So let’s say you already have working SVN repo and want to setup svnsync to have backup on another server. Here are the steps I did to make it working:

1. Dump existing repo:
   
   Shell

   svnadmin dump /home/svn > /home/svn.dump #gzip on the fly if you have big repo svnadmin dump /home/svn | gzip -9 > /home/svn.dump.gz

   1 2 3

   svnadmin dump /home/svn > /home/svn.dump #gzip on the fly if you have big repo svnadmin dump /home/svn | gzip -9 > /home/svn.dump.gz

2. Transfer it to backup server (extract if you used gzip in previous step):
   
   Shell

   scp /home/svn.dump.gz backup:/home/ root@backup# gzip -d /home/svn.dump.gz

   1 2	scp /home/svn.dump.gz backup:/home/ root@backup# gzip -d /home/svn.dump.gz

3. Load the dump into repo:
   
   Shell

   cd /home svnadmin create svn svnadmin load /home/svn < /home/svn.dump #after loading paste to hooks/pre-revprop-change echo "

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   cd /home svnadmin create svn svnadmin load /home/svn < /home/svn.dump   #after loading paste to hooks/pre-revprop-change echo "

4. Create hooks/pre-revprop-change:
   
   Shell

   vim /home/svn/hooks/pre-revprop-change

   1	vim /home/svn/hooks/pre-revprop-change

   
   Paste into file:
   
   Shell

   #!/bin/sh exit 0

   1 2	#!/bin/sh exit 0

   
   Make file executable:
   
   Shell

   chmod +x /home/svn/hooks/pre-revprop-change

   1	chmod +x /home/svn/hooks/pre-revprop-change

5. Get repository UUID:
   
   Shell

   svn info https://mainserver/svn

   1	svn info https://mainserver/svn

   
   You will get something like:
   
   Shell

   Path: repos URL: https://mainserver/svn Relative URL: ^/ Repository Root: https://mainserver/svn Repository UUID: b104dc52-766c-5412-a351-c523fa6b150c Revision: 203 Node Kind: directory Last Changed Author: admin Last Changed Rev: 203 Last Changed Date: 2014-09-20 10:04:23 +0200 (Sat, 20 Sep 2014)

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   Path: repos URL: https://mainserver/svn Relative URL: ^/ Repository Root: https://mainserver/svn Repository UUID: b104dc52-766c-5412-a351-c523fa6b150c Revision: 203 Node Kind: directory Last Changed Author: admin Last Changed Rev: 203 Last Changed Date: 2014-09-20 10:04:23 +0200 (Sat, 20 Sep 2014)

   
   Copy UUID and paste into next command:
   
   Shell

   svn propset --revprop -r0 svn:sync-from-uuid b104dc52-766c-5412-a351-c523fa6b150c

   1	svn propset --revprop -r0 svn:sync-from-uuid b104dc52-766c-5412-a351-c523fa6b150c

6. Now init the mirror repo:
   
   Shell

   svnsync init --allow-non-empty file:///home/svn https://mainserver/svn

   1	svnsync init --allow-non-empty file:///home/svn https://mainserver/svn

7. And finally sync it:
   
   Shell

   svnsync sync file:///home/svn

   1	svnsync sync file:///home/svn

8. Now you can setup cronjob to keep it syncing automatically e.g. every 5min. Use my script wrapper to avoid running two syncs at same time