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 is useful if you wish to track multiple
83 projects that share a common repository.
84 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
85 When passed to 'init' or 'clone' this regular expression will
86 be preserved as a config key. See 'fetch' for a description
89 When tracking multiple directories (using --stdlayout,
90 --branches, or --tags options), git svn will attempt to connect
91 to the root (or highest allowed level) of the Subversion
92 repository. This default allows better tracking of history if
93 entire projects are moved within a repository, but may cause
94 issues on repositories where read access restrictions are in
95 place. Passing '--no-minimize-url' will allow git svn to
96 accept URLs as-is without attempting to connect to a higher
97 level directory. This option is off by default when only
98 one URL/branch is tracked (it would do little good).
101 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
102 tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
103 .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
107 Store Git commit times in the local timezone instead of UTC. This
108 makes 'git log' (even without --date=local) show the same times
109 that `svn log` would in the local timezone.
111 This doesn't interfere with interoperating with the Subversion
112 repository you cloned from, but if you wish for your local Git
113 repository to be able to interoperate with someone else's local Git
114 repository, either don't use this option or you should both use it in
115 the same local timezone.
118 Fetch only from the SVN parent of the current HEAD.
120 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
121 This allows one to specify a Perl regular expression that will
122 cause skipping of all matching paths from checkout from SVN.
123 The '--ignore-paths' option should match for every 'fetch'
124 (including automatic fetches due to 'clone', 'dcommit',
125 'rebase', etc) on a given repository.
128 config key: svn-remote.<name>.ignore-paths
130 If the ignore-paths config key is set and the command line option is
131 also given, both regular expressions will be used.
136 Skip "doc*" directory for every fetch;;
138 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
139 --ignore-paths="^doc"
140 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
142 Skip "branches" and "tags" of first level directories;;
144 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
145 --ignore-paths="^[^/]+/(?:branches|tags)"
146 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
149 --log-window-size=<n>;;
150 Fetch <n> log entries per request when scanning Subversion history.
151 The default is 100. For very large Subversion repositories, larger
152 values may be needed for 'clone'/'fetch' to complete in reasonable
153 time. But overly large values may lead to higher memory usage and
157 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
158 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
159 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
160 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
161 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
162 '--fetch-all' and '--parent'. After a repository is cloned,
163 the 'fetch' command will be able to update revisions without
164 affecting the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be
165 able to update the working tree with the latest changes.
167 --preserve-empty-dirs;;
168 Create a placeholder file in the local Git repository for each
169 empty directory fetched from Subversion. This includes directories
170 that become empty by removing all entries in the Subversion
171 repository (but not the directory itself). The placeholder files
172 are also tracked and removed when no longer necessary.
174 --placeholder-filename=<filename>;;
175 Set the name of placeholder files created by --preserve-empty-dirs.
176 Default: ".gitignore"
179 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
180 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
182 This works similarly to `svn update` or 'git pull' except that
183 it preserves linear history with 'git rebase' instead of
184 'git merge' for ease of dcommitting with 'git svn'.
186 This accepts all options that 'git svn fetch' and 'git rebase'
187 accept. However, '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
188 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
190 Like 'git rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
191 and have no uncommitted changes.
195 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git rebase' against the
196 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
199 Commit each diff from the current branch directly to the SVN
200 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
201 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
202 a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
204 When an optional git branch name (or a git commit object name)
205 is specified as an argument, the subcommand works on the specified
206 branch, not on the current branch.
208 Use of 'dcommit' is preferred to 'set-tree' (below).
211 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
213 Commit to this SVN URL (the full path). This is intended to
214 allow existing 'git svn' repositories created with one transport
215 method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
216 reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
217 method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
220 config key: svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
221 config key: svn.commiturl (overwrites all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl options)
223 Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask) is very strongly
226 --mergeinfo=<mergeinfo>;;
227 Add the given merge information during the dcommit
228 (e.g. `--mergeinfo="/branches/foo:1-10"`). All svn server versions can
229 store this information (as a property), and svn clients starting from
230 version 1.5 can make use of it. To specify merge information from multiple
231 branches, use a single space character between the branches
232 (`--mergeinfo="/branches/foo:1-10 /branches/bar:3,5-6,8"`)
235 config key: svn.pushmergeinfo
237 This option will cause git-svn to attempt to automatically populate the
238 svn:mergeinfo property in the SVN repository when possible. Currently, this can
239 only be done when dcommitting non-fast-forward merges where all parents but the
240 first have already been pushed into SVN.
