svn Getting started with svn Using a password-protected repository

Example

A Subversion repository can be configured so that certain contents or commands are only accessible to certain users. In order to access this restricted content, you will need to specify a username and password.

Your username and password can be specified directly as part of the command:

$ svn checkout https://svn.example.com/MyRepo/trunk --username JoeUser --password topsecret

Unfortunately, this causes your password to appear in plaintext on the console. To avoid this possible security problem, specify a username but not a password. Doing this will cause a password prompt to appear, allowing you to enter your password without exposing it:

$ svn checkout https://svn.example.com/MyRepo/trunk --username JoeUser
Password for 'JoeUser':

Providing no authentication information at all causes Subversion to prompt you for both the username and password:

$ svn checkout https://svn.example.com/MyRepo/trunk
Username:  JoeUser
Password for 'JoeUser':

While the first method is less secure, it's frequently seen in automated scripts since it is difficult for many types of script to provide information to an interactive prompt.

Note: commands that only operate on your working copy (such as revert or status) will never require a password, only commands that require communicating with the repository server.