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.
109 Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
110 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
111 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
112 a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
113 It is recommended that you run git-svn fetch and rebase (not
114 pull or merge) your commits against the latest changes in the
116 An optional command-line argument may be specified as an
118 This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
119 cleaner, more linear history.
123 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
124 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
126 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
129 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
130 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
131 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
133 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
134 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
136 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
137 merged/excluded commits
146 shows the git commit sha1, as well
148 our version of --pretty=oneline
151 Any other arguments are passed directly to `git log'
155 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
156 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
157 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
158 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
159 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
160 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
161 independently of git-svn functions.
164 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
165 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
166 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
169 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
170 command-line. This command is intended for interoperability with
171 git-svnimport and does not rely on being inside an git-svn
172 init-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
173 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
174 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
175 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a git-svn-aware
176 repository (that has been init-ed with git-svn).
177 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
185 --shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
186 --template=<template_directory>::
187 Only used with the 'init' command.
188 These are passed directly to gitlink:git-init[1].
193 Used with the 'fetch' command.
195 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
196 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
197 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
199 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
200 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
206 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
208 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
209 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
210 git-rev-list --pretty=oneline output can be used.
214 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
216 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
217 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
218 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
219 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
220 the commit to SVN act like git.
222 config key: svn.rmdir
227 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
229 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
230 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
236 --find-copies-harder::
238 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
240 They are both passed directly to git-diff-tree see
241 gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
245 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
248 --authors-file=<filename>::
250 Syntax is compatible with the files used by git-svnimport and
253 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
254 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
255 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
257 If this option is specified and git-svn encounters an SVN
258 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, git-svn
259 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
260 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous git-svn command
261 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
263 config key: svn.authorsfile
267 Make git-svn less verbose.
270 --repack-flags=<flags>::
272 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
275 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
276 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
277 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
279 --repack-flags are passed directly to gitlink:git-repack[1].
282 config key: svn.repack
283 config key: svn.repackflags
288 --strategy=<strategy>::
290 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
292 Passed directly to git-rebase when using 'dcommit' if a
293 'git-reset' cannot be used (see dcommit).
298 This is only used with the 'dcommit' command.
300 Print out the series of git arguments that would show
301 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
312 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
313 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
314 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
315 no longer require this switch as an argument.
318 --svn-remote <remote name>::
319 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
320 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
324 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
325 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
326 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
327 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
328 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
330 config key: svn.followparent
333 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
334 ------------------------
338 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
340 This gets rid of the git-svn-id: lines at the end of every commit.
342 If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, git-svn will not
343 be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
344 either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
346 The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using
347 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
348 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
351 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
353 This allows git-svn to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
354 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
356 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
357 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
358 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
359 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
360 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
361 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
364 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
365 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
366 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
367 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
370 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
371 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
372 URLs. For example, an administrator could run git-svn on the
373 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
374 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
375 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
377 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
378 options all affect the metadata generated and used by git-svn; they
379 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
380 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
382 Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
383 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
390 Tracking and contributing to a the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
392 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
393 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
394 git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project/trunk
395 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
397 # You should be on master branch, double-check with git-branch
399 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
401 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
402 # latest changes in SVN:
404 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
405 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
407 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
408 git-svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
409 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
411 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
412 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
414 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
415 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
416 git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
417 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
419 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
420 # with the appropriate name):
421 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
422 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
423 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
424 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
426 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
427 ---------------------
429 Originally, git-svn recommended that the remotes/git-svn branch be
430 pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
431 'git-svn set-tree B' to commit a single head rather than the
432 'git-svn set-tree A..B' notation to commit multiple commits.
434 If you use 'git-svn set-tree A..B' to commit several diffs and you do
435 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
436 use 'git-svn rebase' to update your work branch instead of 'git pull' or
437 'git merge'. 'pull/merge' can cause non-linear history to be flattened
438 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
439 previous commits in SVN.
443 Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
444 with Subversion is cumbersome as a result. git-svn does not do
445 automated merge/branch tracking by default and leaves it entirely up to
446 the user on the git side. git-svn does however follow copy
447 history of the directory that it is tracking, however (much like
448 how 'svn log' works).
453 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
454 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
456 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
457 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
458 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
459 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
460 renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
461 for git to detect them.
466 git-svn stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
467 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
468 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
469 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
470 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
471 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
472 listed below are allowed:
474 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
475 [svn-remote "project-a"]
476 url = http://server.org/svn
477 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
478 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
479 trunk = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
480 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
482 Keep in mind that the '*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
483 (left of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
484 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's own
485 independent path componet (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
486 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
487 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using
488 gitlink:git-config[1]
492 gitlink:git-rebase[1]
496 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
500 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.