6 git-svn - Bidirectional operation between a Subversion repository and git
10 'git svn' <command> [options] [arguments]
14 'git svn' is a simple conduit for changesets between Subversion and git.
15 It provides a bidirectional flow of changes between a Subversion and a git
18 'git svn' can track a standard Subversion repository,
19 following the common "trunk/branches/tags" layout, with the --stdlayout option.
20 It can also follow branches and tags in any layout with the -T/-t/-b options
21 (see options to 'init' below, and also the 'clone' command).
23 Once tracking a Subversion repository (with any of the above methods), the git
24 repository can be updated from Subversion by the 'fetch' command and
25 Subversion updated from git by the 'dcommit' command.
31 Initializes an empty git repository with additional
32 metadata directories for 'git svn'. The Subversion URL
33 may be specified as a command-line argument, or as full
34 URL arguments to -T/-t/-b. Optionally, the target
35 directory to operate on can be specified as a second
36 argument. Normally this command initializes the current
40 --trunk=<trunk_subdir>;;
42 --tags=<tags_subdir>;;
44 --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).
51 You can specify more than one --tags and/or --branches options, in case
52 your Subversion repository places tags or branches under multiple paths.
53 The option --stdlayout is
54 a shorthand way of setting trunk,tags,branches as the relative paths,
55 which is the Subversion default. If any of the other options are given
56 as well, they take precedence.
58 Set the 'noMetadata' option in the [svn-remote] config.
60 Set the 'useSvmProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
62 Set the 'useSvnsyncProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
63 --rewrite-root=<URL>;;
64 Set the 'rewriteRoot' option in the [svn-remote] config.
66 When retrieving svn commits into git (as part of fetch, rebase, or
67 dcommit operations), look for the first From: or Signed-off-by: line
68 in the log message and use that as the author string.
70 When committing to svn from git (as part of commit or dcommit
71 operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
72 From: or Signed-off-by: line, append a From: line based on the
73 git commit's author string. If you use this, then --use-log-author
74 will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
76 For transports that SVN handles authentication for (http,
77 https, and plain svn), specify the username. For other
78 transports (eg svn+ssh://), you must include the username in
79 the URL, eg svn+ssh://foo@svn.bar.com/project
81 This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended
82 to the names of remotes if trunk/branches/tags are
83 specified. The prefix does not automatically include a
84 trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the
85 argument if that is what you want. If --branches/-b is
86 specified, the prefix must include a trailing slash.
87 Setting a prefix is useful if you wish to track multiple
88 projects that share a common repository.
89 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
90 When passed to 'init' or 'clone' this regular expression will
91 be preserved as a config key. See 'fetch' for a description
95 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
96 tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
97 .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
101 Store Git commit times in the local timezone instead of UTC. This
102 makes 'git log' (even without --date=local) show the same times
103 that `svn log` would in the local timezone.
106 Fetch only from the SVN parent of the current HEAD.
108 This doesn't interfere with interoperating with the Subversion
109 repository you cloned from, but if you wish for your local Git
110 repository to be able to interoperate with someone else's local Git
111 repository, either don't use this option or you should both use it in
112 the same local timezone.
114 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
115 This allows one to specify a Perl regular expression that will
116 cause skipping of all matching paths from checkout from SVN.
117 The '--ignore-paths' option should match for every 'fetch'
118 (including automatic fetches due to 'clone', 'dcommit',
119 'rebase', etc) on a given repository.
122 config key: svn-remote.<name>.ignore-paths
124 If the ignore-paths config key is set and the command line option is
125 also given, both regular expressions will be used.
130 Skip "doc*" directory for every fetch;;
132 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
133 --ignore-paths="^doc"
134 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
136 Skip "branches" and "tags" of first level directories;;
138 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
139 --ignore-paths="^[^/]+/(?:branches|tags)"
140 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
144 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
145 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
146 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
147 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
148 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
149 '--fetch-all'. After a repository is cloned, the 'fetch'
150 command will be able to update revisions without affecting
151 the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be able
152 to update the working tree with the latest changes.
155 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
156 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
158 This works similarly to `svn update` or 'git pull' except that
159 it preserves linear history with 'git rebase' instead of
160 'git merge' for ease of dcommitting with 'git svn'.
162 This accepts all options that 'git svn fetch' and 'git rebase'
163 accept. However, '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
164 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
166 Like 'git rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
167 and have no uncommitted changes.
171 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git rebase' against the
172 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
175 Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
176 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
177 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
178 a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
179 It is recommended that you run 'git svn' fetch and rebase (not
180 pull or merge) your commits against the latest changes in the
182 An optional revision or branch argument may be specified, and
183 causes 'git svn' to do all work on that revision/branch
185 This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
186 cleaner, more linear history.
189 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
191 Commit to this SVN URL (the full path). This is intended to
192 allow existing 'git svn' repositories created with one transport
193 method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
194 reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
195 method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
198 config key: svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
199 config key: svn.commiturl (overwrites all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl options)
201 Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask) is very strongly
205 Create a branch in the SVN repository.
209 Allows to specify the commit message.
213 Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
214 specified during git svn init.
218 If more than one --branches (or --tags) option was given to the 'init'
219 or 'clone' command, you must provide the location of the branch (or
220 tag) you wish to create in the SVN repository. The value of this
221 option must match one of the paths specified by a --branches (or
222 --tags) option. You can see these paths with the commands
224 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.branches
225 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.tags
227 where <name> is the name of the SVN repository as specified by the -R option to
228 'init' (or "svn" by default).
231 Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
235 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
236 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
238 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
242 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
243 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
244 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
247 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
248 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
250 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
251 merged/excluded commits
260 shows the git commit sha1, as well
262 our version of --pretty=oneline
265 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
266 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
267 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
269 Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git log'
272 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
273 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
274 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
275 local uncommitted changes in the working copy are ignored;
276 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
277 arguments are passed directly to 'git blame'.
280 Produce output in the same format as 'git blame', but with
281 SVN revision numbers instead of git commit hashes. In this mode,
282 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
283 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
286 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
287 corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
288 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
289 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
292 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
293 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
294 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
295 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
296 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
297 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
298 independently of 'git svn' functions.
301 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
302 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
303 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
307 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
308 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
309 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
312 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
313 command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git svn
314 init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
315 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
316 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
317 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git svn'-aware
318 repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git svn').
319 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
322 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
323 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
324 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
328 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
329 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
333 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
334 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
337 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
341 Undoes the effects of 'fetch' back to the specified revision.
342 This allows you to re-'fetch' an SVN revision. Normally the
343 contents of an SVN revision should never change and 'reset'
344 should not be necessary. However, if SVN permissions change,
345 or if you alter your --ignore-paths option, a 'fetch' may fail
346 with "not found in commit" (file not previously visible) or
347 "checksum mismatch" (missed a modification). If the problem
348 file cannot be ignored forever (with --ignore-paths) the only
349 way to repair the repo is to use 'reset'.
351 Only the rev_map and refs/remotes/git-svn are changed. Follow 'reset'
352 with a 'fetch' and then 'git reset' or 'git rebase' to move local
353 branches onto the new tree.
357 Specify the most recent revision to keep. All later revisions
361 Discard the specified revision as well, keeping the nearest
364 Assume you have local changes in "master", but you need to refetch "r2".
367 r1---r2---r3 remotes/git-svn
372 Fix the ignore-paths or SVN permissions problem that caused "r2" to
373 be incomplete in the first place. Then:
380 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
382 r2---r3---A---B master
385 Then fixup "master" with 'git rebase'.
386 Do NOT use 'git merge' or your history will not be compatible with a
390 git rebase --onto remotes/git-svn A^ master
393 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
401 --shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
402 --template=<template_directory>::
403 Only used with the 'init' command.
404 These are passed directly to 'git init'.
408 Used with the 'fetch' command.
410 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
411 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
412 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
414 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
415 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
420 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
422 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
423 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
424 'git rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
427 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
429 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
430 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
431 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
432 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
433 the commit to SVN act like git.
436 config key: svn.rmdir
440 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
442 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
443 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
450 --find-copies-harder::
451 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
453 They are both passed directly to 'git diff-tree'; see
454 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
458 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
461 --authors-file=<filename>::
462 Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git cvsimport':
464 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
465 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
466 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
468 If this option is specified and 'git svn' encounters an SVN
469 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git svn'
470 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
471 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git svn' command
472 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
475 config key: svn.authorsfile
477 --authors-prog=<filename>::
478 If this option is specified, for each SVN committer name that
479 does not exist in the authors file, the given file is executed
480 with the committer name as the first argument. The program is
481 expected to return a single line of the form "Name <email>",
482 which will be treated as if included in the authors file.
