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 (with a trailing slash) is strongly
83 encouraged in any case, as your SVN-tracking refs will
84 then be located at "refs/remotes/$prefix/*", which is
85 compatible with Git's own remote-tracking ref layout
86 (refs/remotes/$remote/*). Setting a prefix is also useful
87 if you wish to track multiple projects that share a common
89 By default, the prefix is set to 'origin/'.
91 NOTE: Before Git v2.0, the default prefix was "" (no prefix). This
92 meant that SVN-tracking refs were put at "refs/remotes/*", which is
93 incompatible with how Git's own remote-tracking refs are organized.
94 If you still want the old default, you can get it by passing
95 `--prefix ""` on the command line (`--prefix=""` may not work if
96 your Perl's Getopt::Long is < v2.37).
98 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
99 When passed to 'init' or 'clone' this regular expression will
100 be preserved as a config key. See 'fetch' for a description
102 --include-paths=<regex>;;
103 When passed to 'init' or 'clone' this regular expression will
104 be preserved as a config key. See 'fetch' for a description
105 of '--include-paths'.
107 When tracking multiple directories (using --stdlayout,
108 --branches, or --tags options), git svn will attempt to connect
109 to the root (or highest allowed level) of the Subversion
110 repository. This default allows better tracking of history if
111 entire projects are moved within a repository, but may cause
112 issues on repositories where read access restrictions are in
113 place. Passing '--no-minimize-url' will allow git svn to
114 accept URLs as-is without attempting to connect to a higher
115 level directory. This option is off by default when only
116 one URL/branch is tracked (it would do little good).
119 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
120 tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
121 $GIT_DIR/config file may be specified as an optional
122 command-line argument.
124 This automatically updates the rev_map if needed (see
125 '$GIT_DIR/svn/\*\*/.rev_map.*' in the FILES section below for details).
128 Store Git commit times in the local time zone instead of UTC. This
129 makes 'git log' (even without --date=local) show the same times
130 that `svn log` would in the local time zone.
132 This doesn't interfere with interoperating with the Subversion
133 repository you cloned from, but if you wish for your local Git
134 repository to be able to interoperate with someone else's local Git
135 repository, either don't use this option or you should both use it in
136 the same local time zone.
139 Fetch only from the SVN parent of the current HEAD.
141 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
142 This allows one to specify a Perl regular expression that will
143 cause skipping of all matching paths from checkout from SVN.
144 The '--ignore-paths' option should match for every 'fetch'
145 (including automatic fetches due to 'clone', 'dcommit',
146 'rebase', etc) on a given repository.
149 config key: svn-remote.<name>.ignore-paths
151 If the ignore-paths configuration key is set, and the command-line
152 option is also given, both regular expressions will be used.
157 Skip "doc*" directory for every fetch;;
159 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
160 --ignore-paths="^doc"
161 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
163 Skip "branches" and "tags" of first level directories;;
165 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
166 --ignore-paths="^[^/]+/(?:branches|tags)"
167 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
170 --include-paths=<regex>;;
171 This allows one to specify a Perl regular expression that will
172 cause the inclusion of only matching paths from checkout from SVN.
173 The '--include-paths' option should match for every 'fetch'
174 (including automatic fetches due to 'clone', 'dcommit',
175 'rebase', etc) on a given repository. '--ignore-paths' takes
176 precedence over '--include-paths'.
178 --log-window-size=<n>;;
179 Fetch <n> log entries per request when scanning Subversion history.
180 The default is 100. For very large Subversion repositories, larger
181 values may be needed for 'clone'/'fetch' to complete in reasonable
182 time. But overly large values may lead to higher memory usage and
186 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
187 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
188 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
189 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
190 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
191 '--fetch-all' and '--parent'. After a repository is cloned,
192 the 'fetch' command will be able to update revisions without
193 affecting the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be
194 able to update the working tree with the latest changes.
196 --preserve-empty-dirs;;
197 Create a placeholder file in the local Git repository for each
198 empty directory fetched from Subversion. This includes directories
199 that become empty by removing all entries in the Subversion
200 repository (but not the directory itself). The placeholder files
201 are also tracked and removed when no longer necessary.
