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'.
161 --log-window-size=<n>;;
162 Fetch <n> log entries per request when scanning Subversion history.
163 The default is 100. For very large Subversion repositories, larger
164 values may be needed for 'clone'/'fetch' to complete in reasonable
165 time. But overly large values may lead to higher memory usage and
169 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
170 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
171 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
172 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
173 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
174 '--fetch-all' and '--parent'. After a repository is cloned,
175 the 'fetch' command will be able to update revisions without
176 affecting the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be
177 able to update the working tree with the latest changes.
179 --preserve-empty-dirs;;
180 Create a placeholder file in the local Git repository for each
181 empty directory fetched from Subversion. This includes directories
182 that become empty by removing all entries in the Subversion
183 repository (but not the directory itself). The placeholder files
184 are also tracked and removed when no longer necessary.
186 --placeholder-filename=<filename>;;
187 Set the name of placeholder files created by --preserve-empty-dirs.
188 Default: ".gitignore"
191 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
192 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
194 This works similarly to `svn update` or 'git pull' except that
195 it preserves linear history with 'git rebase' instead of
196 'git merge' for ease of dcommitting with 'git svn'.
198 This accepts all options that 'git svn fetch' and 'git rebase'
199 accept. However, '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
200 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
202 Like 'git rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
203 and have no uncommitted changes.
207 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git rebase' against the
208 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
211 Commit each diff from the current branch directly to the SVN
212 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
213 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
214 a revision in SVN for each commit in Git.
216 When an optional Git branch name (or a Git commit object name)
217 is specified as an argument, the subcommand works on the specified
218 branch, not on the current branch.
220 Use of 'dcommit' is preferred to 'set-tree' (below).
223 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
225 Commit to this SVN URL (the full path). This is intended to
226 allow existing 'git svn' repositories created with one transport
227 method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
228 reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
229 method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
232 config key: svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
233 config key: svn.commiturl (overwrites all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl options)
235 Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask) is very strongly
238 --mergeinfo=<mergeinfo>;;
239 Add the given merge information during the dcommit
240 (e.g. `--mergeinfo="/branches/foo:1-10"`). All svn server versions can
241 store this information (as a property), and svn clients starting from
242 version 1.5 can make use of it. To specify merge information from multiple
243 branches, use a single space character between the branches
244 (`--mergeinfo="/branches/foo:1-10 /branches/bar:3,5-6,8"`)
247 config key: svn.pushmergeinfo
249 This option will cause git-svn to attempt to automatically populate the
250 svn:mergeinfo property in the SVN repository when possible. Currently, this can
251 only be done when dcommitting non-fast-forward merges where all parents but the
252 first have already been pushed into SVN.
255 Ask the user to confirm that a patch set should actually be sent to SVN.
256 For each patch, one may answer "yes" (accept this patch), "no" (discard this
257 patch), "all" (accept all patches), or "quit".
259 'git svn dcommit' returns immediately if answer if "no" or "quit", without
260 committing anything to SVN.
263 Create a branch in the SVN repository.
267 Allows to specify the commit message.
271 Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
272 specified during git svn init.
276 If more than one --branches (or --tags) option was given to the 'init'
277 or 'clone' command, you must provide the location of the branch (or
278 tag) you wish to create in the SVN repository. The value of this
279 option must match one of the paths specified by a --branches (or
280 --tags) option. You can see these paths with the commands
282 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.branches
283 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.tags
285 where <name> is the name of the SVN repository as specified by the -R option to
286 'init' (or "svn" by default).
289 Specify the SVN username to perform the commit as. This option overrides
290 the 'username' configuration property.
293 Use the specified URL to connect to the destination Subversion
294 repository. This is useful in cases where the source SVN
295 repository is read-only. This option overrides configuration
296 property 'commiturl'.
298 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
302 Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
306 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
307 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
309 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
313 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
314 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
315 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
318 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
319 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
321 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
322 merged/excluded commits
331 shows the Git commit sha1, as well
333 our version of --pretty=oneline
336 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
337 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
338 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
340 Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git log'
343 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
344 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
345 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
346 local uncommitted changes in the working tree are ignored;
347 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
348 arguments are passed directly to 'git blame'.
351 Produce output in the same format as 'git blame', but with
352 SVN revision numbers instead of Git commit hashes. In this mode,
353 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
354 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
357 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
358 corresponding Git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
359 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
360 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
363 Don't require an exact match if given an SVN revision, instead find
364 the commit corresponding to the state of the SVN repository (on the
365 current branch) at the specified revision.
368 Don't require an exact match if given an SVN revision; if there is
369 not an exact match return the closest match searching forward in the
373 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
374 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
375 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
376 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
377 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
378 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
379 independently of 'git svn' functions.
382 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
383 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
384 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
388 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
389 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
390 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
393 Attempts to recreate empty directories that core Git cannot track
394 based on information in $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files.
395 Empty directories are automatically recreated when using
396 "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase", so "mkdirs" is intended
397 for use after commands like "git checkout" or "git reset".
398 (See the svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs config file option for
402 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
403 command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git svn
404 init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
405 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
406 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
407 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git svn'-aware
408 repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git svn').
409 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
412 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
413 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
414 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
418 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
419 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
423 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
424 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
427 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
431 Compress $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files in .git/svn
432 and remove $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>index files in .git/svn.
435 Undoes the effects of 'fetch' back to the specified revision.
436 This allows you to re-'fetch' an SVN revision. Normally the
437 contents of an SVN revision should never change and 'reset'
438 should not be necessary. However, if SVN permissions change,
439 or if you alter your --ignore-paths option, a 'fetch' may fail
440 with "not found in commit" (file not previously visible) or
441 "checksum mismatch" (missed a modification). If the problem
442 file cannot be ignored forever (with --ignore-paths) the only
443 way to repair the repo is to use 'reset'.
445 Only the rev_map and refs/remotes/git-svn are changed. Follow 'reset'
446 with a 'fetch' and then 'git reset' or 'git rebase' to move local
447 branches onto the new tree.
451 Specify the most recent revision to keep. All later revisions
455 Discard the specified revision as well, keeping the nearest
458 Assume you have local changes in "master", but you need to refetch "r2".
461 r1---r2---r3 remotes/git-svn
466 Fix the ignore-paths or SVN permissions problem that caused "r2" to
467 be incomplete in the first place. Then:
474 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
476 r2---r3---A---B master
479 Then fixup "master" with 'git rebase'.
480 Do NOT use 'git merge' or your history will not be compatible with a
484 git rebase --onto remotes/git-svn A^ master
487 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
495 --shared[=(false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody)]::
496 --template=<template_directory>::
497 Only used with the 'init' command.
498 These are passed directly to 'git init'.
502 Used with the 'fetch' command.
504 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
505 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
506 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
508 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
509 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
514 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
516 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
517 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
518 'git rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
521 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
523 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
524 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
525 removed by default if there are no files left in them. Git
526 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
527 the commit to SVN act like Git.
530 config key: svn.rmdir
534 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
536 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
537 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
544 --find-copies-harder::
545 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
547 They are both passed directly to 'git diff-tree'; see
548 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
552 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
555 --authors-file=<filename>::
556 Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git cvsimport':
558 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
559 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
560 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
562 If this option is specified and 'git svn' encounters an SVN
563 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git svn'
564 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
565 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git svn' command
566 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
569 config key: svn.authorsfile
571 --authors-prog=<filename>::
572 If this option is specified, for each SVN committer name that
573 does not exist in the authors file, the given file is executed
574 with the committer name as the first argument. The program is
575 expected to return a single line of the form "Name <email>",
576 which will be treated as if included in the authors file.
580 Make 'git svn' less verbose. Specify a second time to make it
584 --repack-flags=<flags>::
585 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches with
588 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
589 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
590 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
592 --repack-flags are passed directly to 'git repack'.
595 config key: svn.repack
596 config key: svn.repackflags
601 --strategy=<strategy>::
604 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
606 Passed directly to 'git rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
607 'git reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
611 This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and
614 For 'dcommit', print out the series of Git arguments that would show
615 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
617 For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
618 repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
619 repository that will be fetched from.
621 For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
622 creating the branch or tag.
625 When retrieving svn commits into Git (as part of 'fetch', 'rebase', or
626 'dcommit' operations), look for the first `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line
627 in the log message and use that as the author string.
629 When committing to svn from Git (as part of 'commit-diff', 'set-tree' or 'dcommit'
630 operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
631 `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line, append a `From:` line based on the
632 Git commit's author string. If you use this, then `--use-log-author`
633 will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
641 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
642 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
643 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
644 no longer require this switch as an argument.
647 --svn-remote <remote name>::
648 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
649 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
653 This option is only relevant if we are tracking branches (using
654 one of the repository layout options --trunk, --tags,
655 --branches, --stdlayout). For each tracked branch, try to find
656 out where its revision was copied from, and set
657 a suitable parent in the first Git commit for the branch.
658 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
659 that has been moved around within the repository. If this
660 feature is disabled, the branches created by 'git svn' will all
661 be linear and not share any history, meaning that there will be
662 no information on where branches were branched off or merged.
663 However, following long/convoluted histories can take a long
664 time, so disabling this feature may speed up the cloning
665 process. This feature is enabled by default, use
666 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
669 config key: svn.followparent
671 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
672 ------------------------
675 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
676 This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
678 This option can only be used for one-shot imports as 'git svn'
679 will not be able to fetch again without metadata. Additionally,
680 if you lose your .git/svn/**/.rev_map.* files, 'git svn' will not
681 be able to rebuild them.
683 The 'git svn log' command will not work on repositories using
684 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
685 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
687 This option is NOT recommended as it makes it difficult to track down
688 old references to SVN revision numbers in existing documentation, bug
689 reports and archives. If you plan to eventually migrate from SVN to Git
690 and are certain about dropping SVN history, consider
691 linkgit:git-filter-branch[1] instead. filter-branch also allows
692 reformatting of metadata for ease-of-reading and rewriting authorship
693 info for non-"svn.authorsFile" users.
696 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
697 This allows 'git svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
698 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
700 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
701 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
702 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
703 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
704 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
705 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
708 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
709 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
710 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
711 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
714 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
715 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
716 URLs. For example, an administrator could run 'git svn' on the
717 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
718 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
719 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
721 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteUUID::
722 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users who need
723 to remap the UUID manually. This may be useful in situations
724 where the original UUID is not available via either useSvmProps
727 svn-remote.<name>.pushurl::
729 Similar to Git's 'remote.<name>.pushurl', this key is designed
730 to be used in cases where 'url' points to an SVN repository
731 via a read-only transport, to provide an alternate read/write
732 transport. It is assumed that both keys point to the same
733 repository. Unlike 'commiturl', 'pushurl' is a base path. If
734 either 'commiturl' or 'pushurl' could be used, 'commiturl'
737 svn.brokenSymlinkWorkaround::
738 This disables potentially expensive checks to workaround
739 broken symlinks checked into SVN by broken clients. Set this
740 option to "false" if you track a SVN repository with many
741 empty blobs that are not symlinks. This option may be changed
742 while 'git svn' is running and take effect on the next
743 revision fetched. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this option to
746 svn.pathnameencoding::
747 This instructs git svn to recode pathnames to a given encoding.
748 It can be used by windows users and by those who work in non-utf8
749 locales to avoid corrupted file names with non-ASCII characters.
750 Valid encodings are the ones supported by Perl's Encode module.
752 svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs::
753 Normally, the "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase" commands
754 attempt to recreate empty directories that are in the
755 Subversion repository. If this option is set to "false", then
756 empty directories will only be created if the "git svn mkdirs"
757 command is run explicitly. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this
760 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, rewriteUUID, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
761 options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git svn'; they
762 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
763 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
765 Additionally, only one of these options can be used per svn-remote
766 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line, except
767 for rewriteRoot and rewriteUUID which can be used together.
773 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project
774 (ignoring tags and branches):
776 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
777 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
778 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
779 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
781 # You should be on master branch, double-check with 'git branch'
783 # Do some work and commit locally to Git:
785 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
786 # latest changes in SVN:
788 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using Git) to SVN,
789 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
791 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default Git exclude file:
792 git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
793 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
795 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
796 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
798 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
799 # Clone a repo with standard SVN directory layout (like git clone):
800 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project --stdlayout
801 # Or, if the repo uses a non-standard directory layout:
802 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T tr -b branch -t tag
803 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
805 # Create a new branch in SVN
807 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
808 # with the appropriate name):
809 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
810 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
811 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
812 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
814 The initial 'git svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
815 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
816 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
817 'git svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
818 do the initial 'git svn clone' to a repository on a server and
819 have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
821 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
822 # Do the initial import on a server
823 ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project
824 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
828 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
829 git config --replace-all remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
831 # Prevent fetch/pull from remote Git server in the future,
832 # we only want to use git svn for future updates
833 git config --remove-section remote.origin
834 # Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
835 git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
836 # Initialize 'git svn' locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
837 git svn init http://svn.example.com/project
838 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
840 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
842 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
843 ---------------------
844 Prefer to use 'git svn rebase' or 'git rebase', rather than
845 'git pull' or 'git merge' to synchronize unintegrated commits with a 'git svn'
846 branch. Doing so will keep the history of unintegrated commits linear with
847 respect to the upstream SVN repository and allow the use of the preferred
848 'git svn dcommit' subcommand to push unintegrated commits back into SVN.
850 Originally, 'git svn' recommended that developers pulled or merged from
851 the 'git svn' branch. This was because the author favored
852 `git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
853 `git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits. Use of
854 'git pull' or 'git merge' with `git svn set-tree A..B` will cause non-linear
855 history to be flattened when committing into SVN and this can lead to merge
856 commits unexpectedly reversing previous commits in SVN.
860 While 'git svn' can track
861 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
862 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
863 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
864 users keep history as linear as possible inside Git to ease
865 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
867 HANDLING OF SVN BRANCHES
868 ------------------------
869 If 'git svn' is configured to fetch branches (and --follow-branches
870 is in effect), it sometimes creates multiple Git branches for one
871 SVN branch, where the additional branches have names of the form
872 'branchname@nnn' (with nnn an SVN revision number). These additional
873 branches are created if 'git svn' cannot find a parent commit for the
874 first commit in an SVN branch, to connect the branch to the history of
877 Normally, the first commit in an SVN branch consists
878 of a copy operation. 'git svn' will read this commit to get the SVN
879 revision the branch was created from. It will then try to find the
880 Git commit that corresponds to this SVN revision, and use that as the
881 parent of the branch. However, it is possible that there is no suitable
882 Git commit to serve as parent. This will happen, among other reasons,
883 if the SVN branch is a copy of a revision that was not fetched by 'git
884 svn' (e.g. because it is an old revision that was skipped with
885 '--revision'), or if in SVN a directory was copied that is not tracked
886 by 'git svn' (such as a branch that is not tracked at all, or a
887 subdirectory of a tracked branch). In these cases, 'git svn' will still
888 create a Git branch, but instead of using an existing Git commit as the
889 parent of the branch, it will read the SVN history of the directory the
890 branch was copied from and create appropriate Git commits. This is
891 indicated by the message "Initializing parent: <branchname>".
893 Additionally, it will create a special branch named
894 '<branchname>@<SVN-Revision>', where <SVN-Revision> is the SVN revision
895 number the branch was copied from. This branch will point to the newly
896 created parent commit of the branch. If in SVN the branch was deleted
897 and later recreated from a different version, there will be multiple
898 such branches with an '@'.
900 Note that this may mean that multiple Git commits are created for a
903 An example: in an SVN repository with a standard
904 trunk/tags/branches layout, a directory trunk/sub is created in r.100.
905 In r.200, trunk/sub is branched by copying it to branches/. 'git svn
906 clone -s' will then create a branch 'sub'. It will also create new Git
907 commits for r.100 through r.199 and use these as the history of branch
908 'sub'. Thus there will be two Git commits for each revision from r.100
909 to r.199 (one containing trunk/, one containing trunk/sub/). Finally,
910 it will create a branch 'sub@200' pointing to the new parent commit of
911 branch 'sub' (i.e. the commit for r.200 and trunk/sub/).
