Documentation / git-svn.txton commit git-svn documentation: fix typo in 'rebase vs. pull/merge' section (ccf497d)
   1git-svn(1)
   2==========
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-svn - Bidirectional operation between a single Subversion branch and git
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10'git svn' <command> [options] [arguments]
  11
  12DESCRIPTION
  13-----------
  14'git-svn' is a simple conduit for changesets between Subversion and git.
  15It provides a bidirectional flow of changes between a Subversion and a git
  16repository.
  17
  18'git-svn' can track a single Subversion branch simply by using a
  19URL to the branch, follow branches laid out in the Subversion recommended
  20method (trunk, branches, tags directories) with the --stdlayout option, or
  21follow branches in any layout with the -T/-t/-b options (see options to
  22'init' below, and also the 'clone' command).
  23
  24Once tracking a Subversion branch (with any of the above methods), the git
  25repository can be updated from Subversion by the 'fetch' command and
  26Subversion updated from git by the 'dcommit' command.
  27
  28COMMANDS
  29--------
  30--
  31
  32'init'::
  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
  39        directory.
  40
  41-T<trunk_subdir>;;
  42--trunk=<trunk_subdir>;;
  43-t<tags_subdir>;;
  44--tags=<tags_subdir>;;
  45-b<branches_subdir>;;
  46--branches=<branches_subdir>;;
  47-s;;
  48--stdlayout;;
  49        These are optional command-line options for init.  Each of
  50        these flags can point to a relative repository path
  51        (--tags=project/tags') or a full url
  52        (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags). The option --stdlayout is
  53        a shorthand way of setting trunk,tags,branches as the relative paths,
  54        which is the Subversion default. If any of the other options are given
  55        as well, they take precedence.
  56--no-metadata;;
  57        Set the 'noMetadata' option in the [svn-remote] config.
  58--use-svm-props;;
  59        Set the 'useSvmProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
  60--use-svnsync-props;;
  61        Set the 'useSvnsyncProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
  62--rewrite-root=<URL>;;
  63        Set the 'rewriteRoot' option in the [svn-remote] config.
  64--use-log-author;;
  65        When retrieving svn commits into git (as part of fetch, rebase, or
  66        dcommit operations), look for the first From: or Signed-off-by: line
  67        in the log message and use that as the author string.
  68--add-author-from;;
  69        When committing to svn from git (as part of commit or dcommit
  70        operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
  71        From: or Signed-off-by: line, append a From: line based on the
  72        git commit's author string.  If you use this, then --use-log-author
  73        will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
  74--username=<USER>;;
  75        For transports that SVN handles authentication for (http,
  76        https, and plain svn), specify the username.  For other
  77        transports (eg svn+ssh://), you must include the username in
  78        the URL, eg svn+ssh://foo@svn.bar.com/project
  79--prefix=<prefix>;;
  80        This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended
  81        to the names of remotes if trunk/branches/tags are
  82        specified.  The prefix does not automatically include a
  83        trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the
  84        argument if that is what you want.  If --branches/-b is
  85        specified, the prefix must include a trailing slash.
  86        Setting a prefix is useful if you wish to track multiple
  87        projects that share a common repository.
  88
  89'fetch'::
  90        Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
  91        tracking.  The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
  92        .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
  93        argument.
  94
  95'clone'::
  96        Runs 'init' and 'fetch'.  It will automatically create a
  97        directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
  98        or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
  99        and work within that.  It accepts all arguments that the
 100        'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
 101        '--fetch-all'.   After a repository is cloned, the 'fetch'
 102        command will be able to update revisions without affecting
 103        the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be able
 104        to update the working tree with the latest changes.
 105
 106'rebase'::
 107        This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
 108        and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
 109
 110This works similarly to `svn update` or 'git-pull' except that
 111it preserves linear history with 'git-rebase' instead of
 112'git-merge' for ease of dcommitting with 'git-svn'.
 113
 114This accepts all options that 'git-svn fetch' and 'git-rebase'
 115accept.  However, '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
 116[svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
 117
 118Like 'git-rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
 119and have no uncommitted changes.
 120
 121-l;;
 122--local;;
 123        Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git-rebase' against the
 124        last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
 125
 126'dcommit'::
 127        Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
 128        repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
 129        not there is a diff between SVN and head).  This will create
 130        a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
 131        It is recommended that you run 'git-svn' fetch and rebase (not
 132        pull or merge) your commits against the latest changes in the
 133        SVN repository.
 134        An optional command-line argument may be specified as an
 135        alternative to HEAD.
 136        This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
 137        cleaner, more linear history.
 138+
 139--no-rebase;;
 140        After committing, do not rebase or reset.
 141--commit-url <URL>;;
 142        Commit to this SVN URL (the full path).  This is intended to
 143        allow existing git-svn repositories created with one transport
 144        method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
 145        reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
 146        method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
 147
 148        Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask)
 149        is very strongly discouraged.
 150--
 151
 152'log'::
 153        This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
 154        users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
 155+
 156The following features from `svn log' are supported:
 157+
 158--
 159--revision=<n>[:<n>];;
 160        is supported, non-numeric args are not:
 161        HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
 162-v/--verbose;;
 163        it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
 164        output in svn log, but reasonably close.
 165--limit=<n>;;
 166        is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
 167        merged/excluded commits
 168--incremental;;
 169        supported
 170--
 171+
 172New features:
 173+
 174--
 175--show-commit;;
 176        shows the git commit sha1, as well
 177--oneline;;
 178        our version of --pretty=oneline
 179--
 180+
 181NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
 182client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
 183environment). This command has the same behaviour.
 184+
 185Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git-log'
 186
 187'blame'::
 188       Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
 189       output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
 190       `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
 191       local uncommitted changes in the working copy are ignored;
 192       the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
 193       arguments are passed directly to 'git-blame'.
 194+
 195--git-format;;
 196        Produce output in the same format as 'git-blame', but with
 197        SVN revision numbers instead of git commit hashes. In this mode,
 198        changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
 199        working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
 200
 201--
 202'find-rev'::
 203        When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
 204        corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
 205        tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched).  When given a
 206        tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
 207
 208'set-tree'::
 209        You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
 210        Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN.  This relies on
 211        your imported fetch data being up-to-date.  This makes
 212        absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
 213        simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
 214        commit.  All merging is assumed to have taken place
 215        independently of 'git-svn' functions.
 216
 217'create-ignore'::
 218        Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
 219        creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
 220        be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
 221        specific revision.
 222
 223'show-ignore'::
 224        Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
 225        directories.  The output is suitable for appending to
 226        the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
 227
 228'commit-diff'::
 229        Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
 230        command-line.  This command does not rely on being inside an `git-svn
 231        init`-ed repository.  This command takes three arguments, (a) the
 232        original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
 233        URL of the target Subversion repository.  The final argument
 234        (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git-svn'-aware
 235        repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git-svn').
 236        The -r<revision> option is required for this.
 237
 238'info'::
 239        Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
 240        `svn info' provides.  Does not currently support a -r/--revision
 241        argument.  Use the --url option to output only the value of the
 242        'URL:' field.
 243
 244'proplist'::
 245        Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
 246        given file or directory.  Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
 247        Subversion revision.
 248
 249'propget'::
 250        Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
 251        file.  A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
 252
 253'show-externals'::
 254        Shows the Subversion externals.  Use -r/--revision to specify a
 255        specific revision.
 256
 257--
 258
 259OPTIONS
 260-------
 261--
 262
 263--shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
 264--template=<template_directory>::
 265        Only used with the 'init' command.
 266        These are passed directly to 'git-init'.
 267
 268-r <ARG>::
 269--revision <ARG>::
 270
 271Used with the 'fetch' command.
 272
 273This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
 274to be supported.  $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
 275$NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
 276
 277This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
 278but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
 279and lost.
