SVN lock a directory

Question

Sorry if this is a duplicate, I didn’t find the right answer still..

How do you lock a svn directory from command line? I need to lock a branch from checkins

Edit:
All of these answers I've found require the person to access the svn server. Thats not an option for me. I work in a company where the source control machine is literally locked in a vault. Gainning access to change auth rules is a process I can't work out ATM.

Answer 1

You can't lock a directory. You can create authorization rules that will prohibit write access to directories. This is typically how this type of thing is done. You could also use a pre-commit hook but I think Subversion's authz is best. Here is a link:

http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.serverconfig.pathbasedauthz.html

Answer 2

I recently solved this by a solution inspired by http://www.noah.org/engineering/olden/svn_directory_lock.html

The particular python script in that post is overkill, but I put the following in the pre-commit hook for my repsoitory:

#!/bin/sh

err() { echo ${1+"$@"} 1>&2; } # stderr is sent to user

REPOS="$1"
TXN="$2"

SVNLOOK=/usr/bin/svnlook

# Make sure there is a log message.
#
$SVNLOOK log -t "$TXN" "$REPOS" | grep -q "[a-zA-Z0-9]" 
if [ $? -eq 1 ]
then
  err "ERROR: Must enter a log message for this commit!"
  exit 1
fi

# Usage: locked_dir dir [transaction_id]
locked_dir()
{
  if [ -z "$2" ]; then _tid=""; else _tid="-t $2"; fi
  $SVNLOOK propget $_tid "$REPOS" lock "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo true; else echo false; fi
}

for d in $($SVNLOOK dirs-changed -t "$TXN" "$REPOS")
do
  locked_before=$(locked_dir $d)
  locked_tx=$(locked_dir $d "$TXN")

  if [ $locked_before = $locked_tx -a $locked_tx = true  ]
  then
    err "ERROR: Directory $d is locked. Delete lock before you commit."
    exit 1
  fi
done

# All checks passed, so allow the commit.
exit 0

So now, you can simply use the "svn propset" and commit to create a "lock" property for a directory that you want to lock.