# Re: Problem in SVN using Cygwin **URL:** \ **Category:** GNU Radio\ **Created:** [September 29, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-problem-in-svn-using-cygwin/70542 "2006-09-29T22:41:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![William\_Guthrie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/0ea827/32.png) [@William\_Guthrie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/William_Guthrie)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-problem-in-svn-using-cygwin/70542/1 "2006-09-29T22:41:42Z")
TM Tiwari wrote: > I was trying to download the codes for GNU radio, and I used following > command in Cygwin > > $ svn co [http://gnuradio.org/svn/gnuradio/trunk](http://gnuradio.org/svn/gnuradio/trunk) gnuradio > > and I received error as follwed: > > svn: PROPFIND request failed on ‘/svn/gnuradio/trunk’ > svn: PROPFIND of ‘/svn/gnuradio/trunk’: Could not parse response status > line. > ( > [http://gnuradio.org](http://gnuradio.org)) > > I am able to ping the IP Address as well homepage of > [http://www.gnuradio.org](http://www.gnuradio.org) > > please advise me on this error. I am glad this thread was ongoing, because I ran into this error too, and it helped to know someone else was experiencing it. The problem appears to be our corporate firewall. Is there a generic way to get svn to do a checkout around a firewall? In the meantime I found I can checkout from home. At work I ran the command that TM Tiwari lists above. I tried all kinds of variations. Machines running svn under Cygwin, Linux and through Mongoose all failed. The error message on the Linux machines was: svn: PROPFIND request failed on ‘/svn/gnuradio/trunk’ svn: PROPFIND of ‘/svn/gnuradio/trunk’: Could not read status line: connection was closed by server. ([http://gnuradio.org](http://gnuradio.org)) It was frustating because all machines could access the url through web browsers, traverse the directories and view the files in the repository. I took my laptop home and tried the download, and everything was fine. Thanks, Bill Guthrie * * * ---
**Author:** ![William\_Guthrie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/0ea827/32.png) [@William\_Guthrie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/William_Guthrie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 5:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-problem-in-svn-using-cygwin/70542/2 "2006-09-30T05:09:38Z")
William Guthrie wrote: > I am glad this thread was ongoing, because I ran into this error too, and it > helped to know someone else was experiencing it. The problem appears to be our > corporate firewall. Is there a generic way to get svn to do a checkout around > a firewall? In the meantime I found I can checkout from home. I just realized what the issue is when I read your post. Subversion does indeed use HTTP as the protocol to communicate between a client and repository server. However, it uses the WebDAV methods over HTTP to implement versioning, transactions, etc. So while typical web browsing uses HTTP GET and HTTP POST methods, Subversion also uses HTTP PROPFIND, HTTP MKACTIVITY, and several other WebDAV methods. Most corporate firewalls (or more likely, transparent proxies) are not configured to pass or proxy these less frequently used (but still standard) HTTP methods. This results in being able to put the URL in your browser and being able to see the latest version come up, but having Subversion error out when it doesn’t get responses to its queries. One way around this is to use SSL via a https: URL. Here, all the HTTP protocol stuff is necessarily passed through the gateway unchanged (it’s encrypted in the tunnel so the gateway can’t “know” what it is.) It’s just like going to your bank’s online web interface. But this requires configuration on the server end to support, and [gnuradio.org](http://gnuradio.org) is not set up that way. It burns a significant amount of CPU power (for the encryption) and we’d have to evaluate whether our setup is sufficient to handle the load. In the short term you can try to convince the powers that be in your company to enable “WebDAV methods” in their web proxy or firewall. Johnathan C. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![William\_Guthrie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/0ea827/32.png) [@William\_Guthrie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/William_Guthrie)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-problem-in-svn-using-cygwin/70542/3 "2006-10-02T20:53:50Z")
Pascal C. wrote: > I had a similar problem and this is the solution that I used. > > At work, my computer is behind a firewall and I must use a proxy server > to send HTTP requests. So, I needed to set proxy name and address for > SVN. So, edit ~/.subversion/servers. In the [global] section, use these > lines: > [global] > http-proxy-host = your.server.address > http-proxy-port = your\_server\_port Pascal–thanks for reply. My original email had assumed that the poster had already configured Subversion for access through his proxy or firewall. If that’s not the case, your instructions above will apply if he has a web proxy in place. If the original poster has already done something similar then the issues I brought up around WebDAV proxy problems will be where to look next. Johnathan C., AE6HO removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![William\_Guthrie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/0ea827/32.png) [@William\_Guthrie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/William_Guthrie)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-problem-in-svn-using-cygwin/70542/4 "2006-10-02T20:47:49Z")
I had a similar problem and this is the solution that I used. At work, my computer is behind a firewall and I must use a proxy server to send HTTP requests. So, I needed to set proxy name and address for SVN. So, edit ~/.subversion/servers. In the [global] section, use these lines: [global] http-proxy-host = your.server.address http-proxy-port = your\_server\_port Regards, Pascal