 280
 281-::
 282--stdin::
 283
 284Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
 285
 286Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
 287order.  Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
 288'git-rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
 289
 290--rmdir::
 291
 292Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
 293
 294Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
 295behind.  SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
 296removed by default if there are no files left in them.  git
 297cannot version empty directories.  Enabling this flag will make
 298the commit to SVN act like git.
 299
 300config key: svn.rmdir
 301
 302-e::
 303--edit::
 304
 305Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
 306
 307Edit the commit message before committing to SVN.  This is off by
 308default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
 309tree objects.
 310
 311config key: svn.edit
 312
 313-l<num>::
 314--find-copies-harder::
 315
 316Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
 317
 318They are both passed directly to 'git-diff-tree'; see
 319linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
 320
 321[verse]
 322config key: svn.l
 323config key: svn.findcopiesharder
 324
 325-A<filename>::
 326--authors-file=<filename>::
 327
 328Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git-cvsimport':
 329
 330------------------------------------------------------------------------
 331        loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
 332------------------------------------------------------------------------
 333
 334If this option is specified and 'git-svn' encounters an SVN
 335committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git-svn'
 336will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
 337appropriate entry.  Re-running the previous 'git-svn' command
 338after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
 339
 340config key: svn.authorsfile
 341
 342-q::
 343--quiet::
 344        Make 'git-svn' less verbose.
 345
 346--repack[=<n>]::
 347--repack-flags=<flags>::
 348
 349These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
 350with many revisions.
 351
 352--repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
 353to fetch before repacking.  This defaults to repacking every
 3541000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
 355
 356--repack-flags are passed directly to 'git-repack'.
 357
 358[verse]
 359config key: svn.repack
 360config key: svn.repackflags
 361
 362-m::
 363--merge::
 364-s<strategy>::
 365--strategy=<strategy>::
 366
 367These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
 368
 369Passed directly to 'git-rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
 370'git-reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
 371
 372-n::
 373--dry-run::
 374
 375This can be used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
 376
 377For 'dcommit', print out the series of git arguments that would show
 378which diffs would be committed to SVN.
 379
 380For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
 381repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
 382repository that will be fetched from.
 383
 384--
 385
 386ADVANCED OPTIONS
 387----------------
 388--
 389
 390-i<GIT_SVN_ID>::
 391--id <GIT_SVN_ID>::
 392
 393This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment).  This
 394allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
 395when tracking a single URL.  The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
 396no longer require this switch as an argument.
 397
 398-R<remote name>::
 399--svn-remote <remote name>::
 400        Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
 401        this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
 402        Default: "svn"
 403
 404--follow-parent::
 405        This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
 406        that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
 407        started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
 408        descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
 409        --no-follow-parent to disable it.
 410
 411config key: svn.followparent
 412
 413--
 414CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
 415------------------------
 416--
 417
 418svn.noMetadata::
 419svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
 420
 421This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
 422
 423If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, 'git-svn' will not
 424be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
 425either.  This is fine for one-shot imports.
 426
 427The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using
 428this, either.  Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
 429option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
 430
 431svn.useSvmProps::
 432svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
 433
 434This allows 'git-svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
 435mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
 436
 437If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
 438that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
 439The property contains a repository UUID and a revision.  We want
 440to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
 441introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
 442URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
 443messages.
 444
 445svn.useSvnsyncProps::
 446svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
 447        Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
 448        of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
 449        later.
 450
 451svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
 452        This allows users to create repositories from alternate
 453        URLs.  For example, an administrator could run 'git-svn' on the
 454        server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
 455        the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
 456        metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
 457
 458--
 459
 460Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
 461options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git-svn'; they
 462*must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
 463and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
 464
 465Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
 466section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
 467
 468
 469BASIC EXAMPLES
 470--------------
 471
 472Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
 473
 474------------------------------------------------------------------------
 475# Clone a repo (like git clone):
 476        git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
 477# Enter the newly cloned directory:
 478        cd trunk
 479# You should be on master branch, double-check with git-branch
 480        git branch
 481# Do some work and commit locally to git:
 482        git commit ...
