Not all communications with a Subversion repository require a powerhouse server process and a network layer. For users who simply wish to access the repositories on their local disk, they may do so using file: URLs and the functionality provided by libsvn_ra_local. This RA module binds directly with the repository and filesystem libraries, so no network communication is required at all.

Subversion requires that the server name included as part of the file: URL be either localhost or empty, and that there be no port specification. In other words, your URLs should look like either file://localhost/path/to/repos or file:///path/to/repos.

Also, be aware that Subversion's file: URLs cannot be used in a regular web browser the way typical file: URLs can. When you attempt to view a file: URL in a regular web browser, it reads and displays the contents of the file at that location by examining the filesystem directly. However, Subversion's resources exist in a virtual filesystem (see the section called “Repository Layer”), and your browser will not understand how to read that filesystem.