Subversion: Update works, but commit fails

“I’m getting the error message Authorization failed when trying to commit my subversion changes. What is wrong?”

We get this question from time to time

 

 

Turns out there is a quirk in Subversion where you can use a URL for checkout or update, but won’t work for a commit.

The checkout allows the case of the characters to not match the “official” URL. Because the update command is case in-sensitive, whereas the commit command is case sensitive.

For example, your original (and “official”) URL may be “https://svn.devzing.com/Me/MyRepo1“. But when you enter the URL in the checkout command, the command which creates the working copy, you accidentally enter everything lowercase. You put in “https://svn.devzing.com/me/myrepo1“. That’s easy enough to do.

But the commit doesn’t recognize this URL and rejects it with an “Authorization failed” message. It only accepts the exact original.

Here is how to find the correct URL:

  • Log into your devZing account
  • Click the Manage Repositories link

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  • Find your repository and note the URL (or right click and copy the link)

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  • Make sure your working copy is exactly as it shows in the URL column.

You can do that via the command line using the following command

svn relocate https://svn.devzing.com/Me/MyRepo1 https://svn.devzing.com/me/myrepo1