I needed an SVN repository at home to be able to store configs and make sure I knew what I had changed months ago. Looking everything up online, I realized this was much simpler than I was prepared for it to be. On the server hosting the repository:

svnadmin create /path/to/repo/name

Then, edit /path/to/repo/name/conf/password, and give it a list of users and password you want to have access. And… that’s it. You now have an SVN repository that you can use to track changes made – as long as you remember to check them in again.

Checking out the repository is as simple as:

svn checkout svn+ssh://<hostname>/path/to/repo/name /local/location</hostname>

This is great if you’re using a public IP or NAT, as you can get to your repository securely from anywhere in the world.