203 --placeholder-filename=<filename>;;
204 Set the name of placeholder files created by --preserve-empty-dirs.
205 Default: ".gitignore"
208 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
209 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
211 This works similarly to `svn update` or 'git pull' except that
212 it preserves linear history with 'git rebase' instead of
213 'git merge' for ease of dcommitting with 'git svn'.
215 This accepts all options that 'git svn fetch' and 'git rebase'
216 accept. However, '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
217 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
219 Like 'git rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
220 and have no uncommitted changes.
222 This automatically updates the rev_map if needed (see
223 '$GIT_DIR/svn/\*\*/.rev_map.*' in the FILES section below for details).
227 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git rebase' against the
228 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
231 Commit each diff from the current branch directly to the SVN
232 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
233 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
234 a revision in SVN for each commit in Git.
236 When an optional Git branch name (or a Git commit object name)
237 is specified as an argument, the subcommand works on the specified
238 branch, not on the current branch.
240 Use of 'dcommit' is preferred to 'set-tree' (below).
243 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
245 Commit to this SVN URL (the full path). This is intended to
246 allow existing 'git svn' repositories created with one transport
247 method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
248 reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
249 method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
252 config key: svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
253 config key: svn.commiturl (overwrites all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl options)
255 Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask) is very strongly
258 --mergeinfo=<mergeinfo>;;
259 Add the given merge information during the dcommit
260 (e.g. `--mergeinfo="/branches/foo:1-10"`). All svn server versions can
261 store this information (as a property), and svn clients starting from
262 version 1.5 can make use of it. To specify merge information from multiple
263 branches, use a single space character between the branches
264 (`--mergeinfo="/branches/foo:1-10 /branches/bar:3,5-6,8"`)
267 config key: svn.pushmergeinfo
269 This option will cause git-svn to attempt to automatically populate the
270 svn:mergeinfo property in the SVN repository when possible. Currently, this can
271 only be done when dcommitting non-fast-forward merges where all parents but the
272 first have already been pushed into SVN.
275 Ask the user to confirm that a patch set should actually be sent to SVN.
276 For each patch, one may answer "yes" (accept this patch), "no" (discard this
277 patch), "all" (accept all patches), or "quit".
279 'git svn dcommit' returns immediately if answer is "no" or "quit", without
280 committing anything to SVN.
283 Create a branch in the SVN repository.
287 Allows to specify the commit message.
291 Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
292 specified during git svn init.
295 --destination=<path>;;
297 If more than one --branches (or --tags) option was given to the 'init'
298 or 'clone' command, you must provide the location of the branch (or
299 tag) you wish to create in the SVN repository. <path> specifies which
300 path to use to create the branch or tag and should match the pattern
301 on the left-hand side of one of the configured branches or tags
302 refspecs. You can see these refspecs with the commands
304 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.branches
305 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.tags
307 where <name> is the name of the SVN repository as specified by the -R option to
308 'init' (or "svn" by default).
311 Specify the SVN username to perform the commit as. This option overrides
312 the 'username' configuration property.
315 Use the specified URL to connect to the destination Subversion
316 repository. This is useful in cases where the source SVN
317 repository is read-only. This option overrides configuration
318 property 'commiturl'.
320 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
324 Create parent folders. This parameter is equivalent to the parameter
325 --parents on svn cp commands and is useful for non-standard repository
329 Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
333 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
334 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
336 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
340 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
341 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
342 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
345 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
346 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
348 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
349 merged/excluded commits
358 shows the Git commit sha1, as well
360 our version of --pretty=oneline
363 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
364 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
365 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
367 Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git log'
370 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
371 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
372 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
373 local uncommitted changes in the working tree are ignored;
374 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
375 arguments are passed directly to 'git blame'.
378 Produce output in the same format as 'git blame', but with
379 SVN revision numbers instead of Git commit hashes. In this mode,
380 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
381 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
384 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
385 corresponding Git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
386 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
387 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
390 Don't require an exact match if given an SVN revision, instead find
391 the commit corresponding to the state of the SVN repository (on the
392 current branch) at the specified revision.
395 Don't require an exact match if given an SVN revision; if there is
396 not an exact match return the closest match searching forward in the
400 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
401 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
402 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
403 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
404 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
405 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
406 independently of 'git svn' functions.
