Linux Admin Zone

Recenlty I was in need to update a old subversion server to latest one in a CentOS 5.2 box. I removed the older rpms and compiled subversion from latest source. Everything seems fine except ViewVC which is used to browse svn repositories.

Following error was occuring:

An Exception Has Occurred
Python Traceback

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/local/viewvc-1.1/lib/viewvc.py”, line 4065, in main
request.run_viewvc()
File “/usr/local/viewvc-1.1/lib/viewvc.py”, line 403, in run_viewvc
self.view_func(self)
File “/usr/local/viewvc-1.1/lib/viewvc.py”, line 1662, in view_roots
allroots = list_roots(request)
File “/usr/local/viewvc-1.1/lib/viewvc.py”, line 3922, in list_roots
cfg.utilities, cfg.options.svn_config_dir)
File “/usr/local/viewvc-1.1/lib/vclib/svn/__init__.py”, line 53, in SubversionRepository
import svn_repos
File “/usr/local/viewvc-1.1/lib/vclib/svn/svn_repos.py”, line 25, in ?
from svn import fs, repos, core, client, delta
ImportError: No module named svn

Solution: You need to install python bindings for svn.

Step 1: Check whether SWIG library is installed in your system or not (most distribution already have):

# rpm -qa | grep -i swig
swig-1.3.29-2.el5

Its there in my system, if you doesn’t get any output then install the library by using yum install swig or manually by from here.

Step 2: Install python bindings for SWIG. I assume you have subversion source avaialble with you. Untar the source and you will be able to find the bindings in /usr/src/subversion-1.6.1/subversion/bindings/swig/python directory.

# cd /usr/src/subversion-1.6.1/
# make swig-py
# make check-swig-py ### Perform checks
# make install-swig-py

If you face any issue while this installation, pls check INSTALL file in /usr/src/subversion-1.6.1/subversion/bindings/swig directory to get further instructions, otherwise the library should be installed successfully and programs like ViewVC or other ones which requires swig python bindings should run fine.