I am struggling with a strange error when I try to commit my repository. I have a V-server with webmin installed on it. Via Webmin I installed an svn module, created repositories and everything worked fine until three days ago. Trying to commit brings the following error:

Commit failed (details follow):
Server sent unexpected return value (503 Service unavailable) in response to
PROPFIND request for '/svn/rle/!svn/wrk/a1f963a7-0a33-fa48-bfde-183ea06ab958/RLE/.htaccess'
Server sent unexpected return value (503 Service unavailable) in response to
PROPFIND request for '/svn/rle/RLE/.htaccess'

I google everywhere and found only very few solutions. One indicated that a wrong error document is set, another one dealt about the problem that filenames might cause this error and last but not least a wrong proxy configuration in the local svn config could be the reason.

After trying all of the solutions suggested I could not reach anything. Only after a server reboot there was a little difference in the error-message, telling me that the server was not able to move a temp file, because the operation was permitted. So I also controlled the permissions of the svn directory, but also with no success.

An svn update than restored the "normal" error from above and nothing changed since then.

The only change I made on the server, I guess that this could be the reason why svn does not work anymore, was to install the php5_mysql module for apache via apt-get install php5_mysql.

Atg the moment I have totally no idea where I could search. I don't know if the problem is on my server or in my repository and I would be glad to get any hint to solve this.

Thanks in advance Greetings philipp

error log:

[Tue Oct 25 19:23:02 2011] [error] [client 217.50.254.18] Could not create activity /svn/rle/!svn/act/d8dd436f-d014-f047-8e87-01baac46a593.  [500, #0]
Tue Oct 25 19:23:02 2011] [error] [client 217.50.254.18] could not begin a transaction  [500, #1]
[Tue Oct 25 19:24:21 2011] [error] [client 217.50.254.18] Could not create activity /svn/rle/!svn/act/adac52c2-6f46-f540-b218-2f2ff03b51a4.  [500, #0]

http.conf:

<Location /svn>
DAV svn
SVNParentPath /home/xxx/svn
AuthType Basic
AuthName xxx.de
AuthUserFile /home/xxx/etc/svn.basic.passwd
Require valid-user
AuthzSVNAccessFile /home/xxx/etc/svn-access.conf
Satisfy Any
ErrorDocument 404 default
RewriteEngine off
</Location>

The permissions for the repository directory are : rwxrwxrwx (0777). the directory

/svn/rle/!svn/act/adac52c2-6f46-f540-b218-2f2ff03b51a4

does not exist on the server. I think this is part of the repository.

So, I just just want to admit that i tried to reach the repository via Browser and i worked, I could see everything, so the error only occurs when I try to commit new files. I also created a second repository and tried to commit files in there, what gave me the same error.