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 gitlink: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>::
47 These are optional command-line options for init. Each of
48 these flags can point to a relative repository path
49 (--tags=project/tags') or a full url
50 (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags)
53 Set the 'noMetadata' option in the [svn-remote] config.
55 Set the 'useSvmProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
57 Set the 'useSvnsyncProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
58 --rewrite-root=<URL>::
59 Set the 'rewriteRoot' option in the [svn-remote] config.
61 For transports that SVN handles authentication for (http,
62 https, and plain svn), specify the username. For other
63 transports (eg svn+ssh://), you must include the username in
64 the URL, eg svn+ssh://foo@svn.bar.com/project
67 This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended
68 to the names of remotes if trunk/branches/tags are
69 specified. The prefix does not automatically include a
70 trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the
71 argument if that is what you want. This is useful if
72 you wish to track multiple projects that share a common
77 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
78 tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
79 .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
83 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
84 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
85 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
86 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
87 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
88 '--fetch-all'. After a repository is cloned, the 'fetch'
89 command will be able to update revisions without affecting
90 the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be able
91 to update the working tree with the latest changes.
94 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
95 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
97 This works similarly to 'svn update' or 'git-pull' except that
98 it preserves linear history with 'git-rebase' instead of
99 'git-merge' for ease of dcommit-ing with git-svn.
101 This accepts all options that 'git-svn fetch' and 'git-rebase'
102 accepts. However '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
103 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
105 Like 'git-rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
106 and have no uncommitted changes.
111 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git-rebase' against the
112 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.
131 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
132 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
134 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
137 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
138 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
139 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
141 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
142 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
144 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
145 merged/excluded commits
154 shows the git commit sha1, as well
156 our version of --pretty=oneline
159 Any other arguments are passed directly to `git log'
163 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
164 corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
165 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
166 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
169 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
170 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
171 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
172 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
173 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
174 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
175 independently of git-svn functions.
178 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
179 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
180 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
183 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
184 command-line. This command is intended for interoperability with
185 git-svnimport and does not rely on being inside an git-svn
186 init-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
187 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
188 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
189 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a git-svn-aware
190 repository (that has been init-ed with git-svn).
191 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
199 --shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
200 --template=<template_directory>::
201 Only used with the 'init' command.
202 These are passed directly to gitlink:git-init[1].
207 Used with the 'fetch' command.
209 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
210 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
211 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
213 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
214 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
220 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
222 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
223 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
224 git-rev-list --pretty=oneline output can be used.
228 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
230 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
231 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
232 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
233 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
234 the commit to SVN act like git.
236 config key: svn.rmdir
241 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
243 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
244 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
250 --find-copies-harder::
252 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
254 They are both passed directly to git-diff-tree see
255 gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
259 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
262 --authors-file=<filename>::
264 Syntax is compatible with the files used by git-svnimport and
267 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
268 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
269 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
271 If this option is specified and git-svn encounters an SVN
272 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, git-svn
273 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
274 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous git-svn command
275 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
277 config key: svn.authorsfile
281 Make git-svn less verbose.
284 --repack-flags=<flags>::
286 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
289 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
290 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
291 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
293 --repack-flags are passed directly to gitlink:git-repack[1].
296 config key: svn.repack
297 config key: svn.repackflags
302 --strategy=<strategy>::
304 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
306 Passed directly to git-rebase when using 'dcommit' if a
307 'git-reset' cannot be used (see dcommit).
312 This is only used with the 'dcommit' command.
314 Print out the series of git arguments that would show
315 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
326 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
327 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
328 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
329 no longer require this switch as an argument.
332 --svn-remote <remote name>::
333 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
334 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
338 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
339 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
340 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
341 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
342 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
344 config key: svn.followparent
347 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
348 ------------------------
352 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
354 This gets rid of the git-svn-id: lines at the end of every commit.
356 If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, git-svn will not
357 be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
358 either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
360 The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using
361 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
362 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
365 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
367 This allows git-svn to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
368 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
370 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
371 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
372 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
373 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
374 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
375 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
378 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
379 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
380 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
381 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
384 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
385 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
386 URLs. For example, an administrator could run git-svn on the
387 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
388 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
389 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
391 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
392 options all affect the metadata generated and used by git-svn; they
393 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
394 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
396 Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
397 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
404 Tracking and contributing to a the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
406 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
407 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
408 git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project/trunk
409 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
411 # You should be on master branch, double-check with git-branch
413 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
415 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
416 # latest changes in SVN:
418 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
419 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
421 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
422 git-svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
423 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
425 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
426 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
428 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
429 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
430 git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
431 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
433 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
434 # with the appropriate name):
435 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
436 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
437 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
438 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
440 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
441 ---------------------
443 Originally, git-svn recommended that the remotes/git-svn branch be
444 pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
445 'git-svn set-tree B' to commit a single head rather than the
446 'git-svn set-tree A..B' notation to commit multiple commits.
448 If you use 'git-svn set-tree A..B' to commit several diffs and you do
449 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
450 use 'git-svn rebase' to update your work branch instead of 'git pull' or
451 'git merge'. 'pull/merge' can cause non-linear history to be flattened
452 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
453 previous commits in SVN.
457 Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
458 with Subversion is cumbersome as a result. git-svn does not do
459 automated merge/branch tracking by default and leaves it entirely up to
460 the user on the git side. git-svn does however follow copy
461 history of the directory that it is tracking, however (much like
462 how 'svn log' works).
467 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
468 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
470 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
471 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
472 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
473 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
474 renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
475 for git to detect them.
480 git-svn stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
481 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
482 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
483 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
484 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
485 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
486 listed below are allowed:
488 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
489 [svn-remote "project-a"]
490 url = http://server.org/svn
491 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
492 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
493 trunk = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
494 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
496 Keep in mind that the '*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
497 (left of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
498 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's own
499 independent path componet (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
500 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
501 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using
502 gitlink:git-config[1]
506 gitlink:git-rebase[1]
510 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
514 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.