SVN::Notify::Mirror(3) Keep a mirrored working copy of a repository path

SYNOPSIS

Use svnnotify in post-commit:


svnnotify --repos-path "$1" --revision "$2" \
--handler Mirror --to "/path/to/www/htdocs" \
[--svn-binary /full/path/to/svn] \
[--tag-regex "regex"]
[--minimal]

or better yet, use SVN::Notify::Config for a more sophisticated setup: 

  #!/usr/bin/perl -MSVN::Notify::Config=$0
  --- #YAML:1.0
  '':
    PATH: "/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin"
  'path/in/repository':
    handler: Mirror
    minimal: 1
    to: "/path/to/www/htdocs"
  'some/other/path/in/repository':
    handler: Mirror
    to: "/path/to/remote/www/htdocs"
  'some/project/tags':
    handler: Mirror
    to: "/path/to/another/dir"
    tag-regex: "TRUNK-"

DESCRIPTION

Keep a directory in sync with a portion of a Subversion repository. Typically used to keep a development web server in sync with the changes made to the repository. This directory can either be on the same box as the repository itself, or it can be remote (via SSH connection).

USAGE

Depending on whether the target is a ``Local Mirror'' or a Remote Mirror, there are different options available. All options are available either as a commandline option to svnnotify or as a hash key in SVN::Notify::Config (see their respective documentation for more details).

Common Options

In addition to all of the options available to svnnotify, there is a single global option that affects both ``Local Mirror'' and Remote Mirror targets:
minimal
If the "--minimal" flag is passed on the commandline (or a hash entry created in a config file), then the update will occur at the shortest common path of all files/dirs that are changed for that revision. For example, using the example config file above, the following changes occured in rev 23: 

  Changed paths:
    M path/in/repository/subdir/subdir2/file.1
    A path/in/repository/subdir/file.2
    M path/in/repository/subdir/subdir3/file.3

and the checked-out mirror was in "/path/to/www/htdocs", then the update would be executed in the "/path/to/www/htdocs/subdir" directory. This is the shorted common path of the updated files.

NOTE: when using the SVN::Notify::Config mode, the matching path (in the above example "path/in/repository") is stripped off of the shortest common path prior to appending that to the destination path (the "to:" key). It is assumed that a matching key is the ``root'' of the working copy.

Working Copy on Mirror

Because 'svn export' is not able to be consistently updated, the sync'd directory must be a full working copy, and if you are running Apache, you should add lines like the following to your Apache configuration file: 

  # Disallow browsing of Subversion working copy
  # administrative directories.
  <DirectoryMatch "^/.*/\.svn/">
   Order deny,allow
   Deny from all
  </DirectoryMatch>

The files in the working copy must be writeable (preferrably owned) by the user identity executing the hook script (this is the user identity that is running Apache or svnserve respectively).

Local Mirror

Used for directories local to the repository itself (NFS or other network mounted drives count). The only required options are:
  • handler = Mirror

    Specifies that this module is called to process the Notify event.

  • to = /path/to/working/copy

    Specified which directory should be updated.

Remote Mirror

Used for mirrors on some other box, e.g. a web server in a DMZ network. See SVN::Notify::Mirror::SSH or SVN::Notify::Mirror::Rsync for more details. All "ssh-*" options are now deprecated in the base class and support for them will be removed in the next major release. Please update your configurations (see SVN::Notify::Mirror::SSH for details).

Methods of Mirroring

There are two schemes to keep a directory synced to a path in the repository:
1. Update a checked out working copy
This is the normal mode of operation and is commonly used to keep a test web server in sync with the repository on every commit.
2. Switch a working copy to a new tag
This is the preferred method when you want to keep a production web server up to date with only specific revisions, through the use of smart tagging.

For the latter case, SVN::Notify::Mirror can be configured to monitor a path in the repository and only trigger an update when the path matches a specific regular expression, and do so by switching the mirrored path to the new tag.

  • tag-regex

    This optional parameter works with any ``Local Mirror'' or ``Remote Mirror'', using any of the applicable transfer methods (currently local, SSH, or Rsync). The "--tag-regex" parameter takes a string which will be interpreted as a conventional Perl regex, and only those repository paths which match the regex will be updated. The regex also determines what the mirrored directory will be switched to.

    For example, using a SVN::Notify::Config file (which is the most useful way to employ this option): 

      #!/usr/bin/perl -MSVN::Notify::Config=$0
  --- #YAML:1.0
  '':
    PATH: "/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin"
  'project1/trunk':
    handler: Mirror
    to: "/path/to/test/htdocs"
  'project1/tags':
    handler: Mirror
    to: "/path/to/production/htdocs"
    tag-regex: "TRUNK-"

    This would have the effect of keeping the path "/path/to/test/htdocs" in sync on every commit, but "/path/to/production/htdocs" would be switched only when a tag was created in "project1/tags" that matched the string "TRUNK-". NOTE: this is not a sophisticated regex; in particular you should not employ anchors, since the URL is not split into repos-root and path segments before testing.

    To initialize the switch directory, you must perform an initial checkout like this: 

     $ svn checkout file://$REPOS/project1/tags/TRUNK-0_0_1

    where "TRUNK-0_0_1" is the name of any path in the ".../tags/" folder.

PREREQUISITES (Optional and otherwise)

The only mandatory prerequisite is SVN::Notify (obviously), but the presence of several other modules will enable other features:
SVN::Notify::Config
Permits a YAML config file to be used as the entire postcommit script, like the second example in the SYNOPSIS above.
Net::SSH
Required to use SSH to update a remote working copy. See SVN::Notify::Mirror::SSH for usage of that transport method.
File::Rsync
Required to use rsync to update a remote working copy See SVN::Notify::Mirror::RSync for usage of that transport method..

If you install any of these modules after installing SVN::Notify::Mirror, those features will be available immediately (though you can rerun the install in order to see the tests).

AUTHOR

John Peacock <[email protected]>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2005-2008 John Peacock

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.

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