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
89 When tracking multiple directories (using --stdlayout,
90 --branches, or --tags options), git svn will attempt to connect
91 to the root (or highest allowed level) of the Subversion
92 repository. This default allows better tracking of history if
93 entire projects are moved within a repository, but may cause
94 issues on repositories where read access restrictions are in
95 place. Passing '--no-minimize-url' will allow git svn to
96 accept URLs as-is without attempting to connect to a higher
97 level directory. This option is off by default when only
98 one URL/branch is tracked (it would do little good).
101 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
102 tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
103 .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
107 Store Git commit times in the local timezone instead of UTC. This
108 makes 'git log' (even without --date=local) show the same times
109 that `svn log` would in the local timezone.
111 This doesn't interfere with interoperating with the Subversion
112 repository you cloned from, but if you wish for your local Git
113 repository to be able to interoperate with someone else's local Git
114 repository, either don't use this option or you should both use it in
115 the same local timezone.
118 Fetch only from the SVN parent of the current HEAD.
120 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
121 This allows one to specify a Perl regular expression that will
122 cause skipping of all matching paths from checkout from SVN.
123 The '--ignore-paths' option should match for every 'fetch'
124 (including automatic fetches due to 'clone', 'dcommit',
125 'rebase', etc) on a given repository.
128 config key: svn-remote.<name>.ignore-paths
130 If the ignore-paths config key is set and the command line option is
131 also given, both regular expressions will be used.
136 Skip "doc*" directory for every fetch;;
138 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
139 --ignore-paths="^doc"
140 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
142 Skip "branches" and "tags" of first level directories;;
144 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
145 --ignore-paths="^[^/]+/(?:branches|tags)"
146 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
150 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
151 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
152 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
153 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
154 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
155 '--fetch-all' and '--parent'. After a repository is cloned,
156 the 'fetch' command will be able to update revisions without
157 affecting the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be
158 able to update the working tree with the latest changes.
160 --preserve-empty-dirs;;
161 Create a placeholder file in the local Git repository for each
162 empty directory fetched from Subversion. This includes directories
163 that become empty by removing all entries in the Subversion
164 repository (but not the directory itself). The placeholder files
165 are also tracked and removed when no longer necessary.
167 --placeholder-filename=<filename>;;
168 Set the name of placeholder files created by --preserve-empty-dirs.
169 Default: ".gitignore"
172 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
173 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
175 This works similarly to `svn update` or 'git pull' except that
176 it preserves linear history with 'git rebase' instead of
177 'git merge' for ease of dcommitting with 'git svn'.
179 This accepts all options that 'git svn fetch' and 'git rebase'
180 accept. However, '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
181 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
183 Like 'git rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
184 and have no uncommitted changes.
188 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git rebase' against the
189 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
192 Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
193 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
194 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
195 a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
196 It is recommended that you run 'git svn' fetch and rebase (not
197 pull or merge) your commits against the latest changes in the
199 An optional revision or branch argument may be specified, and
200 causes 'git svn' to do all work on that revision/branch
202 This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
203 cleaner, more linear history.
206 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
208 Commit to this SVN URL (the full path). This is intended to
209 allow existing 'git svn' repositories created with one transport
210 method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
211 reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
212 method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
215 config key: svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
216 config key: svn.commiturl (overwrites all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl options)
218 Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask) is very strongly
221 --mergeinfo=<mergeinfo>;;
222 Add the given merge information during the dcommit
223 (e.g. `--mergeinfo="/branches/foo:1-10"`). All svn server versions can
224 store this information (as a property), and svn clients starting from
225 version 1.5 can make use of it. To specify merge information from multiple
226 branches, use a single space character between the branches
227 (`--mergeinfo="/branches/foo:1-10 /branches/bar:3,5-6,8"`)
230 config key: svn.pushmergeinfo
232 This option will cause git-svn to attempt to automatically populate the
233 svn:mergeinfo property in the SVN repository when possible. Currently, this can
234 only be done when dcommitting non-fast-forward merges where all parents but the
235 first have already been pushed into SVN.
238 Ask the user to confirm that a patch set should actually be sent to SVN.
239 For each patch, one may answer "yes" (accept this patch), "no" (discard this
240 patch), "all" (accept all patches), or "quit".
242 'git svn dcommit' returns immediately if answer if "no" or "quit", without
243 commiting anything to SVN.
246 Create a branch in the SVN repository.
250 Allows to specify the commit message.
254 Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
255 specified during git svn init.
259 If more than one --branches (or --tags) option was given to the 'init'
260 or 'clone' command, you must provide the location of the branch (or
261 tag) you wish to create in the SVN repository. The value of this
262 option must match one of the paths specified by a --branches (or
263 --tags) option. You can see these paths with the commands
265 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.branches
266 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.tags
268 where <name> is the name of the SVN repository as specified by the -R option to
269 'init' (or "svn" by default).
272 Specify the SVN username to perform the commit as. This option overrides
273 the 'username' configuration property.
276 Use the specified URL to connect to the destination Subversion
277 repository. This is useful in cases where the source SVN
278 repository is read-only. This option overrides configuration
279 property 'commiturl'.
281 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
285 Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
289 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
290 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
292 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
296 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
297 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
298 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
301 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
302 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
304 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
305 merged/excluded commits
314 shows the git commit sha1, as well
316 our version of --pretty=oneline
319 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
320 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
321 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
323 Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git log'
326 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
327 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
328 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
329 local uncommitted changes in the working tree are ignored;
330 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
331 arguments are passed directly to 'git blame'.
334 Produce output in the same format as 'git blame', but with
335 SVN revision numbers instead of git commit hashes. In this mode,
336 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
337 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
340 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
341 corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
342 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
343 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
346 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
347 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
348 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
349 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
350 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
351 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
352 independently of 'git svn' functions.
355 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
356 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
357 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
361 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
362 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
363 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
366 Attempts to recreate empty directories that core git cannot track
367 based on information in $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files.
368 Empty directories are automatically recreated when using
369 "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase", so "mkdirs" is intended
370 for use after commands like "git checkout" or "git reset".
371 (See the svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs config file option for
375 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
376 command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git svn
377 init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
378 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
379 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
380 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git svn'-aware
381 repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git svn').
382 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
385 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
386 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
387 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
391 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
392 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
396 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
397 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
400 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
404 Compress $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files in .git/svn
405 and remove $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>index files in .git/svn.
408 Undoes the effects of 'fetch' back to the specified revision.
409 This allows you to re-'fetch' an SVN revision. Normally the
410 contents of an SVN revision should never change and 'reset'
411 should not be necessary. However, if SVN permissions change,
412 or if you alter your --ignore-paths option, a 'fetch' may fail
413 with "not found in commit" (file not previously visible) or
414 "checksum mismatch" (missed a modification). If the problem
415 file cannot be ignored forever (with --ignore-paths) the only
416 way to repair the repo is to use 'reset'.
418 Only the rev_map and refs/remotes/git-svn are changed. Follow 'reset'
419 with a 'fetch' and then 'git reset' or 'git rebase' to move local
420 branches onto the new tree.
424 Specify the most recent revision to keep. All later revisions
428 Discard the specified revision as well, keeping the nearest
431 Assume you have local changes in "master", but you need to refetch "r2".
434 r1---r2---r3 remotes/git-svn
439 Fix the ignore-paths or SVN permissions problem that caused "r2" to
440 be incomplete in the first place. Then:
447 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
449 r2---r3---A---B master
452 Then fixup "master" with 'git rebase'.
453 Do NOT use 'git merge' or your history will not be compatible with a
457 git rebase --onto remotes/git-svn A^ master
460 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
468 --shared[=(false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody)]::
469 --template=<template_directory>::
470 Only used with the 'init' command.
471 These are passed directly to 'git init'.
475 Used with the 'fetch' command.
477 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
478 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
479 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
481 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
482 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
487 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
489 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
490 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
491 'git rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
494 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
496 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
497 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
498 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
499 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
500 the commit to SVN act like git.
503 config key: svn.rmdir
507 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
509 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
510 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
517 --find-copies-harder::
518 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
520 They are both passed directly to 'git diff-tree'; see
521 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
525 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
528 --authors-file=<filename>::
529 Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git cvsimport':
531 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
532 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
533 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
535 If this option is specified and 'git svn' encounters an SVN
536 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git svn'
537 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
538 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git svn' command
539 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
542 config key: svn.authorsfile
544 --authors-prog=<filename>::
545 If this option is specified, for each SVN committer name that
546 does not exist in the authors file, the given file is executed
547 with the committer name as the first argument. The program is
548 expected to return a single line of the form "Name <email>",
549 which will be treated as if included in the authors file.
553 Make 'git svn' less verbose. Specify a second time to make it
557 --repack-flags=<flags>::
558 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches with
561 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
562 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
563 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
565 --repack-flags are passed directly to 'git repack'.
568 config key: svn.repack
569 config key: svn.repackflags
574 --strategy=<strategy>::
577 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
579 Passed directly to 'git rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
580 'git reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
584 This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and
587 For 'dcommit', print out the series of git arguments that would show
588 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
590 For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
591 repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
592 repository that will be fetched from.
594 For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
595 creating the branch or tag.
598 When retrieving svn commits into git (as part of 'fetch', 'rebase', or
599 'dcommit' operations), look for the first `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line
600 in the log message and use that as the author string.
602 When committing to svn from git (as part of 'commit-diff', 'set-tree' or 'dcommit'
603 operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
604 `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line, append a `From:` line based on the
605 git commit's author string. If you use this, then `--use-log-author`
606 will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
614 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
615 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
616 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
617 no longer require this switch as an argument.
620 --svn-remote <remote name>::
621 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
622 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
626 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
627 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
628 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
629 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
630 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
633 config key: svn.followparent
635 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
636 ------------------------
639 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
640 This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
642 This option can only be used for one-shot imports as 'git svn'
643 will not be able to fetch again without metadata. Additionally,
644 if you lose your .git/svn/**/.rev_map.* files, 'git svn' will not
645 be able to rebuild them.
647 The 'git svn log' command will not work on repositories using
648 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
649 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
651 This option is NOT recommended as it makes it difficult to track down
652 old references to SVN revision numbers in existing documentation, bug
653 reports and archives. If you plan to eventually migrate from SVN to git
654 and are certain about dropping SVN history, consider
655 linkgit:git-filter-branch[1] instead. filter-branch also allows
656 reformatting of metadata for ease-of-reading and rewriting authorship
657 info for non-"svn.authorsFile" users.
660 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
661 This allows 'git svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
662 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
664 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
665 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
666 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
667 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
668 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
669 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
672 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
673 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
674 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
675 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
678 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
679 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
680 URLs. For example, an administrator could run 'git svn' on the
681 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
682 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
683 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
685 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteUUID::
686 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users who need
687 to remap the UUID manually. This may be useful in situations
688 where the original UUID is not available via either useSvmProps
691 svn-remote.<name>.pushurl::
693 Similar to git's 'remote.<name>.pushurl', this key is designed
694 to be used in cases where 'url' points to an SVN repository
695 via a read-only transport, to provide an alternate read/write
696 transport. It is assumed that both keys point to the same
697 repository. Unlike 'commiturl', 'pushurl' is a base path. If
698 either 'commiturl' or 'pushurl' could be used, 'commiturl'
701 svn.brokenSymlinkWorkaround::
702 This disables potentially expensive checks to workaround
703 broken symlinks checked into SVN by broken clients. Set this
704 option to "false" if you track a SVN repository with many
705 empty blobs that are not symlinks. This option may be changed
706 while 'git svn' is running and take effect on the next
707 revision fetched. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this option to
710 svn.pathnameencoding::
711 This instructs git svn to recode pathnames to a given encoding.
712 It can be used by windows users and by those who work in non-utf8
713 locales to avoid corrupted file names with non-ASCII characters.
714 Valid encodings are the ones supported by Perl's Encode module.
716 svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs::
717 Normally, the "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase" commands
718 attempt to recreate empty directories that are in the
719 Subversion repository. If this option is set to "false", then
720 empty directories will only be created if the "git svn mkdirs"
721 command is run explicitly. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this
724 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, rewriteUUID, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
725 options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git svn'; they
726 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
727 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
729 Additionally, only one of these options can be used per svn-remote
730 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line, except
731 for rewriteRoot and rewriteUUID which can be used together.
737 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
739 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
740 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
741 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
742 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
744 # You should be on master branch, double-check with 'git branch'
746 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
748 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
749 # latest changes in SVN:
751 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
752 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
754 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
755 git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
756 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
758 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
759 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
761 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
762 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
763 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
764 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
766 # Create a new branch in SVN
768 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
769 # with the appropriate name):
770 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
771 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
772 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
773 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
775 The initial 'git svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
776 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
777 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
778 'git svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
779 do the initial 'git svn clone' to a repository on a server and
780 have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
782 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
783 # Do the initial import on a server
784 ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project
785 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
789 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
790 git config --replace-all remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
792 # Prevent fetch/pull from remote git server in the future,
793 # we only want to use git svn for future updates
794 git config --remove-section remote.origin
795 # Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
796 git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
797 # Initialize 'git svn' locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
798 git svn init http://svn.example.com/project
799 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
801 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
803 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
804 ---------------------
806 Originally, 'git svn' recommended that the 'remotes/git-svn' branch be
807 pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
808 `git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
809 `git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits.
811 If you use `git svn set-tree A..B` to commit several diffs and you do
812 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
813 use `git svn rebase` to update your work branch instead of `git pull` or
814 `git merge`. `pull`/`merge` can cause non-linear history to be flattened
815 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
816 previous commits in SVN.
820 While 'git svn' can track
821 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
822 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
823 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
824 users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
825 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
830 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with Subversion,
831 it is recommended that all 'git svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
832 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
833 operations between git repositories and branches. The recommended
834 method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
835 'git format-patch' and 'git am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
837 Running 'git merge' or 'git pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
838 plan to 'dcommit' from because Subversion users cannot see any
839 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
840 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
843 If you do merge, note the following rule: 'git svn dcommit' will
844 attempt to commit on top of the SVN commit named in
845 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
846 git log --grep=^git-svn-id: --first-parent -1
847 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
848 You 'must' therefore ensure that the most recent commit of the branch
849 you want to dcommit to is the 'first' parent of the merge. Chaos will
850 ensue otherwise, especially if the first parent is an older commit on
853 'git clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
854 any 'git svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
855 using 'git svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
858 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you 'git push' to
859 before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
860 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
861 see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
863 Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
864 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
865 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
866 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
868 When using multiple --branches or --tags, 'git svn' does not automatically
869 handle name collisions (for example, if two branches from different paths have
870 the same name, or if a branch and a tag have the same name). In these cases,
871 use 'init' to set up your git repository then, before your first 'fetch', edit
872 the .git/config file so that the branches and tags are associated with
873 different name spaces. For example:
875 branches = stable/*:refs/remotes/svn/stable/*
876 branches = debug/*:refs/remotes/svn/debug/*
881 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
882 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
884 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
885 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
886 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
887 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
888 renamed and copied files is fully supported if they're similar enough
889 for git to detect them.
894 'git svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
895 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
896 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
897 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
898 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
899 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
900 listed below are allowed:
902 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
903 [svn-remote "project-a"]
904 url = http://server.org/svn
905 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
906 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
907 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
908 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
910 Keep in mind that the '\*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
911 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
912 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's an
913 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
914 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
915 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git config'.
917 It is also possible to fetch a subset of branches or tags by using a
918 comma-separated list of names within braces. For example:
920 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
921 [svn-remote "huge-project"]
922 url = http://server.org/svn
923 fetch = trunk/src:refs/remotes/trunk
924 branches = branches/{red,green}/src:refs/remotes/branches/*
925 tags = tags/{1.0,2.0}/src:refs/remotes/tags/*
926 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
928 Note that git-svn keeps track of the highest revision in which a branch
929 or tag has appeared. If the subset of branches or tags is changed after
930 fetching, then .git/svn/.metadata must be manually edited to remove (or
931 reset) branches-maxRev and/or tags-maxRev as appropriate.
935 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
939 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite