If you want to replicate/mirror an existing repository which you do not own (i. e. svnadmin dump cannot be used), you can use the svnsync command.
At first: Create a new and empty destination repository on your server:
svnadmin create mirror
Next, create a so called “pre-revprop-change hook script”. This is needed for the subsequent steps.
nano /srv/subversion/mirror/hooks/pre-revprop-change !/bin/sh USER="$3" if [ "$USER" = "yolo" ]; then exit 0; fi echo "Only the syncuser user may change revision properties" >&2 exit 1
This limits the synchronizing mechanism to the specified user and is executed by Subversion automatically.
Now, initialize and perform the synchronization of the repositories:
svnsync init svn://YOUR_HOST/mirror/ SOURCE_REPOSITORY svnsync sync svn://YOUR_HOST/mirror/
If the process comes to a halt, you can abort it using Ctrl+C and restart it without breaking anything. The process will continue were it was aborted (as everything is versioned this is not a problem).
For details: Chapter “Replication with svnsync” in the Subversion book.