6 git-svn - Bidirectional operation between a single Subversion branch and git
10 'git svn' <command> [options] [arguments]
14 'git-svn' is a simple conduit for changesets between Subversion and git.
15 It provides a bidirectional flow of changes between a Subversion and a git
18 'git-svn' can track a single Subversion branch simply by using a
19 URL to the branch, follow branches laid out in the Subversion recommended
20 method (trunk, branches, tags directories) with the --stdlayout option, or
21 follow branches in any layout with the -T/-t/-b options (see options to
22 'init' below, and also the 'clone' command).
24 Once tracking a Subversion branch (with any of the above methods), the git
25 repository can be updated from Subversion by the 'fetch' command and
26 Subversion updated from git by the 'dcommit' command.
33 Initializes an empty git repository with additional
34 metadata directories for 'git-svn'. The Subversion URL
35 may be specified as a command-line argument, or as full
36 URL arguments to -T/-t/-b. Optionally, the target
37 directory to operate on can be specified as a second
38 argument. Normally this command initializes the current
42 --trunk=<trunk_subdir>;;
44 --tags=<tags_subdir>;;
46 --branches=<branches_subdir>;;
49 These are optional command-line options for init. Each of
50 these flags can point to a relative repository path
51 (--tags=project/tags') or a full url
52 (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags). The option --stdlayout is
53 a shorthand way of setting trunk,tags,branches as the relative paths,
54 which is the Subversion default. If any of the other options are given
55 as well, they take precedence.
57 Set the 'noMetadata' option in the [svn-remote] config.
59 Set the 'useSvmProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
61 Set the 'useSvnsyncProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
62 --rewrite-root=<URL>;;
63 Set the 'rewriteRoot' option in the [svn-remote] config.
65 When retrieving svn commits into git (as part of fetch, rebase, or
66 dcommit operations), look for the first From: or Signed-off-by: line
67 in the log message and use that as the author string.
69 When committing to svn from git (as part of commit or dcommit
70 operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
71 From: or Signed-off-by: line, append a From: line based on the
72 git commit's author string. If you use this, then --use-log-author
73 will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
75 For transports that SVN handles authentication for (http,
76 https, and plain svn), specify the username. For other
77 transports (eg svn+ssh://), you must include the username in
78 the URL, eg svn+ssh://foo@svn.bar.com/project
80 This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended
81 to the names of remotes if trunk/branches/tags are
82 specified. The prefix does not automatically include a
83 trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the
84 argument if that is what you want. If --branches/-b is
85 specified, the prefix must include a trailing slash.
86 Setting a prefix is useful if you wish to track multiple
87 projects that share a common repository.
90 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
91 tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
92 .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
96 Store Git commit times in the local timezone instead of UTC. This
97 makes 'git-log' (even without --date=local) show the same times
98 that `svn log` would in the local timezone.
100 This doesn't interfere with interoperating with the Subversion
101 repository you cloned from, but if you wish for your local Git
102 repository to be able to interoperate with someone else's local Git
103 repository, either don't use this option or you should both use it in
104 the same local timezone.
106 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
107 This allows one to specify Perl regular expression that will
108 cause skipping of all matching paths from checkout from SVN.
111 --ignore-paths="^doc" - skip "doc*" directory for every fetch.
113 --ignore-paths="^[^/]+/(?:branches|tags)" - skip "branches"
114 and "tags" of first level directories.
116 Regular expression is not persistent, you should specify
117 it every time when fetching.
120 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
121 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
122 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
123 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
124 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
125 '--fetch-all'. After a repository is cloned, the 'fetch'
126 command will be able to update revisions without affecting
127 the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be able
128 to update the working tree with the latest changes.
131 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
132 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
134 This works similarly to `svn update` or 'git-pull' except that
135 it preserves linear history with 'git-rebase' instead of
136 'git-merge' for ease of dcommitting with 'git-svn'.
138 This accepts all options that 'git-svn fetch' and 'git-rebase'
139 accept. However, '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
140 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
142 Like 'git-rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
143 and have no uncommitted changes.
147 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git-rebase' against the
148 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
151 Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
152 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
153 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
154 a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
155 It is recommended that you run 'git-svn' fetch and rebase (not
156 pull or merge) your commits against the latest changes in the
158 An optional command-line argument may be specified as an
160 This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
161 cleaner, more linear history.
164 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
166 Commit to this SVN URL (the full path). This is intended to
167 allow existing git-svn repositories created with one transport
168 method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
169 reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
170 method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
172 Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask)
173 is very strongly discouraged.
177 Create a branch in the SVN repository.
181 Allows to specify the commit message.
185 Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
186 specified during git svn init.
189 Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
193 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
194 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
196 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
199 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
200 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
201 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
203 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
204 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
206 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
207 merged/excluded commits
216 shows the git commit sha1, as well
218 our version of --pretty=oneline
221 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
222 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
223 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
225 Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git-log'
228 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
229 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
230 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
231 local uncommitted changes in the working copy are ignored;
232 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
233 arguments are passed directly to 'git-blame'.
236 Produce output in the same format as 'git-blame', but with
237 SVN revision numbers instead of git commit hashes. In this mode,
238 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
239 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
243 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
244 corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
245 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
246 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
249 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
250 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
251 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
252 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
253 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
254 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
255 independently of 'git-svn' functions.
258 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
259 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
260 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
264 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
265 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
266 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
269 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
270 command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git-svn
271 init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
272 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
273 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
274 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git-svn'-aware
275 repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git-svn').
276 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
279 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
280 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
281 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
285 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
286 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
290 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
291 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
294 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
303 --shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
304 --template=<template_directory>::
305 Only used with the 'init' command.
306 These are passed directly to 'git-init'.
311 Used with the 'fetch' command.
313 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
314 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
315 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
317 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
318 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
324 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
326 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
327 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
328 'git-rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
332 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
334 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
335 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
336 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
337 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
338 the commit to SVN act like git.
340 config key: svn.rmdir
345 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
347 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
348 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
354 --find-copies-harder::
356 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
358 They are both passed directly to 'git-diff-tree'; see
359 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
363 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
366 --authors-file=<filename>::
368 Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git-cvsimport':
370 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
371 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
372 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
374 If this option is specified and 'git-svn' encounters an SVN
375 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git-svn'
376 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
377 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git-svn' command
378 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
380 config key: svn.authorsfile
384 Make 'git-svn' less verbose.
387 --repack-flags=<flags>::
389 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
392 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
393 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
394 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
396 --repack-flags are passed directly to 'git-repack'.
399 config key: svn.repack
400 config key: svn.repackflags
405 --strategy=<strategy>::
407 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
409 Passed directly to 'git-rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
410 'git-reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
415 This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and 'tag'
418 For 'dcommit', print out the series of git arguments that would show
419 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
421 For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
422 repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
423 repository that will be fetched from.
425 For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
426 creating the branch or tag.
437 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
438 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
439 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
440 no longer require this switch as an argument.
443 --svn-remote <remote name>::
444 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
445 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
449 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
450 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
451 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
452 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
453 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
455 config key: svn.followparent
458 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
459 ------------------------
463 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
465 This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
467 If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, 'git-svn' will not
468 be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
469 either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
471 The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using
472 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
473 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
476 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
478 This allows 'git-svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
479 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
481 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
482 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
483 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
484 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
485 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
486 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
489 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
490 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
491 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
492 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
495 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
496 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
497 URLs. For example, an administrator could run 'git-svn' on the
498 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
499 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
500 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
504 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
505 options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git-svn'; they
506 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
507 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
509 Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
510 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
516 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
518 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
519 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
520 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
521 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
523 # You should be on master branch, double-check with git-branch
525 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
527 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
528 # latest changes in SVN:
530 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
531 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
533 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
534 git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
535 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
537 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
538 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
540 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
541 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
542 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
543 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
545 # Create a new branch in SVN
547 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
548 # with the appropriate name):
549 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
550 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
551 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
552 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
554 The initial 'git-svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
555 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
556 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
557 'git-svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
558 do the initial 'git-svn clone' to a repository on a server and
559 have each person clone that repository with 'git-clone':
561 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
562 # Do the initial import on a server
563 ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project
564 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
568 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
569 git config --add remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
571 # Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
572 git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
573 # Initialize git-svn locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
574 git svn init http://svn.example.com/project
575 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
577 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
579 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
580 ---------------------
582 Originally, 'git-svn' recommended that the 'remotes/git-svn' branch be
583 pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
584 `git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
585 `git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits.
587 If you use `git svn set-tree A..B` to commit several diffs and you do
588 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
589 use `git svn rebase` to update your work branch instead of `git pull` or
590 `git merge`. `pull`/`merge' can cause non-linear history to be flattened
591 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
592 previous commits in SVN.
596 Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
597 with Subversion can be cumbersome as a result. While 'git-svn' can track
598 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
599 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
600 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
601 users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
602 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
607 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with a less-capable system
608 (SVN), it is recommended that all 'git-svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
609 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git-clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
610 operations between git repositories and branches. The recommended
611 method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
612 'git-format-patch' and 'git-am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
614 Running 'git-merge' or 'git-pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
615 plan to 'dcommit' from. Subversion does not represent merges in any
616 reasonable or useful fashion; so users using Subversion cannot see any
617 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
618 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
621 'git-clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
622 any 'git-svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
623 using 'git-svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
626 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you 'git-push' to
627 before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
628 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
629 see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
631 Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
632 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
633 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
634 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
639 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
640 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
642 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
643 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
644 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
645 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
646 renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
647 for git to detect them.
652 'git-svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
653 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
654 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
655 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
656 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
657 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
658 listed below are allowed:
660 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
661 [svn-remote "project-a"]
662 url = http://server.org/svn
663 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
664 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
665 trunk = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
666 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
668 Keep in mind that the '*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
669 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
670 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's own
671 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
672 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
673 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git-config'.
677 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
681 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
685 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.