486 Make 'git svn' less verbose. Specify a second time to make it
490 --repack-flags=<flags>::
491 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches with
494 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
495 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
496 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
498 --repack-flags are passed directly to 'git repack'.
501 config key: svn.repack
502 config key: svn.repackflags
507 --strategy=<strategy>::
508 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
510 Passed directly to 'git rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
511 'git reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
515 This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and
518 For 'dcommit', print out the series of git arguments that would show
519 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
521 For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
522 repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
523 repository that will be fetched from.
525 For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
526 creating the branch or tag.
534 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
535 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
536 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
537 no longer require this switch as an argument.
540 --svn-remote <remote name>::
541 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
542 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
546 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
547 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
548 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
549 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
550 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
553 config key: svn.followparent
555 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
556 ------------------------
559 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
560 This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
562 If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, 'git svn' will not
563 be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
564 either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
566 The 'git svn log' command will not work on repositories using
567 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
568 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
571 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
572 This allows 'git svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
573 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
575 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
576 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
577 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
578 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
579 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
580 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
583 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
584 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
585 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
586 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
589 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
590 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
591 URLs. For example, an administrator could run 'git svn' on the
592 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
593 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
594 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
596 svn.brokenSymlinkWorkaround::
597 This disables potentially expensive checks to workaround
598 broken symlinks checked into SVN by broken clients. Set this
599 option to "false" if you track a SVN repository with many
600 empty blobs that are not symlinks. This option may be changed
601 while 'git svn' is running and take effect on the next
602 revision fetched. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this option to
605 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
606 options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git svn'; they
607 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
608 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
610 Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
611 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
617 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
619 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
620 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
621 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
622 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
624 # You should be on master branch, double-check with 'git branch'
626 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
628 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
629 # latest changes in SVN:
631 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
632 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
634 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
635 git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
636 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
638 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
639 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
641 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
642 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
643 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
644 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
646 # Create a new branch in SVN
648 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
649 # with the appropriate name):
650 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
651 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
652 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
653 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
655 The initial 'git svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
656 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
657 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
658 'git svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
659 do the initial 'git svn clone' to a repository on a server and
660 have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
662 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
663 # Do the initial import on a server
664 ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project
665 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
669 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
670 git config --add remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
672 # Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
673 git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
674 # Initialize 'git svn' locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
675 git svn init http://svn.example.com/project
676 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
678 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
680 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
681 ---------------------
683 Originally, 'git svn' recommended that the 'remotes/git-svn' branch be
684 pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
685 `git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
686 `git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits.
688 If you use `git svn set-tree A..B` to commit several diffs and you do
689 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
690 use `git svn rebase` to update your work branch instead of `git pull` or
691 `git merge`. `pull`/`merge` can cause non-linear history to be flattened
692 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
693 previous commits in SVN.
697 Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
698 with Subversion can be cumbersome as a result. While 'git svn' can track
699 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
700 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
701 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
702 users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
703 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
708 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with a less-capable system
709 (SVN), it is recommended that all 'git svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
710 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
711 operations between git repositories and branches. The recommended
712 method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
713 'git format-patch' and 'git am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
715 Running 'git merge' or 'git pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
716 plan to 'dcommit' from. Subversion does not represent merges in any
717 reasonable or useful fashion; so users using Subversion cannot see any
718 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
719 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
722 'git clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
723 any 'git svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
724 using 'git svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
727 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you 'git push' to
728 before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
729 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
730 see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
732 Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
733 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
734 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
735 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
737 When using multiple --branches or --tags, 'git svn' does not automatically
738 handle name collisions (for example, if two branches from different paths have
739 the same name, or if a branch and a tag have the same name). In these cases,
740 use 'init' to set up your git repository then, before your first 'fetch', edit
741 the .git/config file so that the branches and tags are associated with
742 different name spaces. For example:
744 branches = stable/*:refs/remotes/svn/stable/*
745 branches = debug/*:refs/remotes/svn/debug/*
750 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
751 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
753 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
754 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
755 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
756 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
757 renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
758 for git to detect them.
763 'git svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
764 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
765 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
766 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
767 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
768 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
769 listed below are allowed:
771 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
772 [svn-remote "project-a"]
773 url = http://server.org/svn
774 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
775 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
776 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
777 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
779 Keep in mind that the '\*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
780 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
781 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's an
782 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
783 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
784 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git config'.
788 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
792 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
796 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.