 483# Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
 484# latest changes in SVN:
 485        git svn rebase
 486# Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
 487# as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
 488        git svn dcommit
 489# Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
 490        git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
 491------------------------------------------------------------------------
 492
 493Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
 494(complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
 495
 496------------------------------------------------------------------------
 497# Clone a repo (like git clone):
 498        git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
 499# View all branches and tags you have cloned:
 500        git branch -r
 501# Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
 502# with the appropriate name):
 503        git reset --hard remotes/trunk
 504# You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time.  The usage
 505# of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
 506------------------------------------------------------------------------
 507
 508The initial 'git-svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
 509(especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
 510people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
 511'git-svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
 512do the initial 'git-svn clone' to a repository on a server and
 513have each person clone that repository with 'git-clone':
 514
 515------------------------------------------------------------------------
 516# Do the initial import on a server
 517        ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project
 518# Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
 519        mkdir project
 520        cd project
 521        git init
 522        git remote add origin server:/pub/project
 523        git config --add remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
 524        git fetch
 525# Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
 526        git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
 527# Initialize git-svn locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
 528        git svn init http://svn.example.com/project
 529# Pull the latest changes from Subversion
 530        git svn rebase
 531------------------------------------------------------------------------
 532
 533REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
 534---------------------
 535
 536Originally, 'git-svn' recommended that the 'remotes/git-svn' branch be
 537pulled or merged from.  This is because the author favored
 538`git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
 539`git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits.
 540
 541If you use `git svn set-tree A..B` to commit several diffs and you do
 542not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
 543use `git svn rebase` to update your work branch instead of `git pull` or
 544`git merge`.  `pull`/`merge` can cause non-linear history to be flattened
 545when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
 546previous commits in SVN.
 547
 548DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
 549-----------------
 550Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
 551with Subversion can be cumbersome as a result.  While 'git-svn' can track
 552copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
 553standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
 554inside git back upstream to SVN users.  Therefore it is advised that
 555users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
 556compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
 557
 558CAVEATS
 559-------
 560
 561For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with a less-capable system
 562(SVN), it is recommended that all 'git-svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
 563directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git-clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
 564operations between git repositories and branches.  The recommended
 565method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
 566'git-format-patch' and 'git-am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
 567
 568Running 'git-merge' or 'git-pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
 569plan to 'dcommit' from.  Subversion does not represent merges in any
 570reasonable or useful fashion; so users using Subversion cannot see any
 571merges you've made.  Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
 572that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
 573branch.
 574
 575'git-clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
 576any 'git-svn' metadata, or config.  So repositories created and managed with
 577using 'git-svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
 578at all.
 579
 580Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you 'git-push' to
 581before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
 582on the remote repository.  This is generally considered bad practice,
 583see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
 584
 585Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
 586already dcommitted.  It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
 587you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
 588dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
 589
 590BUGS
 591----
 592
 593We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable.  Any unhandled
 594properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
 595
 596Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
 597tracked when committing to SVN.  I do not plan on adding support for
 598this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
 599the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either).  Committing
 600renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
 601for git to detect them.
 602
 603CONFIGURATION
 604-------------
 605
 606'git-svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
 607repository .git/config file.  It is similar the core git
 608[remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
 609arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
 610and 'tags' keys.  Since some SVN repositories are oddly
 611configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
 612listed below are allowed:
 613
 614------------------------------------------------------------------------
 615[svn-remote "project-a"]
 616        url = http://server.org/svn
 617        branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
 618        tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
 619        trunk = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
 620------------------------------------------------------------------------
 621
 622Keep in mind that the '*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
 623(right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
 624however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's own
 625independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL).   This
 626type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
 627should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git-config'.
 628
 629SEE ALSO
 630--------
 631linkgit:git-rebase[1]
 632
 633Author
 634------
 635Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
 636
 637Documentation
 638-------------
 639Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.