One of my friends had to rebuild his computer and wanted to re-get the C# version of the source for for a program that we have been working for a while now. My heart started racing when he told me that he couldn't get to it. I tried to connect to the repository with TortoiseSVN, but I kept getting this:



I connected to the Windows 2003 server that is hosting the Subversion server with RAdmin, and noticed that svnserve.exe was running. By now, I'm very concerned. I have source backups, but no dump files. It would be quite tedious to re-load the source again. I was not looking forward to this. After some head scratching, I fired up PainlessSVN and looked at the repository. Well, what do you know, the files are still there!



At this point in time I'm quite relieved, but still quite puzzled. After some more head scratching, I decided to recreate my trail of sysadmin actions in the last day or so. I had just installed the latest Windows 2003 service patch last night. I am pretty sure that the patches did something to the services running on the box. I ended up recycling the service that is running svnserve.exe on this box. That solved the problem!

I can only imagine what sort of horror this scenario would be for somebody that has not done network/sysadmin work before. I happen to have been a Netware and Windows NT4 admin before I became a paid programmer. I really was not looking forward to reading the Subversion Red Book for the correct command-line programs. This is one time where I'm glad I dogfood my own apps!

As Bones would have said, "Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor not a mechanic!"