title: What is svnserve's authz's path syntax on Windows?
body: <p><strong>Background</strong></p>
  
  <p>I have been running <strong>svnserve</strong> version 1.8.17 configuration management software on my windows intranet for years with now 10 PCs. The PCs use TortoiseSVN as the client. Now I need to add another user who has access only to a sub-folder. This means altering the <strong>authz</strong> file.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Problem</strong></p>
  
  <p>When I add a path to the <strong>authz</strong> file, I get error <em>Invalid authz configuration</em>. Here is my sanitized <strong>authz</strong> file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[groups]
  mygroup = rtischer
  othergroup = smith
  
  [/]
  @mygroup = rw
  
  # causes 'Invalid authz configuration' when these lines are included
  [Hiveware:\Hiveware\bbb\ccc\projname]
  @othergroup = rw
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And the following are my sanitized paths:</p>
  
  <pre><code>C:\svn\Hiveware\conf\authz
  C:\svn\Hiveware\db
  C:\Hiveware\bbb\ccc\projname
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The following text, taken from <a href="http://jtdan.com/vcs/svn/1.8/svn-book.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Subversion documentation page xxii</a>, says my path syntax is correct: </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>For consistency, the examples in this book assume that the reader is
    using a Unix-like operating system and is relatively comfortable with
    Unix and command-line interfaces. That said, the svn program also runs
    on nonUnix platforms such as Microsoft Windows. With a few minor
    exceptions, such as the use of backward slashes () instead of forward
    slashes (/) for path separators, the input to and output from this
    tool when run on Windows are identical to that of its Unix
    counterpart.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I couldn't find out what those "minor exceptions" were though.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Question</strong></p>
  
  <p>Is there another syntax that works? Or is this really a bug after all these years?</p>