Berkeley db errors

Berkeley DB Errors

A Berkeley DB error looks like this in the server-side logs:

[Mon Jun 02 13:17:38 2008] [error] [client X.X.X.X] (20014)Error string not specified yet: Berkeley DB error while opening environment for filesystem /srv/svn/repos/db:\nDB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery
[Mon Jun 02 13:17:38 2008] [error] [client X.X.X.X] Could not fetch resource information.  [500, #0]
[Mon Jun 02 13:17:38 2008] [error] [client X.X.X.X] Could not open the requested SVN filesystem  [500, #160029]
[Mon Jun 02 13:17:38 2008] [error] [client X.X.X.X] Could not open the requested SVN filesystem  [500, #160029]

Resolving it is a simple matter. SVN provides the svnadmin tool for repository administration. Running svnadmin help produces a useful message:

root@server# svnadmin help
general usage: svnadmin SUBCOMMAND REPOS_PATH  [ARGS & OPTIONS ...]
Type "svnadmin help <subcommand>" for help on a specific subcommand.

Available subcommands:
   create
   deltify
   dump
   help (?, h)
   hotcopy
   list-dblogs
   list-unused-dblogs
   load
   lstxns
   recover
   rmtxns
   setlog
   verify

And running svnadmin help recover produces even more helpful details:

root@server# svnadmin help recover
recover: usage: svnadmin recover REPOS_PATH

Run the Berkeley DB recovery procedure on a repository.  Do
this if you've been getting errors indicating that recovery
ought to be run.  Recovery requires exclusive access and will
exit if the repository is in use by another process.


Valid options:
  --wait                   : wait instead of exit if the repository is in
                             use by another process

So I run the obvious command:root@server#svnadmin recover /srv/svn/repos and all is working again.