svn hangs on checkout in Windows

Question

Attempting to check out a repository using svn checkout svn+ssh://USER@REPO .

I have set my %SVN_SSH% variable to include the -v flag when calling plink.exe , and the last log I get is Using username "USER". After that the command line hangs indefinitely.

I get similar problems attempting to checkout the repository using TortoiseSVN and the Subversion integration in Intellij.

I have no problems connecting to the server using PuTTY or calling plink directly in the command line. Using the -v flag with plink , I get prompted for my password immediately after the line where it hangs using svn checkout .

I have Windows 7 Ultimate SP 1, svn version 1.8.13, plink release 0.60.

Answer 1

The problem seems to be that you have to use public key authentication for SVN to be able to use SSH in Windows properly.

There are a few tutorials online for how to do this, but the one that worked for me was this one: http://support.suso.com/supki/SSH_Tutorial_for_Windows

The important difference, which I didn't find in other tutorials, was the usage of the chmod command to change access permissions to the public key file on the server.

Answer 2

It might be too late to say, but i've had the similar problem. In mine case the issue was in the command line of the plink.exe .

To properly fix all issues and do not type infinite logins and passwords:

1. Use pageant.exe to add the ppk key and avoid manual input of the password.
2. Use SVN_SSH environment variable with the -l "<username>" parameters to avoid manual input of the user name and avoid usage the username in the svn repository url.
3. Use SVN_SSH environment variable with the -batch parameter to avoid hangs in a script mode.

The resulting SVN_SSH environment variable should look like this:

SVN_SSH="<path-to-plink>/plink.exe" -batch -l "<USER>"

warning : backslash character in a path in the SVN_SSH variable is an escape character, you have to use a double to self escape it or replace it a forward slash - / .

But be careful with the git svn command, because the SVN_SSH variable can break the git with the message:

Can't create session: Unable to connect to a repository at URL 'svn+ssh://...': Error in child process: exec of '' failed: No such file or directory at .../Git/mingw64/share/perl5/Git/SVN.pm line 310.

In that case you have to use the ssh-pageant from the msys or cygwin tools instead.

I've create another post with detailed description on how to do that step by step both for the svn.exe and git.exe : How to use git-svn with svn+ssh url