409 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
410 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
411 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
415 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
416 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
417 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
420 Attempts to recreate empty directories that core Git cannot track
421 based on information in $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files.
422 Empty directories are automatically recreated when using
423 "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase", so "mkdirs" is intended
424 for use after commands like "git checkout" or "git reset".
425 (See the svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs config file option for
429 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
430 command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git svn
431 init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
432 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
433 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
434 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git svn'-aware
435 repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git svn').
436 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
439 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
440 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
441 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
445 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
446 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
450 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
451 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
454 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
458 Compress $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files and remove
459 $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/index files.
462 Undoes the effects of 'fetch' back to the specified revision.
463 This allows you to re-'fetch' an SVN revision. Normally the
464 contents of an SVN revision should never change and 'reset'
465 should not be necessary. However, if SVN permissions change,
466 or if you alter your --ignore-paths option, a 'fetch' may fail
467 with "not found in commit" (file not previously visible) or
468 "checksum mismatch" (missed a modification). If the problem
469 file cannot be ignored forever (with --ignore-paths) the only
470 way to repair the repo is to use 'reset'.
472 Only the rev_map and refs/remotes/git-svn are changed (see
473 '$GIT_DIR/svn/\*\*/.rev_map.*' in the FILES section below for details).
474 Follow 'reset' with a 'fetch' and then 'git reset' or 'git rebase' to
475 move local branches onto the new tree.
479 Specify the most recent revision to keep. All later revisions
483 Discard the specified revision as well, keeping the nearest
486 Assume you have local changes in "master", but you need to refetch "r2".
489 r1---r2---r3 remotes/git-svn
494 Fix the ignore-paths or SVN permissions problem that caused "r2" to
495 be incomplete in the first place. Then:
502 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
504 r2---r3---A---B master
507 Then fixup "master" with 'git rebase'.
508 Do NOT use 'git merge' or your history will not be compatible with a
512 git rebase --onto remotes/git-svn A^ master
515 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
523 --shared[=(false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody)]::
524 --template=<template_directory>::
525 Only used with the 'init' command.
526 These are passed directly to 'git init'.
530 Used with the 'fetch' command.
532 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
533 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
534 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
536 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
537 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
542 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
544 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
545 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
546 'git rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
549 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
551 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
552 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
553 removed by default if there are no files left in them. Git
554 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
555 the commit to SVN act like Git.
558 config key: svn.rmdir
562 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
564 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
565 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
572 --find-copies-harder::
573 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
575 They are both passed directly to 'git diff-tree'; see
576 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
580 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
583 --authors-file=<filename>::
584 Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git cvsimport':
586 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
587 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
588 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
590 If this option is specified and 'git svn' encounters an SVN
591 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git svn'
592 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
593 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git svn' command
594 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
597 config key: svn.authorsfile
599 --authors-prog=<filename>::
600 If this option is specified, for each SVN committer name that
601 does not exist in the authors file, the given file is executed
602 with the committer name as the first argument. The program is
603 expected to return a single line of the form "Name <email>",
604 which will be treated as if included in the authors file.
608 Make 'git svn' less verbose. Specify a second time to make it
614 --strategy=<strategy>::
617 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
619 Passed directly to 'git rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
620 'git reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
624 This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and
627 For 'dcommit', print out the series of Git arguments that would show
628 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
630 For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
631 repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
632 repository that will be fetched from.
634 For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
635 creating the branch or tag.
638 When retrieving svn commits into Git (as part of 'fetch', 'rebase', or
639 'dcommit' operations), look for the first `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line
640 in the log message and use that as the author string.
642 When committing to svn from Git (as part of 'commit-diff', 'set-tree' or 'dcommit'
643 operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
644 `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line, append a `From:` line based on the
645 Git commit's author string. If you use this, then `--use-log-author`
646 will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
654 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
655 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
656 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
657 no longer require this switch as an argument.
660 --svn-remote <remote name>::
661 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
662 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
666 This option is only relevant if we are tracking branches (using
667 one of the repository layout options --trunk, --tags,
668 --branches, --stdlayout). For each tracked branch, try to find
669 out where its revision was copied from, and set
670 a suitable parent in the first Git commit for the branch.