916 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with Subversion,
917 it is recommended that all 'git svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
918 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
919 operations between Git repositories and branches. The recommended
920 method of exchanging code between Git branches and users is
921 'git format-patch' and 'git am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
923 Running 'git merge' or 'git pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
924 plan to 'dcommit' from because Subversion users cannot see any
925 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a Git branch
926 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
929 If you do merge, note the following rule: 'git svn dcommit' will
930 attempt to commit on top of the SVN commit named in
931 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
932 git log --grep=^git-svn-id: --first-parent -1
933 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
934 You 'must' therefore ensure that the most recent commit of the branch
935 you want to dcommit to is the 'first' parent of the merge. Chaos will
936 ensue otherwise, especially if the first parent is an older commit on
939 'git clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
940 any 'git svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
941 using 'git svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
944 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any Git branches you 'git push' to
945 before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
946 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
947 see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
949 Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
950 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
951 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
952 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
954 When cloning an SVN repository, if none of the options for describing
955 the repository layout is used (--trunk, --tags, --branches,
956 --stdlayout), 'git svn clone' will create a Git repository with
957 completely linear history, where branches and tags appear as separate
958 directories in the working copy. While this is the easiest way to get a
959 copy of a complete repository, for projects with many branches it will
960 lead to a working copy many times larger than just the trunk. Thus for
961 projects using the standard directory structure (trunk/branches/tags),
962 it is recommended to clone with option '--stdlayout'. If the project
963 uses a non-standard structure, and/or if branches and tags are not
964 required, it is easiest to only clone one directory (typically trunk),
965 without giving any repository layout options. If the full history with
966 branches and tags is required, the options '--trunk' / '--branches' /
967 '--tags' must be used.
969 When using multiple --branches or --tags, 'git svn' does not automatically
970 handle name collisions (for example, if two branches from different paths have
971 the same name, or if a branch and a tag have the same name). In these cases,
972 use 'init' to set up your Git repository then, before your first 'fetch', edit
973 the .git/config file so that the branches and tags are associated with
974 different name spaces. For example:
976 branches = stable/*:refs/remotes/svn/stable/*
977 branches = debug/*:refs/remotes/svn/debug/*
982 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
983 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
985 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by Git and hence not
986 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
987 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
988 the possible corner cases (Git doesn't do it, either). Committing
989 renamed and copied files is fully supported if they're similar enough
990 for Git to detect them.
992 In SVN, it is possible (though discouraged) to commit changes to a tag
993 (because a tag is just a directory copy, thus technically the same as a
994 branch). When cloning an SVN repository, 'git svn' cannot know if such a
995 commit to a tag will happen in the future. Thus it acts conservatively
996 and imports all SVN tags as branches, prefixing the tag name with 'tags/'.
1001 'git svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
1002 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core Git
1003 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
1004 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
1005 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
1006 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
1007 listed below are allowed:
1009 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1010 [svn-remote "project-a"]
1011 url = http://server.org/svn
1012 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
1013 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
1014 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
1015 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1017 Keep in mind that the '\*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
1018 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
1019 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's an
1020 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
1021 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
1022 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git config'.
1024 It is also possible to fetch a subset of branches or tags by using a
1025 comma-separated list of names within braces. For example:
1027 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1028 [svn-remote "huge-project"]
1029 url = http://server.org/svn
1030 fetch = trunk/src:refs/remotes/trunk
1031 branches = branches/{red,green}/src:refs/remotes/branches/*
1032 tags = tags/{1.0,2.0}/src:refs/remotes/tags/*
1033 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1035 Note that git-svn keeps track of the highest revision in which a branch
1036 or tag has appeared. If the subset of branches or tags is changed after
1037 fetching, then .git/svn/.metadata must be manually edited to remove (or
1038 reset) branches-maxRev and/or tags-maxRev as appropriate.
1042 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
1046 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite