For mail notifications, there is already a hook “mailer.py” distributed with the subversion package, although there is also a more robust version called svnmailer. You can install it via the svnmailer package.

The setup requires a couple more configuration file edits. First of all, in svn repository configuration folder (/home/svn/my-project/conf), you need to create a new file “svnmailer.conf”. Here is the layout of my file:

[general]
config_charset = iso-8859-1
smtp_host = smtp-host.my-isp.net
smtp_user = my-smtp-usename@my-isp.net
smtp_pass = my-smtp-password

[author table]
scott = scott@scotts-isp.net
kyle = kyle@kyles-isp.net

[maps]
from_addr = [author table]

[defaults]
from_addr = svn-admin@my-isp.net
to_addr = scott@scotts-isp.net kyle@kyles-isp.net
generate_diffs = add modify copy
long_mail_action = 100000 showurls/truncate

This is for a very basic configuration. You should be able to guess at which fields need to be modified for your own configuration (setup your SMTP mailer info, setup the user accounts to mail for, etc.) For an advanced configuration, see the full svnmailer documentation.

The other file you’ll need to modify is /home/svn/my-project/hooks/post-commit. There is a “template” version available which you can use by copying it with the following command (inside the /home/svn/my-project/hooks directory):

cp post-commit.tmpl post-commit

Then open it and scroll down to the very bottom. Edit it so that the only uncommented lines (ones that don’t start with ‘#’) look like:

REPOS="$1"
REV="$2"

/usr/bin/svn-mailer --commit --config /home/svn/my-project/conf/svnmailer.conf \
--repository "${REPOS}" --revision "${REV}" &

After that you should be ready to go! Try committing to your repository to make sure everything works out.

One quick question: How do I enable post-commit mail notifications?

Thanks,

I’ve wanted to switch from an outdated version of Perforce to svn for a long time. I’ve bought two books and read lots of online documentation, and I’m no stranger to Linux, having used Ubuntu daily for over two years. But every other reference has been full of “you could do this, or you could do that, or this other thing’, and I quickly get lost in the details of BerkeleyDB vs. FSFS, or trying to figure out how to set up my first repository without jeopardizing my ability to set up other repositories on the same machine in the future.

This article explains exactly what I wanted to do. Using an existing Hardy installation, in about 20 minutes I was able to set everything up for the first repository, including three passworded user accounts, and do a checkout onto a Mac client. Now the project can move forward, and if I need to learn more, I can do it later.

Fantastic job!