243 Ask the user to confirm that a patch set should actually be sent to SVN.
244 For each patch, one may answer "yes" (accept this patch), "no" (discard this
245 patch), "all" (accept all patches), or "quit".
247 'git svn dcommit' returns immediately if answer if "no" or "quit", without
248 commiting anything to SVN.
251 Create a branch in the SVN repository.
255 Allows to specify the commit message.
259 Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
260 specified during git svn init.
264 If more than one --branches (or --tags) option was given to the 'init'
265 or 'clone' command, you must provide the location of the branch (or
266 tag) you wish to create in the SVN repository. The value of this
267 option must match one of the paths specified by a --branches (or
268 --tags) option. You can see these paths with the commands
270 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.branches
271 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.tags
273 where <name> is the name of the SVN repository as specified by the -R option to
274 'init' (or "svn" by default).
277 Specify the SVN username to perform the commit as. This option overrides
278 the 'username' configuration property.
281 Use the specified URL to connect to the destination Subversion
282 repository. This is useful in cases where the source SVN
283 repository is read-only. This option overrides configuration
284 property 'commiturl'.
286 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
290 Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
294 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
295 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
297 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
301 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
302 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
303 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
306 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
307 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
309 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
310 merged/excluded commits
319 shows the git commit sha1, as well
321 our version of --pretty=oneline
324 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
325 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
326 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
328 Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git log'
331 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
332 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
333 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
334 local uncommitted changes in the working tree are ignored;
335 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
336 arguments are passed directly to 'git blame'.
339 Produce output in the same format as 'git blame', but with
340 SVN revision numbers instead of git commit hashes. In this mode,
341 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
342 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
345 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
346 corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
347 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
348 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
351 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
352 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
353 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
354 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
355 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
356 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
357 independently of 'git svn' functions.
360 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
361 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
362 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
366 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
367 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
368 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
371 Attempts to recreate empty directories that core git cannot track
372 based on information in $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files.
373 Empty directories are automatically recreated when using
374 "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase", so "mkdirs" is intended
375 for use after commands like "git checkout" or "git reset".
376 (See the svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs config file option for
380 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
381 command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git svn
382 init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
383 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
384 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
385 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git svn'-aware
386 repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git svn').
387 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
390 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
391 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
392 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
396 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
397 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
401 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
402 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
405 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
409 Compress $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log files in .git/svn
410 and remove $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>index files in .git/svn.
413 Undoes the effects of 'fetch' back to the specified revision.
414 This allows you to re-'fetch' an SVN revision. Normally the
415 contents of an SVN revision should never change and 'reset'
416 should not be necessary. However, if SVN permissions change,
417 or if you alter your --ignore-paths option, a 'fetch' may fail
418 with "not found in commit" (file not previously visible) or
419 "checksum mismatch" (missed a modification). If the problem
420 file cannot be ignored forever (with --ignore-paths) the only
421 way to repair the repo is to use 'reset'.
423 Only the rev_map and refs/remotes/git-svn are changed. Follow 'reset'
424 with a 'fetch' and then 'git reset' or 'git rebase' to move local
425 branches onto the new tree.
429 Specify the most recent revision to keep. All later revisions
433 Discard the specified revision as well, keeping the nearest
436 Assume you have local changes in "master", but you need to refetch "r2".
439 r1---r2---r3 remotes/git-svn
444 Fix the ignore-paths or SVN permissions problem that caused "r2" to
445 be incomplete in the first place. Then:
452 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
454 r2---r3---A---B master
457 Then fixup "master" with 'git rebase'.
458 Do NOT use 'git merge' or your history will not be compatible with a
462 git rebase --onto remotes/git-svn A^ master
465 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
473 --shared[=(false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody)]::
474 --template=<template_directory>::
475 Only used with the 'init' command.
476 These are passed directly to 'git init'.
480 Used with the 'fetch' command.
482 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
483 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
484 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
486 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
487 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
492 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
494 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
495 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
496 'git rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
499 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
501 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
502 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
503 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
504 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
505 the commit to SVN act like git.
