Now that I have dynamic DNS working, I gave WebDAV another try. My goal was to connect from WindowsXP using the “Add Network Place” wizard.

There is a good overview of using WebDAV folders in Version Control with Subversion (the “SVN book”), Appendix C . After reading this, I reviewed the mod_dav and mod_dav_fs sections of the Apache documentation and the mod_dav_svn chapter of the SVN book.

WebDAV Installation Testing Process:

• I learned from Appendix C that Konqueror (KDE file browser) uses an (undocumented?) webdav: scheme to browse webDAV folders. My first goal was connecting to webdav://localhost/fs using Konqueror. This worked; I was able to drag & drop files in and out of the folder.
• Next I connected using my dynamic DNS address. This proved that the Apache mod_dav configuration, virtual hosts, and ZyXEL port forwarding were are all working. (Note: port translation caused this step to fail).
• Windows XP ran through the “Add New Network Place” wizard and even requested a username and password, but then failed. Numerous pages on the web describe this scenario and suggest complicated workarounds. Once again the SVN book offered a solution: add a port number to the URL. This worked — I added http://xxx.no-ip.org:80/fs as a new Network Place. I was now able to drag & drop using the WindowsXP browser.
• However there was a problem, again described and solved in the SVN book: “Microsoft released a bug-fixed version of XP Web Folders in January 2005, available at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=892211. In particular, this release is known to fix a bug whereby browsing a DAV share shows an unexpected infinite recursion.” I installed this update and the recursion problem was solved.
• Next I decided to see if FrontPage could publish to a WebDAV folder. I created a one-page web site which I then tried to publish using the WebDAV option. Password validation occurred and the local/remote window appeared, but the Publish action failed. Found the following Caveat, “Microsoft FrontPage insists on the presence of FrontPage server extensions for saving files back to a web server, despite using Web Folders. Other Office products as well as Web Folders are completely interoperable with mod_dav, though.” Indeed the Apache error log noted that files in _vti_bin weren’t found and that’s where FrontPage extensions are kept.

The next post presents the section of the Apache config file dealing with WebDAV and Subversion.

Installed my new ZyXEL wireless router, which solved the hanging problems of my two older BEFW11S4’s. The improved uptime, plus support for reserved DHCP addresses and dynamic DNS updates has got my Subversion server on line. Notes regarding the install:

• Gave my httpd workstation a reserved IP address in the dhcp server and then forwarded http requests to that address.
• Created dynamic DNS accounts at both no-ip.com and DynDNS.org. The ZyXEL was able to update both without a hitch. Settled on no-ip.com.
• Both no-ip.com and the ZyXEL router support port shifting, so I had no-ip shift 80 to 5555 and then had the ZyXEL shift back from 5555 to 80. This worked but with problems: 1) the actual IP address showed up in the browser, and 2) PROPFIND and the other WebDAV methods were rejected by no-ip on port 5555.  So port translation is out for now.
• Installed RapidSVN on WindowsXP after deciding I didn’t want the TortiseSVN commands showing up in every right-mouse click. RapidSVN worked perfectly after removing the port shifting described above.

In my .subversion/config file, I have the following auto-props rule:

* = svn:keywords=Date Rev Author Id

This turns on keywords for all files, and I don’t have to make a new entry when I start working with a new type of source file.

However, I realized that with this rule, .jpg and .gif files will have keywords turned on and could trigger a substitution if say $Id: sdogWP-X10.sql,v 1.4 2014/11/18 06:10:40 tguthrie Exp tguthrie $ appeared as part of the binary data. So I went into my image directories and issued:

svn propdel svn:keywords *

Given subversion’s current config capabilities, I’ll always have to remember to perform a manual step. Currently, I have to remember to do the propdel for all new binary files. With the normal suffix rules, I’d have to add a new rule for each new source file type. I’d probably forget the first time and have to do a propadd for a bunch of files.

Subversion should extend the auto-prop rules to allow matching on text and binary file types; then I could change my * rule to text files only.

First try at merging a branch back into the trunk. A simple case because no changes were made to the trunk while working with the branch.

In the branch working dir:
svn log -v --stop-on-copy

This reports the list of revisions since the branch was created. This range of revisions is used as an argument to the merge command.

Create a clean trunk working dir and this issue these commands:
svn merge -r 11:15 http://../branches/css-1024px
svn diff -r 15 http://../branches/css-1024px
svn commit

Next, switch my development and reference working directories back to pointing at the trunk:
svn switch http://localhost/svn/ll/trunk

Lastly, there were a bunch of tmp files in my working directory, so I tried out svn cleanup which removed them.

After switching from dhcpcd to dhclient, I was in a position to complete the conversion to SuSE 10.2 or revert to 10.0. I wanted to move forward for a number of reasons: newer php5 w/XML, newer Apache, better hardware support (power, ACPI, etc). Also the install was done such that the natural resolution of the monitor was 1600×1200, solving another problem.

But after 2 days, I’m giving up. Firefox 2.0 for Linux running on x86_64 is reluctant to load any plugins: Java, Shockwave, (?Flash? – retest. There is no Java 1.5 64-bit plugin, so must use 1.4.2. There are various posts on the Internet giving howto tips for Ubuntu and maybe Fedora, but not SuSE. Also, I did a network install and I will prefer downloading the whole DVD image from now on.

There are no postings on the Internet regarding dhcpcd bugs, so this must be a “Linksys vs. SuSE dhcpcd specific” issue. During diagnosis and debugging, I switched from my v1 BEFW11S4 from 1999 to a new v4 model from Verizon. It behaved indentically w.r.t dhcpcd. Additionally, both routers lose connectivity with DSL in different ways and have to be reset frequently.

Updates:

1. Reverted to SuSE 10.0
2. Buy a new Internet router, a Zyxel X-550 ($50 after rebate).  It never loses connectivity, although Verizon still drops things occasionally.
3. Should go back and retest dchpd with the X-550.