Change SVN password command line

There are multiple ways passwords are setup on Subversion. It depends upon the server you're using (svnserve, http, svn+ssh), and the way the administrator has set everything up.

Subversion doesn't contain a built in authentication method. Instead, it can use many different external authentication methods from the very simple to the extremely complex. Some will allow users to change their own passwords and even setup their own accounts. Others require a system administrator to do it. It all depends upon your particular setup.

• On our site, we use Apache http to serve our Subversion repository (svn co http://server/src/repos). I've set it up to use our Windows Active Directory, so the user's username and password is their Windows' username and password. It means I don't have to handle users' I forgot my password requests, and passed the whole account headache to our Windows administrators.
• Some sites use Apache http, but use a password file located on the Apache server itself. This is usually called htpasswd and its location is configured by the Subversion administrator. It's possible that the System administrator has a way to let the users set their own passwords, but that's not necessarily true. In this instance, you have to contact the administrator and ask them to change your password.
• Some sites use svnserve (svn co svn://server/repos). The standard way this is setup is that there's a passwd file in the Subversion repository's config directory. This is located on the system that's running the server, and you have no access to it. Again, you have to contact the system administrator.
• Some sites use SASL for their authentication. This can use Windows Active Directory, LDAP, or any number of authentication methods. Sometimes you can set your own password, sometimes you have to ask the administrator how it's done.

So, you're going to have to ask your Subversion administrator how to change your password. If you're lucky, there's a way to do it yourself. If not, you'll have to ask your Subversion administrator to change it.

If https is used, the password may be defined by Apache. This is what I needed to do to change password, in case it helps someone else:

# using root account
cd /etc/apache2
cat foo.passwd # the right user, foobar was found here
# copy the line for foobar, in case you want to restore it!
man htpasswd # a little refresher on what the command does
htpasswd foo.passwd foobar
# new password is prompted
cat foo.passwd # check that the line for this user actually got changed

Then do checkout with https to verify the right password got changed.

This is what I have to do:

cd /etc/httpd/conf/svn

backup current svn-auth just in case

cp svn-auth.htdigest svn-auth.htdigest«yymmDD»
htdigest svn-auth.htdigest “Subversion Repository” «user-name»

It was ask for new passwsord

htpasswd -m C:\csvn\data\conf\svn_auth_file admin

I recommend installing the Collabnet SubVersion Edge bundle, since it includes a Web tool for allowing users to change their passwords on their own.