Debian etch with Subversion 1.5

If you need to do merge with svnmerge.py. I recommend you to install subversion 1.5.x. Let's go to create .deb by yourown.

# log in to your system

user$ mkdir subversion

# download the source package from debian package site. Sure! you're downloading from Leny

# then decompress them

user$ tar xzvf subversion_1.5.1dfsg1.orig.tar.gz

user$ gunzip subversion_1.5.1dfsg1-2.diff.gz

# Then you need to patch with debian specific changes

user$ patch -p0 <>

# change directory to source directory

user $ cd subversion_1.5.1dfsg1

# change the permission to allow to edit

user$ chmod 755 debian/rules

# transform to ROOT user to install dependencies

root# apt-get build-dep subversion

root# apt-get install python-all-dev libneon26-dev quilt libsasl2-dev fakeroot debhelper

# then switch back to user and build the package

user$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b -d

# before install new subversion package, we need to do backup repositories

# do this for each repository

user$ svnadmin dump /path/to/repository > /home/user/repos_dump.txt

# i do more backup with tar

user$ tar czvpf /home/user/repos.tgz -C /path/to repository

# if no error then install these packages

root# dpkg -i *.deb

# Then upgrade repository with new svnadmin

user$ svnadmin upgrade /path/to/repository

Good Luck!