how do I create an SVN user for debian linux?

I've inherited an debian svn server, and I guess have now been assigned the task of svn administration. The problem is that I now need to add a new user, I googled to no avail.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

From serverfault BeeBand

• It depends on your config.. Have a look at the file at

  [subversion_repos]/[repo]/svnserve.conf

  (on my server the repositories are at /var/local/subversion)

  svnserve.conf specifies how SVN should authenticate users.
  For example, if it uses the password-db directive, your users will be inside the file it points to.

  BeeBand : @Joril, I have a number of repos, and in each of the svnserve.conf is the line `password-db = passwd`. However, inside the passwd file are just the example users `harry` and `sally`. None of the real users are listed.

  Christian Paredes : That only has an effect if you're using svnserve to serve files... if you're doing something weird like using rsync or pure SSH (not SVN+SSH), then it wholly depends on which user the subversion client logs in as (if it's a single user for every machine in the department, then you'd want to see if everyone's SSH .pub key is in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. Otherwise, if they login as themselves, make sure each user on the SVN server can actually login/transfer stuff over SSH/rsync without Subversion.)

  Christian Paredes : Point being, if you're not using svnserve, then you're likely looking at plain UNIX stuff for authentication, like /etc/passwd, /etc/ssh/sshd_config, ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, etc. etc.
  From Joril

• A subversion repository can be served in several ways; if you are using the bundled svnserve daemon, then Joril's answer is correct.

  If you are using the apache module mod_dav_svn, then you need to look in your Apache configuration and determine what does Apache use as its user authentication base.

  I don't have a Debian server to check here, but my Ubuntu uses /etc/apache2 as the standard apache configuration path.

  BeeBand : @Urgoll, sorry stupid question, but how do I know whether I am using the bundled svnserv daemon?

  Urgoll : Do you know the URL for the repository that users are using ? If it starts with svn:// then it's svnserve. If it's http:// or https:// then it's apache. If it's something else, please post it and we'll do some more research. :)
  From Urgoll