As of Crowd 1.2, the support for using subversion authorization files to control access on a per directory basis doesn't work if the SVNParentPath directive is used in the apache config file. This is a known limitation.

SVNParentPath allows you to put multiple svn repositories in a directory and access them through a single URL (see http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.serverconfig.pathbasedauthz.html and http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.ref.mod_dav_svn.conf.html).

If you do have multiple repositories you can make it work by defining apache <Location> blocks for each one and using a separate authz file for each, but it's a bit more work to set up and maintain.

Example:

<Location /svn/tools1>
DAV svn
SVNPath /usr/local/svnrepos/tools1
...
</Location>

<Location /svn/tools2>
DAV svn
SVNPath /usr/local/svnrepos/tools2
...
</Location>

<Location /svn/tools3>
DAV svn
SVNPath /usr/local/svnrepos/tools3
...
</Location>