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 Subversion and git.
15 It provides a bidirectional flow of changes between a Subversion and a git
18 'git-svn' can track a single Subversion branch simply by using a
19 URL to the branch, follow branches laid out in the Subversion recommended
20 method (trunk, branches, tags directories) with the --stdlayout option, or
21 follow branches in any layout with the -T/-t/-b options (see options to
22 'init' below, and also the 'clone' command).
24 Once tracking a Subversion branch (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.
33 Initializes an empty git repository with additional
34 metadata directories for 'git-svn'. The Subversion URL
35 may be specified as a command-line argument, or as full
36 URL arguments to -T/-t/-b. Optionally, the target
37 directory to operate on can be specified as a second
38 argument. Normally this command initializes the current
42 --trunk=<trunk_subdir>;;
44 --tags=<tags_subdir>;;
46 --branches=<branches_subdir>;;
49 These are optional command-line options for init. Each of
50 these flags can point to a relative repository path
51 (--tags=project/tags') or a full url
52 (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags). The option --stdlayout is
53 a shorthand way of setting trunk,tags,branches as the relative paths,
54 which is the Subversion default. If any of the other options are given
55 as well, they take precedence.
57 Set the 'noMetadata' option in the [svn-remote] config.
59 Set the 'useSvmProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
61 Set the 'useSvnsyncProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
62 --rewrite-root=<URL>;;
63 Set the 'rewriteRoot' option in the [svn-remote] config.
65 When retrieving svn commits into git (as part of fetch, rebase, or
66 dcommit operations), look for the first From: or Signed-off-by: line
67 in the log message and use that as the author string.
69 When committing to svn from git (as part of commit or dcommit
70 operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
71 From: or Signed-off-by: line, append a From: line based on the
72 git commit's author string. If you use this, then --use-log-author
73 will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
75 For transports that SVN handles authentication for (http,
76 https, and plain svn), specify the username. For other
77 transports (eg svn+ssh://), you must include the username in
78 the URL, eg svn+ssh://foo@svn.bar.com/project
80 This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended
81 to the names of remotes if trunk/branches/tags are
82 specified. The prefix does not automatically include a
83 trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the
84 argument if that is what you want. If --branches/-b is
85 specified, the prefix must include a trailing slash.
86 Setting a prefix is useful if you wish to track multiple
87 projects that share a common repository.
88 --ignore-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
94 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
95 tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
96 .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
100 Store Git commit times in the local timezone instead of UTC. This
101 makes 'git-log' (even without --date=local) show the same times
102 that `svn log` would in the local timezone.
105 Fetch only from the SVN parent of the current HEAD.
107 This doesn't interfere with interoperating with the Subversion
108 repository you cloned from, but if you wish for your local Git
109 repository to be able to interoperate with someone else's local Git
110 repository, either don't use this option or you should both use it in
111 the same local timezone.
113 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
114 This allows one to specify a Perl regular expression that will
115 cause skipping of all matching paths from checkout from SVN.
116 The '--ignore-paths' option should match for every 'fetch'
117 (including automatic fetches due to 'clone', 'dcommit',
118 'rebase', etc) on a given repository.
120 config key: svn-remote.<name>.ignore-paths
122 If the ignore-paths config key is set and the command
123 line option is also given, both regular expressions
128 --ignore-paths="^doc" - skip "doc*" directory for every
131 --ignore-paths="^[^/]+/(?:branches|tags)" - skip
132 "branches" and "tags" of first level directories.
135 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
136 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
137 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
138 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
139 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
140 '--fetch-all'. After a repository is cloned, the 'fetch'
141 command will be able to update revisions without affecting
142 the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be able
143 to update the working tree with the latest changes.
146 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
147 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
149 This works similarly to `svn update` or 'git-pull' except that
150 it preserves linear history with 'git-rebase' instead of
151 'git-merge' for ease of dcommitting with 'git-svn'.
153 This accepts all options that 'git-svn fetch' and 'git-rebase'
154 accept. However, '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
155 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
157 Like 'git-rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
158 and have no uncommitted changes.
162 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git-rebase' against the
163 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
166 Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
167 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
168 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
169 a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
170 It is recommended that you run 'git-svn' fetch and rebase (not
171 pull or merge) your commits against the latest changes in the
173 An optional command-line argument may be specified as an
175 This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
176 cleaner, more linear history.
179 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
181 Commit to this SVN URL (the full path). This is intended to
182 allow existing git-svn repositories created with one transport
183 method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
184 reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
185 method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
187 config key: svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
189 config key: svn.commiturl (overwrites all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl options)
191 Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask)
192 is very strongly discouraged.
196 Create a branch in the SVN repository.
200 Allows to specify the commit message.
204 Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
205 specified during git svn init.
208 Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
212 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
213 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
215 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
218 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
219 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
220 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
222 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
223 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
225 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
226 merged/excluded commits
235 shows the git commit sha1, as well
237 our version of --pretty=oneline
240 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
241 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
242 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
244 Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git-log'
247 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
248 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
249 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
250 local uncommitted changes in the working copy are ignored;
251 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
252 arguments are passed directly to 'git-blame'.
