/bin/svnserve $DAEMON_ARGS
User=svn
Group=svn
KillMode=control-group
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Second, the service startup options at /etc/default/svnserve:

# svnserve options
DAEMON_ARGS="--daemon --pid-file /run/svnserve/svnserve.pid --root /srv/svn/repos --log-file /var/log/svnserve/svnserve.log"

To work properly, the folder for log files must be created with proper ownership:

mkdir /var/log/svnserve; chown svn /var/log/svnserve

To end with log rotation configuration /etc/logrotate.d/svnserve:

/var/log/svnserve/*.log {
    daily
    missingok
    rotate 14
    compress
    notifempty
    create 640 svn adm
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
            if /bin/systemctl status svnserve > /dev/null ; then \
                /bin/systemctl restart svnserve > /dev/null; \
            fi;
    endscript
}

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

(I'd make this a comment on @Yves Martin's answer, but this is a new account and I'm not allowed to comment. :-P )

With SELinux, this solution doesn't allow for an autostart of the daemon. I made a few changes to make it happy. The svnserve daemon does not have open rights in the /var/log tree. Placing the log in the svn account's domain resolves a security whine.

In /etc/systemd/system/svnserve.service:

ExecStart=/usr/bin/svnserve --daemon \
  --pid-file /var/run/svnserve/svnserve.pid \
  --root /project/svn/repos \
  --log-file /project/svn/log/svnserve.log

In /etc/logrotate.d/svnserve:

/project/svn/log/*.log {  # path changed
...
  create 644 svn svn   # corrected group and made world-readable
...

Finally, make the svn repos and log directory have the correct ownership and security type:

sudo mkdir /project/svn
sudo chmod 755 /project/svn
sudo mkdir /project/svn/repos /project/svn/log
sudo chown -R svn:svn /project/svn
sudo semanage fcontext -add --type svnserve_content_t "/project/svn(/.*)?"
sudo restorecon -Rv /project/svn

(Obviously, change /project/svn to wherever you have decided to put your repo structure. /var/svn is common and the rules already exist for that directory tree, making the last couple lines above unnecessary.)

Answer 3

Update: My answer below has been obsoleted. These improvements and others have been incorporated into Yves Martin's excellent solution.

I have two improvements: it's generally recommended not to run such things as root. Create a user for this, for example 'svn'. It is also recommended to explicitly specify a PID file when using forking. My svnserve.service looks much like yours except I add the lines:

User=svn
Group=svn
PIDFile=/usr/local/svn/svnserve.pid
ExecStart=/usr/bin/svnserve  -d -r /usr/local/svn/repos --pid-file /usr/local/svn/svnserve.pid

Answer 4

One comment on Yves Martin's excellent answer above (I don't have the rep points to comment yet):

When trying to enable the service to start on boot, I'd get an error:

$ sudo systemctl enable svnserve.service
Failed to execute operation: Invalid argument

After doing some research I found you apparently cannot set an alias to the same name as the service. Deleting the Alias line from the [Install] section of the svnserve.service solved the issue:

[Unit]
Description=Subversion protocol daemon
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
RuntimeDirectory=svnserve
PIDFile=/run/svnserve/svnserve.pid
EnvironmentFile=/etc/default/svnserve
ExecStart=/usr/bin/svnserve $DAEMON_ARGS
User=svn
Group=svn
KillMode=control-group
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target