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 Create a branch in the SVN repository.
242 Allows to specify the commit message.
246 Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
247 specified during git svn init.
251 If more than one --branches (or --tags) option was given to the 'init'
252 or 'clone' command, you must provide the location of the branch (or
253 tag) you wish to create in the SVN repository. The value of this
254 option must match one of the paths specified by a --branches (or
255 --tags) option. You can see these paths with the commands
257 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.branches
258 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.tags
260 where <name> is the name of the SVN repository as specified by the -R option to
261 'init' (or "svn" by default).
264 Specify the SVN username to perform the commit as. This option overrides
265 the 'username' configuration property.
268 Use the specified URL to connect to the destination Subversion
269 repository. This is useful in cases where the source SVN
270 repository is read-only. This option overrides configuration
271 property 'commiturl'.
273 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
277 Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
281 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
282 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
284 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
288 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
289 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
290 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
293 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
294 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
296 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
297 merged/excluded commits
306 shows the git commit sha1, as well
308 our version of --pretty=oneline
311 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
312 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
313 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
315 Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git log'
318 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
319 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
320 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
321 local uncommitted changes in the working copy are ignored;
322 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
323 arguments are passed directly to 'git blame'.
326 Produce output in the same format as 'git blame', but with
327 SVN revision numbers instead of git commit hashes. In this mode,
328 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
329 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
332 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
333 corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
334 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
335 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
338 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
339 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
340 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
341 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
342 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
343 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
344 independently of 'git svn' functions.
347 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
348 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
349 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
353 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
354 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
355 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
358 Attempts to recreate empty directories that core git cannot track
359 based on information in $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files.
360 Empty directories are automatically recreated when using
361 "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase", so "mkdirs" is intended
362 for use after commands like "git checkout" or "git reset".
363 (See the svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs config file option for
367 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
368 command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git svn
369 init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
370 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
371 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
372 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git svn'-aware
373 repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git svn').
374 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
377 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
378 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
379 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
383 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
384 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
388 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
389 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
392 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
396 Compress $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files in .git/svn
397 and remove $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>index files in .git/svn.
400 Undoes the effects of 'fetch' back to the specified revision.
401 This allows you to re-'fetch' an SVN revision. Normally the
402 contents of an SVN revision should never change and 'reset'
403 should not be necessary. However, if SVN permissions change,
404 or if you alter your --ignore-paths option, a 'fetch' may fail
405 with "not found in commit" (file not previously visible) or
406 "checksum mismatch" (missed a modification). If the problem
407 file cannot be ignored forever (with --ignore-paths) the only
408 way to repair the repo is to use 'reset'.
410 Only the rev_map and refs/remotes/git-svn are changed. Follow 'reset'
411 with a 'fetch' and then 'git reset' or 'git rebase' to move local
412 branches onto the new tree.
416 Specify the most recent revision to keep. All later revisions
420 Discard the specified revision as well, keeping the nearest
423 Assume you have local changes in "master", but you need to refetch "r2".
426 r1---r2---r3 remotes/git-svn
431 Fix the ignore-paths or SVN permissions problem that caused "r2" to
432 be incomplete in the first place. Then:
439 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
441 r2---r3---A---B master
444 Then fixup "master" with 'git rebase'.
445 Do NOT use 'git merge' or your history will not be compatible with a
449 git rebase --onto remotes/git-svn A^ master
452 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
460 --shared[=(false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody)]::
461 --template=<template_directory>::
462 Only used with the 'init' command.
463 These are passed directly to 'git init'.
467 Used with the 'fetch' command.
469 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
470 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
471 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
473 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
474 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
479 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
481 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
482 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
483 'git rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
486 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
488 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
489 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
490 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
491 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
492 the commit to SVN act like git.
495 config key: svn.rmdir
499 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
501 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
502 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
509 --find-copies-harder::
510 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
512 They are both passed directly to 'git diff-tree'; see
513 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
517 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
520 --authors-file=<filename>::
521 Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git cvsimport':
523 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
524 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
525 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
527 If this option is specified and 'git svn' encounters an SVN
528 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git svn'
529 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
530 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git svn' command
531 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
534 config key: svn.authorsfile
536 --authors-prog=<filename>::
537 If this option is specified, for each SVN committer name that
538 does not exist in the authors file, the given file is executed
539 with the committer name as the first argument. The program is
540 expected to return a single line of the form "Name <email>",
541 which will be treated as if included in the authors file.
545 Make 'git svn' less verbose. Specify a second time to make it
549 --repack-flags=<flags>::
550 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches with
553 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
554 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
555 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
557 --repack-flags are passed directly to 'git repack'.
560 config key: svn.repack
561 config key: svn.repackflags
566 --strategy=<strategy>::
567 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
569 Passed directly to 'git rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
570 'git reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
574 This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and
577 For 'dcommit', print out the series of git arguments that would show
578 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
580 For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
581 repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
582 repository that will be fetched from.
584 For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
585 creating the branch or tag.
588 When retrieving svn commits into git (as part of 'fetch', 'rebase', or
589 'dcommit' operations), look for the first `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line
590 in the log message and use that as the author string.
592 When committing to svn from git (as part of 'commit-diff', 'set-tree' or 'dcommit'
593 operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
594 `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line, append a `From:` line based on the
595 git commit's author string. If you use this, then `--use-log-author`
596 will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
604 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
605 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
606 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
607 no longer require this switch as an argument.
610 --svn-remote <remote name>::
611 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
612 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
616 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
617 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
618 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
619 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
620 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
623 config key: svn.followparent
625 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
626 ------------------------
629 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
630 This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
632 This option can only be used for one-shot imports as 'git svn'
633 will not be able to fetch again without metadata. Additionally,
634 if you lose your .git/svn/**/.rev_map.* files, 'git svn' will not
635 be able to rebuild them.
637 The 'git svn log' command will not work on repositories using
638 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
639 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
641 This option is NOT recommended as it makes it difficult to track down
642 old references to SVN revision numbers in existing documentation, bug
643 reports and archives. If you plan to eventually migrate from SVN to git
644 and are certain about dropping SVN history, consider
645 linkgit:git-filter-branch[1] instead. filter-branch also allows
646 reformatting of metadata for ease-of-reading and rewriting authorship
647 info for non-"svn.authorsFile" users.
650 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
651 This allows 'git svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
652 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
654 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
655 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
656 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
657 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
658 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
659 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
662 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
663 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
664 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
665 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
668 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
669 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
670 URLs. For example, an administrator could run 'git svn' on the
671 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
672 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
673 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
675 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteUUID::
676 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users who need
677 to remap the UUID manually. This may be useful in situations
678 where the original UUID is not available via either useSvmProps
681 svn-remote.<name>.pushurl::
683 Similar to git's 'remote.<name>.pushurl', this key is designed
684 to be used in cases where 'url' points to an SVN repository
685 via a read-only transport, to provide an alternate read/write
686 transport. It is assumed that both keys point to the same
687 repository. Unlike 'commiturl', 'pushurl' is a base path. If
688 either 'commiturl' or 'pushurl' could be used, 'commiturl'
691 svn.brokenSymlinkWorkaround::
692 This disables potentially expensive checks to workaround
693 broken symlinks checked into SVN by broken clients. Set this
694 option to "false" if you track a SVN repository with many
695 empty blobs that are not symlinks. This option may be changed
696 while 'git svn' is running and take effect on the next
697 revision fetched. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this option to
700 svn.pathnameencoding::
701 This instructs git svn to recode pathnames to a given encoding.
702 It can be used by windows users and by those who work in non-utf8
703 locales to avoid corrupted file names with non-ASCII characters.
704 Valid encodings are the ones supported by Perl's Encode module.
706 svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs::
707 Normally, the "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase" commands
708 attempt to recreate empty directories that are in the
709 Subversion repository. If this option is set to "false", then
710 empty directories will only be created if the "git svn mkdirs"
711 command is run explicitly. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this
714 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, rewriteUUID, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
715 options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git svn'; they
716 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
717 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
719 Additionally, only one of these options can be used per svn-remote
720 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line, except
721 for rewriteRoot and rewriteUUID which can be used together.
