If you want to run svnserve through xinetd (documentation still refers to inetd) :

1. Create file /etc/xinetd.d/svnserve :

# default: on
# Subversion server
service svnserve
{
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
user = root
wait = no
disable = no
server = /usr/bin/svnserve
server_args = -i -r /path/to/svn/projects
port = 3690
}

/path/to/svn/projects is the repository you want to share, if you don’t use -r, you’d need to specify the full path to the svn repository, which should be avoided.

2. type the following, it will add subversion ports to the list of services.
echo "svnserve 3690/tcp" >> /etc/services
echo "svnserve 3690/udp" >> /etc/services

3. Open tcp/3690 in your firewall

4. Restart xinetd

5. try telnet localhost 3690

6. if succesful, try “svn list svn://localhost/”

7. Try from a remote location

8. If not working, set up tcp_wrappers

svnserve : ALL : allow

This would allow anyone to connect to svnserve