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 is not to be confused with linkgit:git-svnimport[1], which is
18 git-svn was originally designed for an individual developer who wants a
19 bidirectional flow of changesets between a single branch in Subversion
20 and an arbitrary number of branches in git. Since its inception,
21 git-svn has gained the ability to track multiple branches in a manner
22 similar to git-svnimport.
24 git-svn is especially useful when it comes to tracking repositories
25 not organized in the way Subversion developers recommend (trunk,
26 branches, tags directories).
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 For transports that SVN handles authentication for (http,
66 https, and plain svn), specify the username. For other
67 transports (eg svn+ssh://), you must include the username in
68 the URL, eg svn+ssh://foo@svn.bar.com/project
70 This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended
71 to the names of remotes if trunk/branches/tags are
72 specified. The prefix does not automatically include a
73 trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the
74 argument if that is what you want. If --branches/-b is
75 specified, the prefix must include a trailing slash.
76 Setting a prefix is useful if you wish to track multiple
77 projects that share a common repository.
80 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
81 tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
82 .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
86 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
87 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
88 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
89 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
90 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
91 '--fetch-all'. After a repository is cloned, the 'fetch'
92 command will be able to update revisions without affecting
93 the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be able
94 to update the working tree with the latest changes.
97 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
98 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
100 This works similarly to 'svn update' or 'git-pull' except that
101 it preserves linear history with 'git-rebase' instead of
102 'git-merge' for ease of dcommiting with git-svn.
104 This accepts all options that 'git-svn fetch' and 'git-rebase'
105 accepts. However '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
106 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
108 Like 'git-rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
109 and have no uncommitted changes.
113 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git-rebase' against the
114 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
117 Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
118 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
119 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
120 a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
121 It is recommended that you run git-svn fetch and rebase (not
122 pull or merge) your commits against the latest changes in the
124 An optional command-line argument may be specified as an
126 This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
127 cleaner, more linear history.
130 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
134 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
135 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
137 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
140 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
141 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
142 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
144 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
145 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
147 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
148 merged/excluded commits
157 shows the git commit sha1, as well
159 our version of --pretty=oneline
162 Any other arguments are passed directly to `git log'
165 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. This is
166 identical to `git blame', but SVN revision numbers are shown instead of git
169 All arguments are passed directly to `git blame'.
173 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
174 corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
175 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
176 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
179 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
180 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
181 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
182 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
183 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
184 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
185 independently of git-svn functions.
188 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
189 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
190 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
193 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
194 command-line. This command is intended for interoperability with
195 git-svnimport and does not rely on being inside an git-svn
196 init-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
197 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
198 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
199 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a git-svn-aware
200 repository (that has been init-ed with git-svn).
201 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
204 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
205 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
206 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
215 --shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
216 --template=<template_directory>::
217 Only used with the 'init' command.
218 These are passed directly to linkgit:git-init[1].
223 Used with the 'fetch' command.
225 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
226 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
227 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
229 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
230 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
236 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
238 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
239 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
240 git-rev-list --pretty=oneline output can be used.
244 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
246 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
247 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
248 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
249 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
250 the commit to SVN act like git.
252 config key: svn.rmdir
257 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
259 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
260 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
266 --find-copies-harder::
268 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
270 They are both passed directly to git-diff-tree see
271 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
275 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
278 --authors-file=<filename>::
280 Syntax is compatible with the files used by git-svnimport and
283 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
284 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
285 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
287 If this option is specified and git-svn encounters an SVN
288 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, git-svn
289 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
290 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous git-svn command
291 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
293 config key: svn.authorsfile
297 Make git-svn less verbose.
300 --repack-flags=<flags>::
302 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
305 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
306 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
307 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
309 --repack-flags are passed directly to linkgit:git-repack[1].
312 config key: svn.repack
313 config key: svn.repackflags
318 --strategy=<strategy>::
320 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
322 Passed directly to git-rebase when using 'dcommit' if a
323 'git-reset' cannot be used (see dcommit).
328 This is only used with the 'dcommit' command.
330 Print out the series of git arguments that would show
331 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
342 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
343 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
344 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
345 no longer require this switch as an argument.
348 --svn-remote <remote name>::
349 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
350 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
354 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
355 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
356 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
357 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
358 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
360 config key: svn.followparent
363 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
364 ------------------------
368 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
370 This gets rid of the git-svn-id: lines at the end of every commit.
372 If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, git-svn will not
373 be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
374 either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
376 The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using
377 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
378 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
381 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
383 This allows git-svn to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
384 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
386 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
387 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
388 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
389 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
390 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
391 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
394 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
395 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
396 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
397 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
400 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
401 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
402 URLs. For example, an administrator could run git-svn on the
403 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
404 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
405 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
407 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
408 options all affect the metadata generated and used by git-svn; they
409 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
410 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
412 Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
413 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
420 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
422 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
423 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
424 git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project/trunk
425 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
427 # You should be on master branch, double-check with git-branch
429 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
431 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
432 # latest changes in SVN:
434 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
435 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
437 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
438 git-svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
439 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
441 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
442 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
444 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
445 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
446 git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
447 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
449 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
450 # with the appropriate name):
451 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
452 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
453 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
454 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
456 The initial 'git-svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
457 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
458 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
459 git-svn to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
460 do the initial 'git-svn clone' to a repository on a server and
461 have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
463 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
464 # Do the initial import on a server
465 ssh server "cd /pub && git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project
466 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
470 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
471 git config --add remote.origin.fetch=+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*
473 # Initialize git-svn locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
474 git-svn init http://svn.foo.org/project
475 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
477 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
479 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
480 ---------------------
482 Originally, git-svn recommended that the remotes/git-svn branch be
483 pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
484 'git-svn set-tree B' to commit a single head rather than the
485 'git-svn set-tree A..B' notation to commit multiple commits.
487 If you use 'git-svn set-tree A..B' to commit several diffs and you do
488 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
489 use 'git-svn rebase' to update your work branch instead of 'git pull' or
490 'git merge'. 'pull/merge' can cause non-linear history to be flattened
491 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
492 previous commits in SVN.
496 Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
497 with Subversion can be cumbersome as a result. While git-svn can track
498 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
499 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
500 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
501 users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
502 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
507 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with a less-capable system
508 (SVN), it is recommended that all git-svn users clone, fetch and dcommit
509 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all git-clone/pull/merge/push
510 operations between git repositories and branches. The recommended
511 method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
512 git-format-patch and git-am, or just dcommiting to the SVN repository.
514 Running 'git-merge' or 'git-pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
515 plan to dcommit from. Subversion does not represent merges in any
516 reasonable or useful fashion; so users using Subversion cannot see any
517 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
518 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, dcommit may commit to the wrong
521 'git-clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
522 any git-svn metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
523 using git-svn should use rsync(1) for cloning, if cloning is to be done
526 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you git-push to
527 before dcommit on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
528 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
529 see the git-push(1) documentation for details.
531 Do not use the --amend option of git-commit(1) on a change you've
532 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
533 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
534 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
539 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
540 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
542 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
543 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
544 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
545 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
546 renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
547 for git to detect them.
552 git-svn stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
553 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
554 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
555 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
556 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
557 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
558 listed below are allowed:
560 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
561 [svn-remote "project-a"]
562 url = http://server.org/svn
563 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
564 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
565 trunk = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
566 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
568 Keep in mind that the '*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
569 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
570 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's own
571 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
572 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
573 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using
574 linkgit:git-config[1]
578 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
582 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
586 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.