508 config key: svn.rmdir
512 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
514 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
515 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
522 --find-copies-harder::
523 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
525 They are both passed directly to 'git diff-tree'; see
526 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
530 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
533 --authors-file=<filename>::
534 Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git cvsimport':
536 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
537 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
538 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
540 If this option is specified and 'git svn' encounters an SVN
541 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git svn'
542 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
543 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git svn' command
544 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
547 config key: svn.authorsfile
549 --authors-prog=<filename>::
550 If this option is specified, for each SVN committer name that
551 does not exist in the authors file, the given file is executed
552 with the committer name as the first argument. The program is
553 expected to return a single line of the form "Name <email>",
554 which will be treated as if included in the authors file.
558 Make 'git svn' less verbose. Specify a second time to make it
562 --repack-flags=<flags>::
563 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches with
566 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
567 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
568 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
570 --repack-flags are passed directly to 'git repack'.
573 config key: svn.repack
574 config key: svn.repackflags
579 --strategy=<strategy>::
582 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
584 Passed directly to 'git rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
585 'git reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
589 This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and
592 For 'dcommit', print out the series of git arguments that would show
593 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
595 For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
596 repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
597 repository that will be fetched from.
599 For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
600 creating the branch or tag.
603 When retrieving svn commits into git (as part of 'fetch', 'rebase', or
604 'dcommit' operations), look for the first `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line
605 in the log message and use that as the author string.
607 When committing to svn from git (as part of 'commit-diff', 'set-tree' or 'dcommit'
608 operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
609 `From:` or `Signed-off-by:` line, append a `From:` line based on the
610 git commit's author string. If you use this, then `--use-log-author`
611 will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
619 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
620 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
621 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
622 no longer require this switch as an argument.
625 --svn-remote <remote name>::
626 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
627 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
631 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
632 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
633 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
634 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
635 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
638 config key: svn.followparent
640 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
641 ------------------------
644 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
645 This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
647 This option can only be used for one-shot imports as 'git svn'
648 will not be able to fetch again without metadata. Additionally,
649 if you lose your .git/svn/**/.rev_map.* files, 'git svn' will not
650 be able to rebuild them.
652 The 'git svn log' command will not work on repositories using
653 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
654 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
656 This option is NOT recommended as it makes it difficult to track down
657 old references to SVN revision numbers in existing documentation, bug
658 reports and archives. If you plan to eventually migrate from SVN to git
659 and are certain about dropping SVN history, consider
660 linkgit:git-filter-branch[1] instead. filter-branch also allows
661 reformatting of metadata for ease-of-reading and rewriting authorship
662 info for non-"svn.authorsFile" users.
665 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
666 This allows 'git svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
667 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
669 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
670 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
671 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
672 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
673 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
674 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
677 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
678 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
679 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
680 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
683 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
684 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
685 URLs. For example, an administrator could run 'git svn' on the
686 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
687 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
688 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
690 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteUUID::
691 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users who need
692 to remap the UUID manually. This may be useful in situations
693 where the original UUID is not available via either useSvmProps
696 svn-remote.<name>.pushurl::
698 Similar to git's 'remote.<name>.pushurl', this key is designed
699 to be used in cases where 'url' points to an SVN repository
700 via a read-only transport, to provide an alternate read/write
701 transport. It is assumed that both keys point to the same
702 repository. Unlike 'commiturl', 'pushurl' is a base path. If
703 either 'commiturl' or 'pushurl' could be used, 'commiturl'
706 svn.brokenSymlinkWorkaround::
707 This disables potentially expensive checks to workaround
708 broken symlinks checked into SVN by broken clients. Set this
709 option to "false" if you track a SVN repository with many
710 empty blobs that are not symlinks. This option may be changed
711 while 'git svn' is running and take effect on the next
712 revision fetched. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this option to
715 svn.pathnameencoding::
716 This instructs git svn to recode pathnames to a given encoding.
717 It can be used by windows users and by those who work in non-utf8
718 locales to avoid corrupted file names with non-ASCII characters.
719 Valid encodings are the ones supported by Perl's Encode module.
721 svn-remote.<name>.automkdirs::
722 Normally, the "git svn clone" and "git svn rebase" commands
723 attempt to recreate empty directories that are in the
724 Subversion repository. If this option is set to "false", then
725 empty directories will only be created if the "git svn mkdirs"
726 command is run explicitly. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this
729 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, rewriteUUID, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
730 options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git svn'; they
731 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
732 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
734 Additionally, only one of these options can be used per svn-remote
735 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line, except
736 for rewriteRoot and rewriteUUID which can be used together.
742 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
744 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
745 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
746 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
747 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
749 # You should be on master branch, double-check with 'git branch'
751 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
753 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
754 # latest changes in SVN:
756 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
757 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
759 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
760 git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
761 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
763 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
764 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
766 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
767 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
768 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
769 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
771 # Create a new branch in SVN
773 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
774 # with the appropriate name):
775 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
776 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
777 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
778 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
780 The initial 'git svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
781 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
782 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
783 'git svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
784 do the initial 'git svn clone' to a repository on a server and
785 have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
787 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
788 # Do the initial import on a server
789 ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project
790 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
794 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
795 git config --replace-all remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
797 # Prevent fetch/pull from remote git server in the future,
798 # we only want to use git svn for future updates
799 git config --remove-section remote.origin
800 # Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
801 git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
802 # Initialize 'git svn' locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
803 git svn init http://svn.example.com/project
804 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
806 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
808 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
809 ---------------------
810 Prefer to use 'git svn rebase' or 'git rebase', rather than
811 'git pull' or 'git merge' to synchronize unintegrated commits with a 'git svn'
812 branch. Doing so will keep the history of unintegrated commits linear with
813 respect to the upstream SVN repository and allow the use of the preferred
814 'git svn dcommit' subcommand to push unintegrated commits back into SVN.
816 Originally, 'git svn' recommended that developers pulled or merged from
817 the 'git svn' branch. This was because the author favored
818 `git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
819 `git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits. Use of
820 'git pull' or 'git merge' with `git svn set-tree A..B` will cause non-linear
821 history to be flattened when committing into SVN and this can lead to merge
822 commits unexpectedly reversing previous commits in SVN.
826 While 'git svn' can track
827 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
828 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
829 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
830 users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
831 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
836 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with Subversion,
837 it is recommended that all 'git svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
838 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
839 operations between git repositories and branches. The recommended
840 method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
841 'git format-patch' and 'git am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
843 Running 'git merge' or 'git pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
844 plan to 'dcommit' from because Subversion users cannot see any
845 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
846 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
849 If you do merge, note the following rule: 'git svn dcommit' will
850 attempt to commit on top of the SVN commit named in
851 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
852 git log --grep=^git-svn-id: --first-parent -1
853 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
854 You 'must' therefore ensure that the most recent commit of the branch
855 you want to dcommit to is the 'first' parent of the merge. Chaos will
856 ensue otherwise, especially if the first parent is an older commit on
859 'git clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
860 any 'git svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
861 using 'git svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
864 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you 'git push' to
865 before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
866 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
867 see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
869 Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
870 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
871 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
872 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
874 When using multiple --branches or --tags, 'git svn' does not automatically
875 handle name collisions (for example, if two branches from different paths have
876 the same name, or if a branch and a tag have the same name). In these cases,
877 use 'init' to set up your git repository then, before your first 'fetch', edit
878 the .git/config file so that the branches and tags are associated with
879 different name spaces. For example:
881 branches = stable/*:refs/remotes/svn/stable/*
882 branches = debug/*:refs/remotes/svn/debug/*
887 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
888 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
890 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
891 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
892 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
893 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
894 renamed and copied files is fully supported if they're similar enough
895 for git to detect them.
900 'git svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
901 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
902 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
903 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
904 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
905 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
906 listed below are allowed:
908 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
909 [svn-remote "project-a"]
910 url = http://server.org/svn
911 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
912 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
913 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
914 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
916 Keep in mind that the '\*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
917 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
918 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's an
919 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
920 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
921 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git config'.
923 It is also possible to fetch a subset of branches or tags by using a
924 comma-separated list of names within braces. For example:
926 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
927 [svn-remote "huge-project"]
928 url = http://server.org/svn
929 fetch = trunk/src:refs/remotes/trunk
930 branches = branches/{red,green}/src:refs/remotes/branches/*
931 tags = tags/{1.0,2.0}/src:refs/remotes/tags/*
932 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
934 Note that git-svn keeps track of the highest revision in which a branch
935 or tag has appeared. If the subset of branches or tags is changed after
936 fetching, then .git/svn/.metadata must be manually edited to remove (or
937 reset) branches-maxRev and/or tags-maxRev as appropriate.
941 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
945 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite