The function xmldb:create-collection($target-collection-uri as xs:string, $new-collection as xs:string) supports recursion on the $new-collection, which makes it possible to say:

xmldb:create-collection(repo:get-root(), 'a/b/c/d')

This recursively creates a/b/c/d as needed and returns /db/apps/a/b/c/d. This very much appreciated behavior however is undocumented.

As ca

Instead of supplying username and password on the command line when invoking a pipeline, we would like to use the invoking Linux user’s cached authentication info if available, for example in /home/wbdvwork/.subversion. So if username and password are missing, the steps should look at some default locations before raising an error.
[org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc.DefaultSVNAuthenticationMan