svn: E220001: Item is not readable

SVN Error
svn: E220001: Item is not readable

Had this error crop up on my home SVN Server (Debian: subversion:1.6.17dfsg-4+deb7u12):

$ svn log nodered/README.txt
Authentication realm: <svn: svn.cregganna.com:3690> Cregganna Source Repository
Password for 'myuserid': *******

svn: E220001: Item is not readable

There's lot of queries about this error on the internet but its very hard to find the real answer. Most answers provide the patch: "Temporarily enable anonymous Read Access".

This is not a proper solution.

The Problem Config

The issue is that the repo is configured with with some form of restricted access that is inconsistent.

~svn/repos/cregganna/conf/svnserve.conf:

[general]
anon-access = read
auth-access = write
password-db = passwd
authz-db = authz
realm = Cregganna Source Repository
[sasl]
use-sasl = true

~svn/repos/cregganna/conf/authz:

[/]
$authenticated = rw
* =

The Fixed Config

The issue is that the svnserve.conf defines Anonymous access for read but it is blocked in the authz. The log query is attempted with anonymous access but this then fails the authz.

The answer is the anon-access in the svnserve.conf for this repo should be changed to none to match the * = entry in the authz that denies anonymous read only access.

Thus:

~svn/repos/cregganna/conf/svnserve.conf:

[general]
anon-access = none
auth-access = write
password-db = passwd
authz-db = authz
realm = Cregganna Source Repository
[sasl]
use-sasl = true

And now we have:

$ svn log nodered/README.txt
Authentication realm: <svn: svn.cregganna.com:3690> Cregganna Source Repository
Password for 'myuserid': *******

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r144 | myuserid | 2020-01-05 10:41:43 +0000 (Sun, 05 Jan 2020) | 3 lines


Test Commit
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