671 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
672 that has been moved around within the repository. If this
673 feature is disabled, the branches created by 'git svn' will all
674 be linear and not share any history, meaning that there will be
675 no information on where branches were branched off or merged.
676 However, following long/convoluted histories can take a long
677 time, so disabling this feature may speed up the cloning
678 process. This feature is enabled by default, use
679 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
682 config key: svn.followparent
684 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
685 ------------------------
688 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
689 This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
691 This option can only be used for one-shot imports as 'git svn'
692 will not be able to fetch again without metadata. Additionally,
693 if you lose your '$GIT_DIR/svn/\*\*/.rev_map.*' files, 'git svn' will not
694 be able to rebuild them.
696 The 'git svn log' command will not work on repositories using
697 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
698 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
700 This option is NOT recommended as it makes it difficult to track down
701 old references to SVN revision numbers in existing documentation, bug
702 reports and archives. If you plan to eventually migrate from SVN to Git
703 and are certain about dropping SVN history, consider
704 linkgit:git-filter-branch[1] instead. filter-branch also allows
705 reformatting of metadata for ease-of-reading and rewriting authorship
706 info for non-"svn.authorsFile" users.
709 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
710 This allows 'git svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
711 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
713 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
714 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
715 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
716 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
717 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
718 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
721 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
722 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
723 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
724 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
727 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
728 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
729 URLs. For example, an administrator could run 'git svn' on the
730 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
731 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
732 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
734 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteUUID::
735 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users who need
736 to remap the UUID manually. This may be useful in situations
737 where the original UUID is not available via either useSvmProps
740 svn-remote.<name>.pushurl::
742 Similar to Git's 'remote.<name>.pushurl', this key is designed
743 to be used in cases where 'url' points to an SVN repository
744 via a read-only transport, to provide an alternate read/write
745 transport. It is assumed that both keys point to the same
746 repository. Unlike 'commiturl', 'pushurl' is a base path. If
747 either 'commiturl' or 'pushurl' could be used, 'commiturl'
750 svn.brokenSymlinkWorkaround::
751 This disables potentially expensive checks to workaround
752 broken symlinks checked into SVN by broken clients. Set this
753 option to "false" if you track a SVN repository with many
754 empty blobs that are not symlinks. This option may be changed
755 while 'git svn' is running and take effect on the next
756 revision fetched. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this option to
759 svn.pathnameencoding::
760 This instructs git svn to recode pathnames to a given encoding.
761 It can be used by windows users and by those who work in non-utf8
762 locales to avoid corrupted file names with non-ASCII characters.
763 Valid encodings are the ones supported by Perl's Encode module.
765 svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs::
766 Normally, the "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase" commands
767 attempt to recreate empty directories that are in the
768 Subversion repository. If this option is set to "false", then
769 empty directories will only be created if the "git svn mkdirs"
770 command is run explicitly. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this
773 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, rewriteUUID, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
774 options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git svn'; they
775 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
776 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
778 Additionally, only one of these options can be used per svn-remote
779 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line, except
780 for rewriteRoot and rewriteUUID which can be used together.
786 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project
787 (ignoring tags and branches):
789 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
790 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
791 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
792 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
794 # You should be on master branch, double-check with 'git branch'
796 # Do some work and commit locally to Git:
798 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
799 # latest changes in SVN:
801 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using Git) to SVN,
802 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
804 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default Git exclude file:
805 git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
806 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
808 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
809 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
811 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
812 # Clone a repo with standard SVN directory layout (like git clone):
813 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project --stdlayout --prefix svn/
814 # Or, if the repo uses a non-standard directory layout:
815 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T tr -b branch -t tag --prefix svn/
816 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
818 # Create a new branch in SVN
820 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
821 # with the appropriate name):
822 git reset --hard svn/trunk
823 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
824 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
825 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
827 The initial 'git svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
828 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
829 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
830 'git svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
831 do the initial 'git svn clone' to a repository on a server and
832 have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
834 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
835 # Do the initial import on a server
836 ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project [options...]"
837 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
841 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
842 git config --replace-all remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
844 # Prevent fetch/pull from remote Git server in the future,
845 # we only want to use git svn for future updates
846 git config --remove-section remote.origin
847 # Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
848 git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
849 # Initialize 'git svn' locally (be sure to use the same URL and
850 # --stdlayout/-T/-b/-t/--prefix options as were used on server)
851 git svn init http://svn.example.com/project [options...]