727 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
729 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
730 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
731 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
732 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
734 # You should be on master branch, double-check with 'git branch'
736 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
738 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
739 # latest changes in SVN:
741 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
742 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
744 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
745 git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
746 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
748 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
749 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
751 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
752 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
753 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
754 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
756 # Create a new branch in SVN
758 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
759 # with the appropriate name):
760 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
761 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
762 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
763 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
765 The initial 'git svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
766 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
767 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
768 'git svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
769 do the initial 'git svn clone' to a repository on a server and
770 have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
772 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
773 # Do the initial import on a server
774 ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project
775 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
779 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
780 git config --replace-all remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
782 # Prevent fetch/pull from remote git server in the future,
783 # we only want to use git svn for future updates
784 git config --remove-section remote.origin
785 # Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
786 git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
787 # Initialize 'git svn' locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
788 git svn init http://svn.example.com/project
789 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
791 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
793 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
794 ---------------------
796 Originally, 'git svn' recommended that the 'remotes/git-svn' branch be
797 pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
798 `git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
799 `git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits.
801 If you use `git svn set-tree A..B` to commit several diffs and you do
802 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
803 use `git svn rebase` to update your work branch instead of `git pull` or
804 `git merge`. `pull`/`merge` can cause non-linear history to be flattened
805 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
806 previous commits in SVN.
810 While 'git svn' can track
811 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
812 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
813 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
814 users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
815 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
820 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with Subversion,
821 it is recommended that all 'git svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
822 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
823 operations between git repositories and branches. The recommended
824 method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
825 'git format-patch' and 'git am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
827 Running 'git merge' or 'git pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
828 plan to 'dcommit' from because Subversion users cannot see any
829 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
830 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
833 If you do merge, note the following rule: 'git svn dcommit' will
834 attempt to commit on top of the SVN commit named in
835 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
836 git log --grep=^git-svn-id: --first-parent -1
837 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
838 You 'must' therefore ensure that the most recent commit of the branch
839 you want to dcommit to is the 'first' parent of the merge. Chaos will
840 ensue otherwise, especially if the first parent is an older commit on
843 'git clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
844 any 'git svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
845 using 'git svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
848 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you 'git push' to
849 before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
850 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
851 see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
853 Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
854 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
855 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
856 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
858 When using multiple --branches or --tags, 'git svn' does not automatically
859 handle name collisions (for example, if two branches from different paths have
860 the same name, or if a branch and a tag have the same name). In these cases,
861 use 'init' to set up your git repository then, before your first 'fetch', edit
862 the .git/config file so that the branches and tags are associated with
863 different name spaces. For example:
865 branches = stable/*:refs/remotes/svn/stable/*
866 branches = debug/*:refs/remotes/svn/debug/*
871 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
872 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
874 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
875 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
876 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
877 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
878 renamed and copied files is fully supported if they're similar enough
879 for git to detect them.
884 'git svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
885 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
886 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
887 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
888 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
889 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
890 listed below are allowed:
892 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
893 [svn-remote "project-a"]
894 url = http://server.org/svn
895 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
896 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
897 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
898 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
900 Keep in mind that the '\*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
901 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
902 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's an
903 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
904 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
905 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git config'.
907 It is also possible to fetch a subset of branches or tags by using a
908 comma-separated list of names within braces. For example:
910 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
911 [svn-remote "huge-project"]
912 url = http://server.org/svn
913 fetch = trunk/src:refs/remotes/trunk
914 branches = branches/{red,green}/src:refs/remotes/branches/*
915 tags = tags/{1.0,2.0}/src:refs/remotes/tags/*
916 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
918 Note that git-svn keeps track of the highest revision in which a branch
919 or tag has appeared. If the subset of branches or tags is changed after
920 fetching, then .git/svn/.metadata must be manually edited to remove (or
921 reset) branches-maxRev and/or tags-maxRev as appropriate.
925 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
929 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite