6 git-svn - bidirectional operation between a single Subversion branch and git
10 'git-svn' <command> [options] [arguments]
14 git-svn is a simple conduit for changesets between a single Subversion
17 git-svn is not to be confused with git-svnimport. The were designed
18 with very different goals in mind.
20 git-svn is designed for an individual developer who wants a
21 bidirectional flow of changesets between a single branch in Subversion
22 and an arbitrary number of branches in git. git-svnimport is designed
23 for read-only operation on repositories that match a particular layout
24 (albeit the recommended one by SVN developers).
26 For importing svn, git-svnimport is potentially more powerful when
27 operating on repositories organized under the recommended
28 trunk/branch/tags structure, and should be faster, too.
30 git-svn mostly ignores the very limited view of branching that
31 Subversion has. This allows git-svn to be much easier to use,
32 especially on repositories that are not organized in a manner that
33 git-svnimport is designed for.
38 Creates an empty git repository with additional metadata
39 directories for git-svn. The SVN_URL must be specified
43 Fetch unfetched revisions from the SVN_URL we are tracking.
44 refs/heads/remotes/git-svn will be updated to the latest revision.
46 Note: You should never attempt to modify the remotes/git-svn branch
47 outside of git-svn. Instead, create a branch from remotes/git-svn
48 and work on that branch. Use the 'commit' command (see below)
49 to write git commits back to remotes/git-svn.
52 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
53 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
54 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
55 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
56 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
57 independently of git-svn functions.
60 Not a part of daily usage, but this is a useful command if
61 you've just cloned a repository (using git-clone) that was
62 tracked with git-svn. Unfortunately, git-clone does not clone
63 git-svn metadata and the svn working tree that git-svn uses for
64 its operations. This rebuilds the metadata so git-svn can
65 resume fetch operations. SVN_URL may be optionally specified if
66 the directory/repository you're tracking has moved or changed
70 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
71 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
72 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
78 Only used with the 'fetch' command.
80 Takes any valid -r<argument> svn would accept and passes it
81 directly to svn. -r<ARG1>:<ARG2> ranges and "{" DATE "}" syntax
82 is also supported. This is passed directly to svn, see svn
83 documentation for more details.
85 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch.
89 Only used with the 'commit' command.
91 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
92 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
93 git-rev-list --pretty=oneline output can be used.
96 Only used with the 'commit' command.
98 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
99 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
100 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
101 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
102 the commit to SVN act like git.
106 Only used with the 'commit' command.
108 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
109 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
113 --find-copies-harder::
114 Both of these are only used with the 'commit' command.
116 They are both passed directly to git-diff-tree see
117 git-diff-tree(1) for more information.
123 Used with 'fetch' or 'commit'.
125 This can be used to join arbitrary git branches to remotes/git-svn
126 on new commits where the tree object is equivalent.
128 When used with different GIT_SVN_ID values, tags and branches in
129 SVN can be tracked this way, as can some merges where the heads
130 end up having completely equivalent content. This can even be
131 used to track branches across multiple SVN _repositories_.
133 This option may be specified multiple times, once for each
138 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). See
139 the section on "Tracking Multiple Repositories or Branches" for
140 more information on using GIT_SVN_ID.
142 COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS
143 ---------------------
145 Only used with the 'rebuild' command.
147 Run this if you used an old version of git-svn that used
148 'git-svn-HEAD' instead of 'remotes/git-svn' as the branch
149 for tracking the remote.
151 --no-ignore-externals::
152 Only used with the 'fetch' and 'rebuild' command.
154 By default, git-svn passes --ignore-externals to svn to avoid
155 fetching svn:external trees into git. Pass this flag to enable
156 externals tracking directly via git.
158 Versions of svn that do not support --ignore-externals are
159 automatically detected and this flag will be automatically
162 Otherwise, do not enable this flag unless you know what you're
168 Tracking and contributing to an Subversion managed-project:
170 # Initialize a tree (like git init-db)::
171 git-svn init http://svn.foo.org/project/trunk
172 # Fetch remote revisions::
174 # Create your own branch to hack on::
175 git checkout -b my-branch remotes/git-svn
176 # Commit only the git commits you want to SVN::
177 git-svn commit <tree-ish> [<tree-ish_2> ...]
178 # Commit all the git commits from my-branch that don't exist in SVN::
179 git-svn commit remotes/git-svn..my-branch
180 # Something is committed to SVN, pull the latest into your branch::
181 git-svn fetch && git pull . remotes/git-svn
182 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file::
183 git-svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
187 Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
188 with Subversion is cumbersome as a result. git-svn completely forgoes
189 any automated merge/branch tracking on the Subversion side and leaves it
190 entirely up to the user on the git side. It's simply not worth it to do
191 a useful translation when the the original signal is weak.
193 TRACKING MULTIPLE REPOSITORIES OR BRANCHES
194 ------------------------------------------
195 This is for advanced users, most users should ignore this section.
197 Because git-svn does not care about relationships between different
198 branches or directories in a Subversion repository, git-svn has a simple
199 hack to allow it to track an arbitrary number of related _or_ unrelated
200 SVN repositories via one git repository. Simply set the GIT_SVN_ID
201 environment variable to a name other other than "git-svn" (the default)
202 and git-svn will ignore the contents of the $GIT_DIR/git-svn directory
203 and instead do all of its work in $GIT_DIR/$GIT_SVN_ID for that
204 invocation. The interface branch will be remotes/$GIT_SVN_ID, instead of
205 remotes/git-svn. Any remotes/$GIT_SVN_ID branch should never be modified
206 by the user outside of git-svn commands.
208 ADDITIONAL FETCH ARGUMENTS
209 --------------------------
210 This is for advanced users, most users should ignore this section.
212 Unfetched SVN revisions may be imported as children of existing commits
213 by specifying additional arguments to 'fetch'. Additional parents may
214 optionally be specified in the form of sha1 hex sums at the
215 command-line. Unfetched SVN revisions may also be tied to particular
216 git commits with the following syntax:
218 svn_revision_number=git_commit_sha1
220 This allows you to tie unfetched SVN revision 375 to your current HEAD::
222 git-svn fetch 375=$(git-rev-parse HEAD)
224 Advanced Example: Tracking a Reorganized Repository
225 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
226 If you're tracking a directory that has moved, or otherwise been
227 branched or tagged off of another directory in the repository and you
228 care about the full history of the project, then you can read this
231 This is how Yann Dirson tracked the trunk of the ufoai directory when
232 the /trunk directory of his repository was moved to /ufoai/trunk and
233 he needed to continue tracking /ufoai/trunk where /trunk left off.
235 # This log message shows when the repository was reorganized::
236 r166 | ydirson | 2006-03-02 01:36:55 +0100 (Thu, 02 Mar 2006) | 1 line
239 A /ufoai/trunk (from /trunk:165)
241 # First we start tracking the old revisions::
242 GIT_SVN_ID=git-oldsvn git-svn init \
243 https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/ufoai/trunk
244 GIT_SVN_ID=git-oldsvn git-svn fetch -r1:165
246 # And now, we continue tracking the new revisions::
247 GIT_SVN_ID=git-newsvn git-svn init \
248 https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/ufoai/ufoai/trunk
249 GIT_SVN_ID=git-newsvn git-svn fetch \
250 166=`git-rev-parse refs/remotes/git-oldsvn`
254 If somebody commits a conflicting changeset to SVN at a bad moment
255 (right before you commit) causing a conflict and your commit to fail,
256 your svn working tree ($GIT_DIR/git-svn/tree) may be dirtied. The
257 easiest thing to do is probably just to rm -rf $GIT_DIR/git-svn/tree and
260 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Too difficult to
261 map them since we rely heavily on git write-tree being _exactly_ the
262 same on both the SVN and git working trees and I prefer not to clutter
263 working trees with metadata files.
265 svn:keywords can't be ignored in Subversion (at least I don't know of
266 a way to ignore them).
268 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
269 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
270 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
271 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Renamed and
272 copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough for git to
277 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
281 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.