Email Notifications with Subversion
Pre-Flight
- Running SubVersion 1.4.2 on CentOS 5.5 (x64)
- For this guide, my repository is located at
/home/svn/repository - I’ll be using
mailer.pyinstead ofcommit-email.pl- The former is more configurable and can be used on a
per-directory basis. This is useful if you have many projects in
a single repo.
- The former is more configurable and can be used on a
Setup
Copy over the sample post-commit hook
Permissions and ownership are vitally important here!
cp hooks/post-commit.tmpl hooks/post-commit
chmod 770 hooks/post-commit
chown apache:apache hooks/post-commit
Now edit hooks/post-commit and add this line:
/usr/share/doc/subversion-1.4.2/tools/hook-scripts/mailer/mailer.py commit "$REPOS" "$REV"
Comment out these lines:
commit-email.pl "$REPOS" "$REV" commit-watchers@example.org
log-commit.py --repository "$REPOS" --revision "$REV"
Configure email alerts for a repository
First copy over the sample mailer config:
cp /usr/share/doc/subversion-1.4.2/tools/hook-scripts/mailer/mailer.conf.example conf/mailer.conf
A general file looks like this:
[general]
mail_command = /usr/sbin/sendmail
smtp_hostname = localhost
[defaults]
diff = /usr/bin/diff -u -L %(label_from)s -L %(label_to)s %(from)s %(to)s
commit_subject_prefix = "[SVN - IT Scripts]"
propchange_subject_prefix =
lock_subject_prefix =
unlock_subject_prefix =
from_addr = donotreply@svn.eng.uiowa.edu
to_addr = foo@uiowa.edu bar@gmail.com
reply_to = donotreply@svn.eng.uiowa.edu
generate_diffs = add copy modify
show_nonmatching_paths = yes
suppress_deletes = yes
[maps]
The various options should be self-explanatory. A test commit should
work at this point.
Configuring alerts for specific folders
Let’s say that a specific group of people is to know if commits are made
to the firewall_scripts folder. In that case:
[firewall_scripts]
for_paths = ^firewall_scripts($|/)
commit_subject_prefix = "[SVN - Firewall Scripts]"
from_addr = donotreply@svn.eng.uiowa.edu
to_addr = it-admins@genome.uiowa.edu
Testing things out
You don’t necessarily need to commit things to test out the config.
sh hooks/post-commit /home/svn/repository 195
Where the last two arguments are the path to the repo and the revision
number.
Tip of the Iceberg
There are tons of things you can do with mailer.conf in a large
and/or complicated setting. The best way to get acquainted with its
features is to essentially read the default file to figure out what it’s
capable of. Reading others’ config files also helps :)