255 Produce output in the same format as 'git-blame', but with
256 SVN revision numbers instead of git commit hashes. In this mode,
257 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
258 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
262 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
263 corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
264 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
265 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
268 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
269 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
270 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
271 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
272 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
273 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
274 independently of 'git-svn' functions.
277 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
278 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
279 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
283 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
284 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
285 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
288 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
289 command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git-svn
290 init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
291 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
292 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
293 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git-svn'-aware
294 repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git-svn').
295 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
298 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
299 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
300 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
304 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
305 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
309 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
310 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
313 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
322 --shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
323 --template=<template_directory>::
324 Only used with the 'init' command.
325 These are passed directly to 'git-init'.
330 Used with the 'fetch' command.
332 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
333 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
334 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
336 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
337 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
343 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
345 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
346 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
347 'git-rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
351 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
353 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
354 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
355 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
356 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
357 the commit to SVN act like git.
359 config key: svn.rmdir
364 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
366 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
367 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
373 --find-copies-harder::
375 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
377 They are both passed directly to 'git-diff-tree'; see
378 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
382 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
385 --authors-file=<filename>::
387 Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git-cvsimport':
389 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
390 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
391 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
393 If this option is specified and 'git-svn' encounters an SVN
394 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git-svn'
395 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
396 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git-svn' command
397 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
399 config key: svn.authorsfile
403 Make 'git-svn' less verbose. Specify a second time to make it
407 --repack-flags=<flags>::
409 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
412 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
413 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
414 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
416 --repack-flags are passed directly to 'git-repack'.
419 config key: svn.repack
420 config key: svn.repackflags
425 --strategy=<strategy>::
427 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
429 Passed directly to 'git-rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
430 'git-reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
435 This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and 'tag'
438 For 'dcommit', print out the series of git arguments that would show
439 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
441 For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
442 repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
443 repository that will be fetched from.
445 For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
446 creating the branch or tag.
457 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
458 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
459 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
460 no longer require this switch as an argument.
463 --svn-remote <remote name>::
464 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
465 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
469 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
470 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
471 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
472 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
473 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
475 config key: svn.followparent
478 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
479 ------------------------
483 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
485 This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
487 If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, 'git-svn' will not
488 be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
489 either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
491 The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using
492 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
493 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
496 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
498 This allows 'git-svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
499 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
501 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
502 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
503 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
504 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
505 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
506 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
509 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
510 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
511 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
512 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
515 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
516 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
517 URLs. For example, an administrator could run 'git-svn' on the
518 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
519 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
520 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
522 svn.brokenSymlinkWorkaround::
523 This disables potentially expensive checks to workaround broken symlinks
524 checked into SVN by broken clients. Set this option to "false" if you
525 track a SVN repository with many empty blobs that are not symlinks.
526 This option may be changed while "git-svn" is running and take effect on
527 the next revision fetched. If unset, git-svn assumes this option to be
532 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
533 options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git-svn'; they
534 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
535 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
537 Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
538 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
544 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
546 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
547 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
548 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
549 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
551 # You should be on master branch, double-check with git-branch
553 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
555 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
556 # latest changes in SVN:
558 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
559 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
561 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
562 git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
563 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
565 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
566 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
568 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
569 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
570 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
571 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
573 # Create a new branch in SVN
575 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
576 # with the appropriate name):
577 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
578 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
579 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
580 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
582 The initial 'git-svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
583 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
584 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
585 'git-svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
586 do the initial 'git-svn clone' to a repository on a server and
587 have each person clone that repository with 'git-clone':
589 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
590 # Do the initial import on a server
591 ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project
592 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
596 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
597 git config --add remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
599 # Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
600 git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
601 # Initialize git-svn locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
602 git svn init http://svn.example.com/project
603 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
605 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
607 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
608 ---------------------
610 Originally, 'git-svn' recommended that the 'remotes/git-svn' branch be
611 pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
612 `git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
613 `git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits.
615 If you use `git svn set-tree A..B` to commit several diffs and you do
616 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
617 use `git svn rebase` to update your work branch instead of `git pull` or
618 `git merge`. `pull`/`merge` can cause non-linear history to be flattened
619 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
620 previous commits in SVN.
624 Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
625 with Subversion can be cumbersome as a result. While 'git-svn' can track
626 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
627 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
628 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
629 users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
630 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
635 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with a less-capable system
636 (SVN), it is recommended that all 'git-svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
637 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git-clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
638 operations between git repositories and branches. The recommended
639 method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
640 'git-format-patch' and 'git-am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
642 Running 'git-merge' or 'git-pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
643 plan to 'dcommit' from. Subversion does not represent merges in any
644 reasonable or useful fashion; so users using Subversion cannot see any
645 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
646 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
649 'git-clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
650 any 'git-svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
651 using 'git-svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
654 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you 'git-push' to
655 before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
656 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
657 see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
659 Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
660 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
661 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
662 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
667 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
668 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
670 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
671 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
672 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
673 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
674 renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
675 for git to detect them.
680 'git-svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
681 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
682 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
683 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
684 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
685 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
686 listed below are allowed:
688 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
689 [svn-remote "project-a"]
690 url = http://server.org/svn
691 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
692 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
693 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
694 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
696 Keep in mind that the '\*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
697 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
698 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's an
699 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
700 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
701 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git-config'.
705 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
709 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
713 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.