6 git-svn - Bidirectional operation between a Subversion repository and Git
11 'git svn' <command> [options] [arguments]
15 'git svn' is a simple conduit for changesets between Subversion and Git.
16 It provides a bidirectional flow of changes between a Subversion and a Git
19 'git svn' can track a standard Subversion repository,
20 following the common "trunk/branches/tags" layout, with the --stdlayout option.
21 It can also follow branches and tags in any layout with the -T/-t/-b options
22 (see options to 'init' below, and also the 'clone' command).
24 Once tracking a Subversion repository (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.
32 Initializes an empty Git repository with additional
33 metadata directories for 'git svn'. The Subversion URL
34 may be specified as a command-line argument, or as full
35 URL arguments to -T/-t/-b. Optionally, the target
36 directory to operate on can be specified as a second
37 argument. Normally this command initializes the current
41 --trunk=<trunk_subdir>;;
43 --tags=<tags_subdir>;;
45 --branches=<branches_subdir>;;
48 These are optional command-line options for init. Each of
49 these flags can point to a relative repository path
50 (--tags=project/tags) or a full url
51 (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags).
52 You can specify more than one --tags and/or --branches options, in case
53 your Subversion repository places tags or branches under multiple paths.
54 The option --stdlayout is
55 a shorthand way of setting trunk,tags,branches as the relative paths,
56 which is the Subversion default. If any of the other options are given
57 as well, they take precedence.
59 Set the 'noMetadata' option in the [svn-remote] config.
60 This option is not recommended, please read the 'svn.noMetadata'
61 section of this manpage before using this option.
63 Set the 'useSvmProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
65 Set the 'useSvnsyncProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
66 --rewrite-root=<URL>;;
67 Set the 'rewriteRoot' option in the [svn-remote] config.
68 --rewrite-uuid=<UUID>;;
69 Set the 'rewriteUUID' option in the [svn-remote] config.
71 For transports that SVN handles authentication for (http,
72 https, and plain svn), specify the username. For other
73 transports (eg svn+ssh://), you must include the username in
74 the URL, eg svn+ssh://foo@svn.bar.com/project
76 This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended
77 to the names of remotes if trunk/branches/tags are
78 specified. The prefix does not automatically include a
79 trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the
80 argument if that is what you want. If --branches/-b is
81 specified, the prefix must include a trailing slash.
82 Setting a prefix is useful if you wish to track multiple
83 projects that share a common repository.
84 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
85 When passed to 'init' or 'clone' this regular expression will
86 be preserved as a config key. See 'fetch' for a description
88 --include-paths=<regex>;;
89 When passed to 'init' or 'clone' this regular expression will
90 be preserved as a config key. See 'fetch' for a description
93 When tracking multiple directories (using --stdlayout,
94 --branches, or --tags options), git svn will attempt to connect
95 to the root (or highest allowed level) of the Subversion
96 repository. This default allows better tracking of history if
97 entire projects are moved within a repository, but may cause
98 issues on repositories where read access restrictions are in
99 place. Passing '--no-minimize-url' will allow git svn to
100 accept URLs as-is without attempting to connect to a higher
101 level directory. This option is off by default when only
102 one URL/branch is tracked (it would do little good).
105 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
106 tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
107 .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
111 Store Git commit times in the local timezone instead of UTC. This
112 makes 'git log' (even without --date=local) show the same times
113 that `svn log` would in the local timezone.
115 This doesn't interfere with interoperating with the Subversion
116 repository you cloned from, but if you wish for your local Git
117 repository to be able to interoperate with someone else's local Git
118 repository, either don't use this option or you should both use it in
119 the same local timezone.
122 Fetch only from the SVN parent of the current HEAD.
124 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
125 This allows one to specify a Perl regular expression that will
126 cause skipping of all matching paths from checkout from SVN.
127 The '--ignore-paths' option should match for every 'fetch'
128 (including automatic fetches due to 'clone', 'dcommit',
129 'rebase', etc) on a given repository.
132 config key: svn-remote.<name>.ignore-paths
134 If the ignore-paths config key is set and the command line option is
135 also given, both regular expressions will be used.
140 Skip "doc*" directory for every fetch;;
142 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
143 --ignore-paths="^doc"
144 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
146 Skip "branches" and "tags" of first level directories;;
148 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
149 --ignore-paths="^[^/]+/(?:branches|tags)"
150 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
153 --include-paths=<regex>;;
154 This allows one to specify a Perl regular expression that will
155 cause the inclusion of only matching paths from checkout from SVN.
