403 Forbidden error commit error after Tortoise SVN 1.8 upgrade

Question

I am getting the dreaded 403 forbidden error after upgrading my computer to Tortoise SVN version from 1.6 to 1.8.3 (SVN 1.8.4).

1. The problem happens on commit but not checkout
2. The URL appears to be the correct case.
3. I have cleared authentication credentials in the Settings
4. The problem happens following a fresh checkout.
5. Downgrading to Tortoise 1.7 and doing a fresh checkout works.

Our server is on version 1.8.1, at which time we also switched from Apache 2.2 to the CollabNet version bundled with SVN server. I've been assured the repository has been upgraded to version 1.8. I am listed in the repository as having rw permission.

Is there anything about 1.8 that is different, as far as firewalls or authentication? The Apache server uses html and authenticates using network passwords. What are the next steps?

Answer 1

It often happens because of path case-sensitivity of SVN.

SVN allow to checkout code even if path to repository has letters in different case, but it forbids commits to such paths.

Assuming that https://server.svn/Repository is actual path, following path https://server.svn/repository will be checked out, but commits to it will be forbidden.

To fix this, use TortoiseSVN -> Relocate command and check path carefully.

Answer 2

I had exactly the same problem with Windows authentication. When looking at the access log, it seeems that this new release of TortoiseSVN passes the domain in upper case and not in lowercase as before.

Since the svn_access_file had entries like :

@group = domain\user1, domain\user2

I just doubled them to :

@group = domain\user1, domain\user2, DOMAIN\user1, DOMAIN\user2

and it worked.

Answer 3

I suggest double-checking the URL you enter in 1.7 and 1.8 client. Trying the same with a command-line client and comparing the result would be very helpful. Besiders of that, it makes sense to check what's logged on the server when you get 403 Forbidden error.