I need a secure configuration for SVN server in linux that uses system accounts for authentication/authorization

Question

I need to setup several services in a Linux VPS and want to use system accounts for managing authentication/authorization on those services.

When I setting up a svn server I did something like this, which basically creates a new group for each repository and when the administrator wants to give write access to a user it is only a matter of adding that user to the repository group. The problem with this setup is that users of the repository group are not limited to writing to the repository via the svnserve interface, and can also modify the repository physical directory directly(possible corrupting the repository).

Another solution is to use Apache as an interface for svn, without giving users write permissions to the repository files, but then I would loose the ease of administration via unix accounts/groups.

Is there any way to setup an SVN Server to use unix accounts for authentication/authorization without giving the users physical access to the repository physical directory?

Answer 1

Simon Tatham's article My Experiences With Subversion suggests creating a separate account for svnserve and allowing people to use it through userv. (Alternatively, sudo can be configured in a similar manner.)