Let's say you want to access a svn repo or perhaps even a working copy programatically through php without escaping to the shell, you need svn functions setup in php. Here is how you do it.

First off, you need to have a few packages installed. I assume you already got a web server and php up, in addition to this you will also need the following:

• php development libraries
• php pear/pecl
• subversion
• subversion development libraries

On a modern *buntu distro, the packages you need are: