如何从备份中还原SVN存储库？

Question

We've got a Windows 2003 server, with Subversion (specifically SlikSVN) installed. The svnserve.exe process is setup to run as a Windows Service.

The server has got 2 hard drives, one for the OS (C: drive), and one for data (D: drive). Our SVN repository was located at D:\\SVN, but the D: drive crashed recently, and no longer starts up. The SVN Windows Service also refuses to start up (presumably because it can't locate the repository).

Fortunately though we have backups of the repository (backed up to to an external drive via XCOPY every night), and we now need to restore the latest backup to the C: drive at C:\\SVN.

How do I go about doing this? Can someone please provide me with a detailed explanation. All I need to do is restore the latest repository backup to a different location (in this case C:\\SVN) on the same server.

What are the command line commands that I need to run. Do I need to unmap the D:\\SVN location?

Answer 1

The proper way to backup a Subversion repository is the svnadmin hotcopy command. In such case:

The resultant backup is a fully functional Subversion repository, able to be dropped in as a replacement for your live repository should something go horribly wrong.

http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.reposadmin.maint.html#svn.reposadmin.maint.backup

You say that you just copied the files somewhere else. I suggest you just try and copy them back. I recommend you run svnadmin verify afterwards.

I'm not familiar with svnserve.exe but, given it's a Windows service, you can always change its parameters pointing regedit at:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\snvserve\Parameters