156 The '--include-paths' option should match for every 'fetch'
157 (including automatic fetches due to 'clone', 'dcommit',
158 'rebase', etc) on a given repository. '--ignore-paths' takes
159 precedence over '--include-paths'.
162 config key: svn-remote.<name>.include-paths
164 --log-window-size=<n>;;
165 Fetch <n> log entries per request when scanning Subversion history.
166 The default is 100. For very large Subversion repositories, larger
167 values may be needed for 'clone'/'fetch' to complete in reasonable
168 time. But overly large values may lead to higher memory usage and
172 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
173 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
174 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
175 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
176 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
177 '--fetch-all' and '--parent'. After a repository is cloned,
178 the 'fetch' command will be able to update revisions without
179 affecting the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be
180 able to update the working tree with the latest changes.
182 --preserve-empty-dirs;;
183 Create a placeholder file in the local Git repository for each
184 empty directory fetched from Subversion. This includes directories
185 that become empty by removing all entries in the Subversion
186 repository (but not the directory itself). The placeholder files
187 are also tracked and removed when no longer necessary.
189 --placeholder-filename=<filename>;;
190 Set the name of placeholder files created by --preserve-empty-dirs.
191 Default: ".gitignore"
194 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
195 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
197 This works similarly to `svn update` or 'git pull' except that
198 it preserves linear history with 'git rebase' instead of
199 'git merge' for ease of dcommitting with 'git svn'.
201 This accepts all options that 'git svn fetch' and 'git rebase'
202 accept. However, '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
203 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
205 Like 'git rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
206 and have no uncommitted changes.
210 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git rebase' against the
211 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
214 Commit each diff from the current branch directly to the SVN
215 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
216 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
217 a revision in SVN for each commit in Git.
219 When an optional Git branch name (or a Git commit object name)
220 is specified as an argument, the subcommand works on the specified
221 branch, not on the current branch.
223 Use of 'dcommit' is preferred to 'set-tree' (below).
226 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
228 Commit to this SVN URL (the full path). This is intended to
229 allow existing 'git svn' repositories created with one transport
230 method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
231 reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
232 method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
235 config key: svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
236 config key: svn.commiturl (overwrites all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl options)
238 Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask) is very strongly
241 --mergeinfo=<mergeinfo>;;
242 Add the given merge information during the dcommit
243 (e.g. `--mergeinfo="/branches/foo:1-10"`). All svn server versions can
244 store this information (as a property), and svn clients starting from
245 version 1.5 can make use of it. To specify merge information from multiple
246 branches, use a single space character between the branches
247 (`--mergeinfo="/branches/foo:1-10 /branches/bar:3,5-6,8"`)
250 config key: svn.pushmergeinfo
252 This option will cause git-svn to attempt to automatically populate the
253 svn:mergeinfo property in the SVN repository when possible. Currently, this can
254 only be done when dcommitting non-fast-forward merges where all parents but the
255 first have already been pushed into SVN.
258 Ask the user to confirm that a patch set should actually be sent to SVN.
259 For each patch, one may answer "yes" (accept this patch), "no" (discard this
260 patch), "all" (accept all patches), or "quit".
262 'git svn dcommit' returns immediately if answer is "no" or "quit", without
263 committing anything to SVN.
266 Create a branch in the SVN repository.
270 Allows to specify the commit message.
274 Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
275 specified during git svn init.
278 --destination=<path>;;
280 If more than one --branches (or --tags) option was given to the 'init'
281 or 'clone' command, you must provide the location of the branch (or
282 tag) you wish to create in the SVN repository. <path> specifies which
283 path to use to create the branch or tag and should match the pattern
284 on the left-hand side of one of the configured branches or tags
285 refspecs. You can see these refspecs with the commands
287 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.branches
288 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.tags
290 where <name> is the name of the SVN repository as specified by the -R option to
291 'init' (or "svn" by default).
294 Specify the SVN username to perform the commit as. This option overrides
295 the 'username' configuration property.
298 Use the specified URL to connect to the destination Subversion
299 repository. This is useful in cases where the source SVN
300 repository is read-only. This option overrides configuration
301 property 'commiturl'.
303 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
307 Create parent folders. This parameter is equivalent to the parameter
308 --parents on svn cp commands and is useful for non-standard repository
312 Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
316 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
317 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
319 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
323 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
324 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
325 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
328 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
329 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
331 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
332 merged/excluded commits
341 shows the Git commit sha1, as well
343 our version of --pretty=oneline
346 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
347 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
348 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
350 Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git log'
353 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
354 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
355 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
356 local uncommitted changes in the working tree are ignored;
357 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
358 arguments are passed directly to 'git blame'.
361 Produce output in the same format as 'git blame', but with
362 SVN revision numbers instead of Git commit hashes. In this mode,
363 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
364 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
367 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
368 corresponding Git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
369 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
370 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
373 Don't require an exact match if given an SVN revision, instead find
374 the commit corresponding to the state of the SVN repository (on the
375 current branch) at the specified revision.
378 Don't require an exact match if given an SVN revision; if there is
379 not an exact match return the closest match searching forward in the
383 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
384 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
385 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
386 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
387 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
388 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
389 independently of 'git svn' functions.
392 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
393 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
394 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
398 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
399 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
400 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
403 Attempts to recreate empty directories that core Git cannot track
404 based on information in $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files.
405 Empty directories are automatically recreated when using
406 "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase", so "mkdirs" is intended
407 for use after commands like "git checkout" or "git reset".
408 (See the svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs config file option for
412 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
413 command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git svn
414 init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
415 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
416 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
417 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git svn'-aware
418 repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git svn').
419 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
422 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
423 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
424 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
428 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
429 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
433 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
434 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
437 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
441 Compress $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files in .git/svn
442 and remove $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>index files in .git/svn.
445 Undoes the effects of 'fetch' back to the specified revision.
446 This allows you to re-'fetch' an SVN revision. Normally the
447 contents of an SVN revision should never change and 'reset'
448 should not be necessary. However, if SVN permissions change,
449 or if you alter your --ignore-paths option, a 'fetch' may fail
450 with "not found in commit" (file not previously visible) or
451 "checksum mismatch" (missed a modification). If the problem
452 file cannot be ignored forever (with --ignore-paths) the only
453 way to repair the repo is to use 'reset'.
455 Only the rev_map and refs/remotes/git-svn are changed. Follow 'reset'
456 with a 'fetch' and then 'git reset' or 'git rebase' to move local
457 branches onto the new tree.
461 Specify the most recent revision to keep. All later revisions
465 Discard the specified revision as well, keeping the nearest
468 Assume you have local changes in "master", but you need to refetch "r2".
471 r1---r2---r3 remotes/git-svn
476 Fix the ignore-paths or SVN permissions problem that caused "r2" to
477 be incomplete in the first place. Then:
484 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
486 r2---r3---A---B master
489 Then fixup "master" with 'git rebase'.
490 Do NOT use 'git merge' or your history will not be compatible with a
494 git rebase --onto remotes/git-svn A^ master
497 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
505 --shared[=(false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody)]::
506 --template=<template_directory>::
507 Only used with the 'init' command.
508 These are passed directly to 'git init'.
512 Used with the 'fetch' command.
514 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
515 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
516 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
518 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
519 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
524 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
526 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
527 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
528 'git rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
531 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
533 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
534 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
535 removed by default if there are no files left in them. Git
536 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
537 the commit to SVN act like Git.
540 config key: svn.rmdir
544 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
546 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
547 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
554 --find-copies-harder::
555 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
557 They are both passed directly to 'git diff-tree'; see
558 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
562 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
565 --authors-file=<filename>::
566 Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git cvsimport':
568 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
569 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
570 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
572 If this option is specified and 'git svn' encounters an SVN
573 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git svn'
574 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
575 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git svn' command
576 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
579 config key: svn.authorsfile
581 --authors-prog=<filename>::
582 If this option is specified, for each SVN committer name that
583 does not exist in the authors file, the given file is executed
584 with the committer name as the first argument. The program is
585 expected to return a single line of the form "Name <email>",
586 which will be treated as if included in the authors file.
590 Make 'git svn' less verbose. Specify a second time to make it
594 --repack-flags=<flags>::
595 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches with
598 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
599 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
600 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
602 --repack-flags are passed directly to 'git repack'.
605 config key: svn.repack
606 config key: svn.repackflags
611 --strategy=<strategy>::
614 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
616 Passed directly to 'git rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
617 'git reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
621 This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and
624 For 'dcommit', print out the series of Git arguments that would show
625 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
627 For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
628 repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
629 repository that will be fetched from.
631 For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
632 creating the branch or tag.
635 When retrieving svn commits into Git (as part of 'fetch', 'rebase', or
636 'dcommit' operations), look for the first `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line
637 in the log message and use that as the author string.
639 When committing to svn from Git (as part of 'commit-diff', 'set-tree' or 'dcommit'
640 operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
641 `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line, append a `From:` line based on the
642 Git commit's author string. If you use this, then `--use-log-author`
643 will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
651 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
652 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
653 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
654 no longer require this switch as an argument.
657 --svn-remote <remote name>::
658 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
659 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
663 This option is only relevant if we are tracking branches (using
664 one of the repository layout options --trunk, --tags,
665 --branches, --stdlayout). For each tracked branch, try to find
666 out where its revision was copied from, and set
667 a suitable parent in the first Git commit for the branch.
668 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
669 that has been moved around within the repository. If this
670 feature is disabled, the branches created by 'git svn' will all
671 be linear and not share any history, meaning that there will be
672 no information on where branches were branched off or merged.
673 However, following long/convoluted histories can take a long
674 time, so disabling this feature may speed up the cloning
675 process. This feature is enabled by default, use
676 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
679 config key: svn.followparent
681 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
682 ------------------------
685 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
686 This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
688 This option can only be used for one-shot imports as 'git svn'
689 will not be able to fetch again without metadata. Additionally,
690 if you lose your .git/svn/**/.rev_map.* files, 'git svn' will not
691 be able to rebuild them.
693 The 'git svn log' command will not work on repositories using
694 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
695 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
697 This option is NOT recommended as it makes it difficult to track down
698 old references to SVN revision numbers in existing documentation, bug
699 reports and archives. If you plan to eventually migrate from SVN to Git
700 and are certain about dropping SVN history, consider
701 linkgit:git-filter-branch[1] instead. filter-branch also allows
702 reformatting of metadata for ease-of-reading and rewriting authorship
703 info for non-"svn.authorsFile" users.
706 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
707 This allows 'git svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
708 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
710 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
711 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
712 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
713 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
714 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
715 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
718 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
719 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
720 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
721 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
724 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
725 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
726 URLs. For example, an administrator could run 'git svn' on the
727 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
728 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
729 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
731 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteUUID::
732 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users who need
733 to remap the UUID manually. This may be useful in situations
734 where the original UUID is not available via either useSvmProps
737 svn-remote.<name>.pushurl::
739 Similar to Git's 'remote.<name>.pushurl', this key is designed
740 to be used in cases where 'url' points to an SVN repository
741 via a read-only transport, to provide an alternate read/write
742 transport. It is assumed that both keys point to the same
743 repository. Unlike 'commiturl', 'pushurl' is a base path. If
744 either 'commiturl' or 'pushurl' could be used, 'commiturl'
747 svn.brokenSymlinkWorkaround::
748 This disables potentially expensive checks to workaround
749 broken symlinks checked into SVN by broken clients. Set this
750 option to "false" if you track a SVN repository with many
751 empty blobs that are not symlinks. This option may be changed
752 while 'git svn' is running and take effect on the next
753 revision fetched. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this option to
756 svn.pathnameencoding::
757 This instructs git svn to recode pathnames to a given encoding.
758 It can be used by windows users and by those who work in non-utf8
759 locales to avoid corrupted file names with non-ASCII characters.
760 Valid encodings are the ones supported by Perl's Encode module.
762 svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs::
763 Normally, the "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase" commands
764 attempt to recreate empty directories that are in the
765 Subversion repository. If this option is set to "false", then
766 empty directories will only be created if the "git svn mkdirs"
767 command is run explicitly. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this
770 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, rewriteUUID, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
771 options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git svn'; they
772 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
773 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
775 Additionally, only one of these options can be used per svn-remote
776 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line, except
777 for rewriteRoot and rewriteUUID which can be used together.
783 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project
784 (ignoring tags and branches):
786 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
787 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
788 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
789 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
791 # You should be on master branch, double-check with 'git branch'
793 # Do some work and commit locally to Git:
795 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
796 # latest changes in SVN:
798 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using Git) to SVN,
799 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
801 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default Git exclude file:
802 git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
803 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
805 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
806 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
808 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
809 # Clone a repo with standard SVN directory layout (like git clone):
810 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project --stdlayout
811 # Or, if the repo uses a non-standard directory layout:
812 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T tr -b branch -t tag
813 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
815 # Create a new branch in SVN
817 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
818 # with the appropriate name):
819 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
820 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
821 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
822 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
824 The initial 'git svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
825 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
826 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
827 'git svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
828 do the initial 'git svn clone' to a repository on a server and
829 have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
831 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
832 # Do the initial import on a server
833 ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project
834 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
838 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
839 git config --replace-all remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
841 # Prevent fetch/pull from remote Git server in the future,
842 # we only want to use git svn for future updates
843 git config --remove-section remote.origin
844 # Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
845 git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
846 # Initialize 'git svn' locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
847 git svn init http://svn.example.com/project
848 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
850 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
852 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
853 ---------------------
854 Prefer to use 'git svn rebase' or 'git rebase', rather than
855 'git pull' or 'git merge' to synchronize unintegrated commits with a 'git svn'
856 branch. Doing so will keep the history of unintegrated commits linear with
857 respect to the upstream SVN repository and allow the use of the preferred
858 'git svn dcommit' subcommand to push unintegrated commits back into SVN.
860 Originally, 'git svn' recommended that developers pulled or merged from
861 the 'git svn' branch. This was because the author favored
862 `git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
863 `git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits. Use of
864 'git pull' or 'git merge' with `git svn set-tree A..B` will cause non-linear
865 history to be flattened when committing into SVN and this can lead to merge
866 commits unexpectedly reversing previous commits in SVN.
870 While 'git svn' can track
871 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
872 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
873 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
874 users keep history as linear as possible inside Git to ease
875 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
877 HANDLING OF SVN BRANCHES
878 ------------------------
879 If 'git svn' is configured to fetch branches (and --follow-branches
880 is in effect), it sometimes creates multiple Git branches for one
881 SVN branch, where the additional branches have names of the form
882 'branchname@nnn' (with nnn an SVN revision number). These additional
883 branches are created if 'git svn' cannot find a parent commit for the
884 first commit in an SVN branch, to connect the branch to the history of
887 Normally, the first commit in an SVN branch consists
888 of a copy operation. 'git svn' will read this commit to get the SVN
889 revision the branch was created from. It will then try to find the
890 Git commit that corresponds to this SVN revision, and use that as the
891 parent of the branch. However, it is possible that there is no suitable
892 Git commit to serve as parent. This will happen, among other reasons,
893 if the SVN branch is a copy of a revision that was not fetched by 'git
894 svn' (e.g. because it is an old revision that was skipped with
895 '--revision'), or if in SVN a directory was copied that is not tracked
896 by 'git svn' (such as a branch that is not tracked at all, or a
897 subdirectory of a tracked branch). In these cases, 'git svn' will still
898 create a Git branch, but instead of using an existing Git commit as the
899 parent of the branch, it will read the SVN history of the directory the
900 branch was copied from and create appropriate Git commits. This is
901 indicated by the message "Initializing parent: <branchname>".
903 Additionally, it will create a special branch named
904 '<branchname>@<SVN-Revision>', where <SVN-Revision> is the SVN revision
905 number the branch was copied from. This branch will point to the newly
906 created parent commit of the branch. If in SVN the branch was deleted
907 and later recreated from a different version, there will be multiple
908 such branches with an '@'.
910 Note that this may mean that multiple Git commits are created for a
913 An example: in an SVN repository with a standard
914 trunk/tags/branches layout, a directory trunk/sub is created in r.100.
915 In r.200, trunk/sub is branched by copying it to branches/. 'git svn
916 clone -s' will then create a branch 'sub'. It will also create new Git
917 commits for r.100 through r.199 and use these as the history of branch
918 'sub'. Thus there will be two Git commits for each revision from r.100
919 to r.199 (one containing trunk/, one containing trunk/sub/). Finally,
920 it will create a branch 'sub@200' pointing to the new parent commit of
921 branch 'sub' (i.e. the commit for r.200 and trunk/sub/).
926 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with Subversion,
927 it is recommended that all 'git svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
928 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
929 operations between Git repositories and branches. The recommended
930 method of exchanging code between Git branches and users is
931 'git format-patch' and 'git am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
933 Running 'git merge' or 'git pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
934 plan to 'dcommit' from because Subversion users cannot see any
935 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a Git branch
936 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
939 If you do merge, note the following rule: 'git svn dcommit' will
940 attempt to commit on top of the SVN commit named in
941 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
942 git log --grep=^git-svn-id: --first-parent -1
943 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
944 You 'must' therefore ensure that the most recent commit of the branch
945 you want to dcommit to is the 'first' parent of the merge. Chaos will
946 ensue otherwise, especially if the first parent is an older commit on
949 'git clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
950 any 'git svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
951 using 'git svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
954 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any Git branches you 'git push' to
955 before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
956 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
957 see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
959 Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
960 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
961 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
962 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
964 When cloning an SVN repository, if none of the options for describing
965 the repository layout is used (--trunk, --tags, --branches,
966 --stdlayout), 'git svn clone' will create a Git repository with
967 completely linear history, where branches and tags appear as separate
968 directories in the working copy. While this is the easiest way to get a
969 copy of a complete repository, for projects with many branches it will
970 lead to a working copy many times larger than just the trunk. Thus for
971 projects using the standard directory structure (trunk/branches/tags),
972 it is recommended to clone with option '--stdlayout'. If the project
973 uses a non-standard structure, and/or if branches and tags are not
974 required, it is easiest to only clone one directory (typically trunk),
975 without giving any repository layout options. If the full history with
976 branches and tags is required, the options '--trunk' / '--branches' /
977 '--tags' must be used.
979 When using multiple --branches or --tags, 'git svn' does not automatically
980 handle name collisions (for example, if two branches from different paths have
981 the same name, or if a branch and a tag have the same name). In these cases,
982 use 'init' to set up your Git repository then, before your first 'fetch', edit
983 the .git/config file so that the branches and tags are associated with
984 different name spaces. For example:
986 branches = stable/*:refs/remotes/svn/stable/*
987 branches = debug/*:refs/remotes/svn/debug/*
992 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
993 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
995 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by Git and hence not
996 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
997 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
998 the possible corner cases (Git doesn't do it, either). Committing
999 renamed and copied files is fully supported if they're similar enough
1000 for Git to detect them.
1002 In SVN, it is possible (though discouraged) to commit changes to a tag
1003 (because a tag is just a directory copy, thus technically the same as a
1004 branch). When cloning an SVN repository, 'git svn' cannot know if such a
1005 commit to a tag will happen in the future. Thus it acts conservatively
1006 and imports all SVN tags as branches, prefixing the tag name with 'tags/'.
1011 'git svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
1012 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core Git
1013 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
1014 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
1015 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
1016 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
1017 listed below are allowed:
1019 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1020 [svn-remote "project-a"]
1021 url = http://server.org/svn
1022 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
1023 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
1024 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
1025 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1027 Keep in mind that the '\*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
1028 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
1029 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's an
1030 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
1031 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
1032 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git config'.
1034 It is also possible to fetch a subset of branches or tags by using a
1035 comma-separated list of names within braces. For example:
1037 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1038 [svn-remote "huge-project"]
1039 url = http://server.org/svn
1040 fetch = trunk/src:refs/remotes/trunk
1041 branches = branches/{red,green}/src:refs/remotes/branches/*
1042 tags = tags/{1.0,2.0}/src:refs/remotes/tags/*
1043 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1045 Multiple fetch, branches, and tags keys are supported:
1047 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1048 [svn-remote "messy-repo"]
1049 url = http://server.org/svn
1050 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
1051 fetch = branches/demos/june-project-a-demo:refs/remotes/project-a/demos/june-demo
1052 branches = branches/server/*:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
1053 branches = branches/demos/2011/*:refs/remotes/project-a/2011-demos/*
1054 tags = tags/server/*:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
1055 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1057 Creating a branch in such a configuration requires disambiguating which
1058 location to use using the -d or --destination flag:
1060 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1061 $ git svn branch -d branches/server release-2-3-0
1062 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1064 Note that git-svn keeps track of the highest revision in which a branch
1065 or tag has appeared. If the subset of branches or tags is changed after
1066 fetching, then .git/svn/.metadata must be manually edited to remove (or
1067 reset) branches-maxRev and/or tags-maxRev as appropriate.
1071 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
1075 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite