Setting up AuthzSVNAccessFile support for Subversion (SVN) should not be that hard, right? Plenty of documentation exists… but there is one pitfall – if you define access for certain repository directories make sure the path does not contain a trailing slash!

If you don’t you will see this error message:

Sending folder/design/readme.txt
svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: Server sent unexpected return value (403 Forbidden) in response to CHECKOUT request for ‘/myrepos/!svn/ver/501/trunk/folder/design/readme.txt’
svn: Your commit message was left in a temporary file:
svn: ‘/tmp/trunk/svn-commit.2.tmp’

Here is a simple AuthzSVNAccessFile sample file showing the issue:

[groups]
developers = mike, peter
designers = marc

[/]
@developers = rw
* = r

# This will not work!
[myrepos:/trunk/folder/design/]
@designers = rw

# Just leave out the trailing slash!
[myrepos:/trunk/folder/design]
@designers = rw

But it’s always just a comma, right?