852 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
854 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
856 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
857 ---------------------
858 Prefer to use 'git svn rebase' or 'git rebase', rather than
859 'git pull' or 'git merge' to synchronize unintegrated commits with a 'git svn'
860 branch. Doing so will keep the history of unintegrated commits linear with
861 respect to the upstream SVN repository and allow the use of the preferred
862 'git svn dcommit' subcommand to push unintegrated commits back into SVN.
864 Originally, 'git svn' recommended that developers pulled or merged from
865 the 'git svn' branch. This was because the author favored
866 `git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
867 `git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits. Use of
868 'git pull' or 'git merge' with `git svn set-tree A..B` will cause non-linear
869 history to be flattened when committing into SVN and this can lead to merge
870 commits unexpectedly reversing previous commits in SVN.
874 While 'git svn' can track
875 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
876 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
877 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
878 users keep history as linear as possible inside Git to ease
879 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
881 HANDLING OF SVN BRANCHES
882 ------------------------
883 If 'git svn' is configured to fetch branches (and --follow-branches
884 is in effect), it sometimes creates multiple Git branches for one
885 SVN branch, where the additional branches have names of the form
886 'branchname@nnn' (with nnn an SVN revision number). These additional
887 branches are created if 'git svn' cannot find a parent commit for the
888 first commit in an SVN branch, to connect the branch to the history of
891 Normally, the first commit in an SVN branch consists
892 of a copy operation. 'git svn' will read this commit to get the SVN
893 revision the branch was created from. It will then try to find the
894 Git commit that corresponds to this SVN revision, and use that as the
895 parent of the branch. However, it is possible that there is no suitable
896 Git commit to serve as parent. This will happen, among other reasons,
897 if the SVN branch is a copy of a revision that was not fetched by 'git
898 svn' (e.g. because it is an old revision that was skipped with
899 '--revision'), or if in SVN a directory was copied that is not tracked
900 by 'git svn' (such as a branch that is not tracked at all, or a
901 subdirectory of a tracked branch). In these cases, 'git svn' will still
902 create a Git branch, but instead of using an existing Git commit as the
903 parent of the branch, it will read the SVN history of the directory the
904 branch was copied from and create appropriate Git commits. This is
905 indicated by the message "Initializing parent: <branchname>".
907 Additionally, it will create a special branch named
908 '<branchname>@<SVN-Revision>', where <SVN-Revision> is the SVN revision
909 number the branch was copied from. This branch will point to the newly
910 created parent commit of the branch. If in SVN the branch was deleted
911 and later recreated from a different version, there will be multiple
912 such branches with an '@'.
914 Note that this may mean that multiple Git commits are created for a
917 An example: in an SVN repository with a standard
918 trunk/tags/branches layout, a directory trunk/sub is created in r.100.
919 In r.200, trunk/sub is branched by copying it to branches/. 'git svn
920 clone -s' will then create a branch 'sub'. It will also create new Git
921 commits for r.100 through r.199 and use these as the history of branch
922 'sub'. Thus there will be two Git commits for each revision from r.100
923 to r.199 (one containing trunk/, one containing trunk/sub/). Finally,
924 it will create a branch 'sub@200' pointing to the new parent commit of
925 branch 'sub' (i.e. the commit for r.200 and trunk/sub/).
930 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with Subversion,
931 it is recommended that all 'git svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
932 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
933 operations between Git repositories and branches. The recommended
934 method of exchanging code between Git branches and users is
935 'git format-patch' and 'git am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
937 Running 'git merge' or 'git pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
938 plan to 'dcommit' from because Subversion users cannot see any
939 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a Git branch
940 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
943 If you do merge, note the following rule: 'git svn dcommit' will
944 attempt to commit on top of the SVN commit named in
945 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
946 git log --grep=^git-svn-id: --first-parent -1
947 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
948 You 'must' therefore ensure that the most recent commit of the branch
949 you want to dcommit to is the 'first' parent of the merge. Chaos will
950 ensue otherwise, especially if the first parent is an older commit on
953 'git clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
954 any 'git svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
955 using 'git svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
958 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any Git branches you 'git push' to
959 before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
960 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
961 see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
963 Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
964 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
965 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
966 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
968 When cloning an SVN repository, if none of the options for describing
969 the repository layout is used (--trunk, --tags, --branches,
970 --stdlayout), 'git svn clone' will create a Git repository with
971 completely linear history, where branches and tags appear as separate
972 directories in the working copy. While this is the easiest way to get a
973 copy of a complete repository, for projects with many branches it will
974 lead to a working copy many times larger than just the trunk. Thus for
975 projects using the standard directory structure (trunk/branches/tags),
976 it is recommended to clone with option '--stdlayout'. If the project
977 uses a non-standard structure, and/or if branches and tags are not
978 required, it is easiest to only clone one directory (typically trunk),
979 without giving any repository layout options. If the full history with
980 branches and tags is required, the options '--trunk' / '--branches' /
981 '--tags' must be used.
983 When using multiple --branches or --tags, 'git svn' does not automatically
984 handle name collisions (for example, if two branches from different paths have
985 the same name, or if a branch and a tag have the same name). In these cases,
986 use 'init' to set up your Git repository then, before your first 'fetch', edit
987 the $GIT_DIR/config file so that the branches and tags are associated
988 with different name spaces. For example:
990 branches = stable/*:refs/remotes/svn/stable/*
991 branches = debug/*:refs/remotes/svn/debug/*
996 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
997 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
999 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by Git and hence not
1000 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
1001 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
1002 the possible corner cases (Git doesn't do it, either). Committing
1003 renamed and copied files is fully supported if they're similar enough
1004 for Git to detect them.
1006 In SVN, it is possible (though discouraged) to commit changes to a tag
1007 (because a tag is just a directory copy, thus technically the same as a
1008 branch). When cloning an SVN repository, 'git svn' cannot know if such a
1009 commit to a tag will happen in the future. Thus it acts conservatively
1010 and imports all SVN tags as branches, prefixing the tag name with 'tags/'.
1015 'git svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
1016 repository $GIT_DIR/config file. It is similar the core Git
1017 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
1018 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
1019 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
1020 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
1021 listed below are allowed:
1023 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1024 [svn-remote "project-a"]
1025 url = http://server.org/svn
1026 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
1027 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
1028 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
1029 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1031 Keep in mind that the '\*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
1032 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
1033 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's an
1034 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
1035 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
1036 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git config'.
1038 It is also possible to fetch a subset of branches or tags by using a
1039 comma-separated list of names within braces. For example:
1041 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1042 [svn-remote "huge-project"]
1043 url = http://server.org/svn
1044 fetch = trunk/src:refs/remotes/trunk
1045 branches = branches/{red,green}/src:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
1046 tags = tags/{1.0,2.0}/src:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
1047 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1049 Multiple fetch, branches, and tags keys are supported:
1051 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1052 [svn-remote "messy-repo"]
1053 url = http://server.org/svn
1054 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
1055 fetch = branches/demos/june-project-a-demo:refs/remotes/project-a/demos/june-demo
1056 branches = branches/server/*:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
1057 branches = branches/demos/2011/*:refs/remotes/project-a/2011-demos/*
1058 tags = tags/server/*:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
1059 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1061 Creating a branch in such a configuration requires disambiguating which
1062 location to use using the -d or --destination flag:
1064 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1065 $ git svn branch -d branches/server release-2-3-0
1066 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
1068 Note that git-svn keeps track of the highest revision in which a branch
1069 or tag has appeared. If the subset of branches or tags is changed after
1070 fetching, then $GIT_DIR/svn/.metadata must be manually edited to remove
1071 (or reset) branches-maxRev and/or tags-maxRev as appropriate.
1075 $GIT_DIR/svn/\*\*/.rev_map.*::
1076 Mapping between Subversion revision numbers and Git commit
1077 names. In a repository where the noMetadata option is not set,
1078 this can be rebuilt from the git-svn-id: lines that are at the
1079 end of every commit (see the 'svn.noMetadata' section above for
1082 'git svn fetch' and 'git svn rebase' automatically update the rev_map
1083 if it is missing or not up to date. 'git svn reset' automatically
1088 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
1092 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite