I want to track file and filesystem changes to be aware of possible security breaches. Can I use Subversion for this task?

Question

I am new to Subversion and cannot find the answer as to how it behaves if the files of the repository are changed from outside Subversion e.g. someone simply doing a copy into the repository, rather than svn copy. In this case, if I browse the repository, will Subversion tell me, that there are new files or directories, that are unversioned? What happens if I delete a file? I use RapidSVN, and I know, that when I want to commit files, it works like this, on the working copy side, but I don't know how the repository behaves on the server side.

I will tell you what do I want to achieve. Our website has been cracked. My boss wants me to write a script, that would monitor the filesystem and create reports on file and filesystem changes (filesize, filename, last modified, permissions). Subversion essentially does this, and I am wondering, if I could actually use Subversion for this task, call it's commands and process the output.

Answer 1

Subversion is not a file system audit tool - you should:

1. Secure your server
2. Back your server up
3. For Version control consider using a distributed VCS such as git or mecurial.

I would strongly suggest asking about security on one of the other SO Sites such as Server Fault