-----------
git-svn is a simple conduit for changesets between Subversion and git.
It is not to be confused with gitlink:git-svnimport[1], which is
-read-only and geared towards tracking multiple branches.
+read-only.
git-svn was originally designed for an individual developer who wants a
bidirectional flow of changesets between a single branch in Subversion
and an arbitrary number of branches in git. Since its inception,
git-svn has gained the ability to track multiple branches in a manner
-similar to git-svnimport; but it cannot (yet) automatically detect new
-branches and tags like git-svnimport does.
+similar to git-svnimport.
git-svn is especially useful when it comes to tracking repositories
not organized in the way Subversion developers recommend (trunk,
--
'init'::
- Creates an empty git repository with additional metadata
- directories for git-svn. The Subversion URL must be specified
- as a command-line argument. Optionally, the target directory
- to operate on can be specified as a second argument. Normally
- this command initializes the current directory.
+ Initializes an empty git repository with additional
+ metadata directories for git-svn. The Subversion URL
+ may be specified as a command-line argument, or as full
+ URL arguments to -T/-t/-b. Optionally, the target
+ directory to operate on can be specified as a second
+ argument. Normally this command initializes the current
+ directory.
+
+-T<trunk_subdir>;;
+--trunk=<trunk_subdir>;;
+-t<tags_subdir>;;
+--tags=<tags_subdir>;;
+-b<branches_subdir>;;
+--branches=<branches_subdir>;;
+-s;;
+--stdlayout;;
+ These are optional command-line options for init. Each of
+ these flags can point to a relative repository path
+ (--tags=project/tags') or a full url
+ (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags). The option --stdlayout is
+ a shorthand way of setting trunk,tags,branches as the relative paths,
+ which is the Subversion default. If any of the other options are given
+ as well, they take precedence.
+--no-metadata;;
+ Set the 'noMetadata' option in the [svn-remote] config.
+--use-svm-props;;
+ Set the 'useSvmProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
+--use-svnsync-props;;
+ Set the 'useSvnsyncProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
+--rewrite-root=<URL>;;
+ Set the 'rewriteRoot' option in the [svn-remote] config.
+--username=<USER>;;
+ For transports that SVN handles authentication for (http,
+ https, and plain svn), specify the username. For other
+ transports (eg svn+ssh://), you must include the username in
+ the URL, eg svn+ssh://foo@svn.bar.com/project
+--prefix=<prefix>;;
+ This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended
+ to the names of remotes if trunk/branches/tags are
+ specified. The prefix does not automatically include a
+ trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the
+ argument if that is what you want. If --branches/-b is
+ specified, the prefix must include a trailing slash.
+ Setting a prefix is useful if you wish to track multiple
+ projects that share a common repository.
'fetch'::
-
-Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion URL we are
-tracking. refs/remotes/git-svn will be updated to the
-latest revision.
-
-Note: You should never attempt to modify the remotes/git-svn
-branch outside of git-svn. Instead, create a branch from
-remotes/git-svn and work on that branch. Use the 'dcommit'
-command (see below) to write git commits back to
-remotes/git-svn.
-
-See '<<fetch-args,Additional Fetch Arguments>>' if you are interested in
-manually joining branches on commit.
+ Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
+ tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
+ .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
+ argument.
+
+'clone'::
+ Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
+ directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
+ or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
+ and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
+ 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
+ '--fetch-all'. After a repository is cloned, the 'fetch'
+ command will be able to update revisions without affecting
+ the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be able
+ to update the working tree with the latest changes.
+
+'rebase'::
+ This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
+ and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
+
+This works similarly to 'svn update' or 'git-pull' except that
+it preserves linear history with 'git-rebase' instead of
+'git-merge' for ease of dcommiting with git-svn.
+
+This accepts all options that 'git-svn fetch' and 'git-rebase'
+accepts. However '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
+[svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
+
+Like 'git-rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
+and have no uncommitted changes.
+
+-l;;
+--local;;
+ Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git-rebase' against the
+ last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
'dcommit'::
Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
alternative to HEAD.
This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
cleaner, more linear history.
++
+--no-rebase;;
+ After committing, do not rebase or reset.
+--
'log'::
This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
++
+The following features from `svn log' are supported:
++
+--
+--revision=<n>[:<n>];;
+ is supported, non-numeric args are not:
+ HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
+-v/--verbose;;
+ it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
+ output in svn log, but reasonably close.
+--limit=<n>;;
+ is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
+ merged/excluded commits
+--incremental;;
+ supported
+--
++
+New features:
++
+--
+--show-commit;;
+ shows the git commit sha1, as well
+--oneline;;
+ our version of --pretty=oneline
+--
++
+Any other arguments are passed directly to `git log'
- The following features from `svn log' are supported:
-
- --revision=<n>[:<n>] - is supported, non-numeric args are not:
- HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
- -v/--verbose - it's not completely compatible with
- the --verbose output in svn log, but
- reasonably close.
- --limit=<n> - is NOT the same as --max-count,
- doesn't count merged/excluded commits
- --incremental - supported
-
- New features:
-
- --show-commit - shows the git commit sha1, as well
- --oneline - our version of --pretty=oneline
-
- Any other arguments are passed directly to `git log'
+--
+'find-rev'::
+ When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
+ corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
+ tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
+ tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
'set-tree'::
You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
independently of git-svn functions.
-'rebuild'::
- Not a part of daily usage, but this is a useful command if
- you've just cloned a repository (using gitlink:git-clone[1]) that was
- tracked with git-svn. Unfortunately, git-clone does not clone
- git-svn metadata and the svn working tree that git-svn uses for
- its operations. This rebuilds the metadata so git-svn can
- resume fetch operations. A Subversion URL may be optionally
- specified at the command-line if the directory/repository you're
- tracking has moved or changed protocols.
-
'show-ignore'::
Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
directories. The output is suitable for appending to
repository (that has been init-ed with git-svn).
The -r<revision> option is required for this.
-'graft-branches'::
- This command attempts to detect merges/branches from already
- imported history. Techniques used currently include regexes,
- file copies, and tree-matches). This command generates (or
- modifies) the $GIT_DIR/info/grafts file. This command is
- considered experimental, and inherently flawed because
- merge-tracking in SVN is inherently flawed and inconsistent
- across different repositories.
-
-'multi-init'::
- This command supports git-svnimport-like command-line syntax for
- importing repositories that are laid out as recommended by the
- SVN folks. This is a bit more tolerant than the git-svnimport
- command-line syntax and doesn't require the user to figure out
- where the repository URL ends and where the repository path
- begins.
-
--T<trunk_subdir>::
---trunk=<trunk_subdir>::
--t<tags_subdir>::
---tags=<tags_subdir>::
--b<branches_subdir>::
---branches=<branches_subdir>::
- These are the command-line options for multi-init. Each of
- these flags can point to a relative repository path
- (--tags=project/tags') or a full url
- (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags)
-
---prefix=<prefix>
- This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended to the
- names of remotes. The prefix does not automatically include a
- trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the argument if
- that is what you want. This is useful if you wish to track
- multiple projects that share a common repository.
-
-'multi-fetch'::
- This runs fetch on all known SVN branches we're tracking. This
- will NOT discover new branches (unlike git-svnimport), so
- multi-init will need to be re-run (it's idempotent).
-
--
OPTIONS
-------
--
---shared::
+--shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
--template=<template_directory>::
Only used with the 'init' command.
These are passed directly to gitlink:git-init[1].
-r <ARG>::
--revision <ARG>::
-Only used with the 'fetch' command.
+Used with the 'fetch' command.
-Takes any valid -r<argument> svn would accept and passes it
-directly to svn. -r<ARG1>:<ARG2> ranges and "{" DATE "}" syntax
-is also supported. This is passed directly to svn, see svn
-documentation for more details.
+This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
+to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
+$NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
-This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch.
+This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
+but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
+and lost.
-::
--stdin::
Make git-svn less verbose.
--repack[=<n>]::
---repack-flags=<flags>
- These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
- with many revisions.
+--repack-flags=<flags>::
- --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
- to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
- 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
+These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
+with many revisions.
- --repack-flags are passed directly to gitlink:git-repack[1].
+--repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
+to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
+1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
+--repack-flags are passed directly to gitlink:git-repack[1].
+
+[verse]
config key: svn.repack
config key: svn.repackflags
-s<strategy>::
--strategy=<strategy>::
-These are only used with the 'dcommit' command.
+These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
Passed directly to git-rebase when using 'dcommit' if a
'git-reset' cannot be used (see dcommit).
----------------
--
--b<refname>::
---branch <refname>::
-Used with 'fetch', 'dcommit' or 'set-tree'.
-
-This can be used to join arbitrary git branches to remotes/git-svn
-on new commits where the tree object is equivalent.
-
-When used with different GIT_SVN_ID values, tags and branches in
-SVN can be tracked this way, as can some merges where the heads
-end up having completely equivalent content. This can even be
-used to track branches across multiple SVN _repositories_.
-
-This option may be specified multiple times, once for each
-branch.
-
-config key: svn.branch
-
-i<GIT_SVN_ID>::
--id <GIT_SVN_ID>::
-This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). See the
-section on
-'<<tracking-multiple-repos,Tracking Multiple Repositories or Branches>>'
-for more information on using GIT_SVN_ID.
+This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
+allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
+when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
+no longer require this switch as an argument.
+
+-R<remote name>::
+--svn-remote <remote name>::
+ Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
+ this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
+ Default: "svn"
--follow-parent::
This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
- descended from.
+ descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
+ --no-follow-parent to disable it.
config key: svn.followparent
---no-metadata::
- This gets rid of the git-svn-id: lines at the end of every commit.
+--
+CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
+------------------------
+--
- With this, you lose the ability to use the rebuild command. If
- you ever lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, you won't be
- able to fetch again, either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
+svn.noMetadata::
+svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
- The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using this,
- either.
+This gets rid of the git-svn-id: lines at the end of every commit.
-config key: svn.nometadata
+If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, git-svn will not
+be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
+either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
---
+The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using
+this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
+option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
-COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS
----------------------
---
+svn.useSvmProps::
+svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
+
+This allows git-svn to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
+mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
---upgrade::
-Only used with the 'rebuild' command.
+If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
+that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
+The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
+to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
+introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
+URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
+messages.
-Run this if you used an old version of git-svn that used
-"git-svn-HEAD" instead of "remotes/git-svn" as the branch
-for tracking the remote.
+svn.useSvnsyncProps::
+svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
+ Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
+ of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
+ later.
---ignore-nodate::
-Only used with the 'fetch' command.
+svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
+ This allows users to create repositories from alternate
+ URLs. For example, an administrator could run git-svn on the
+ server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
+ the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
+ metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
-By default git-svn will crash if it tries to import a revision
-from SVN which has '(no date)' listed as the date of the revision.
-This is repository corruption on SVN's part, plain and simple.
-But sometimes you really need those revisions anyway.
+Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
+options all affect the metadata generated and used by git-svn; they
+*must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
+and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
-If supplied git-svn will convert '(no date)' entries to the UNIX
-epoch (midnight on Jan. 1, 1970). Yes, that's probably very wrong.
-SVN was very wrong.
+Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
+section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
--
-Basic Examples
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+BASIC EXAMPLES
+--------------
Tracking and contributing to a the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Initialize a repo (like git init):
- git-svn init http://svn.foo.org/project/trunk
-# Fetch remote revisions:
- git-svn fetch
-# Create your own branch to hack on:
- git checkout -b my-branch remotes/git-svn
-# Do some work, and then commit your new changes to SVN, as well as
-# automatically updating your working HEAD:
+# Clone a repo (like git clone):
+ git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project/trunk
+# Enter the newly cloned directory:
+ cd trunk
+# You should be on master branch, double-check with git-branch
+ git branch
+# Do some work and commit locally to git:
+ git commit ...
+# Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
+# latest changes in SVN:
+ git-svn rebase
+# Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
+# as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
git-svn dcommit
-# Something is committed to SVN, rebase the latest into your branch:
- git-svn fetch && git rebase remotes/git-svn
# Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
git-svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
(complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
-See also:
-'<<tracking-multiple-repos,Tracking Multiple Repositories or Branches>>'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Initialize a repo (like git init):
- git-svn multi-init http://svn.foo.org/project \
- -T trunk -b branches -t tags
-# Fetch remote revisions:
- git-svn multi-fetch
-# Create your own branch of trunk to hack on:
- git checkout -b my-trunk remotes/trunk
-# Do some work, and then commit your new changes to SVN, as well as
-# automatically updating your working HEAD:
- git-svn dcommit -i trunk
-# Something has been committed to trunk, rebase the latest into your branch:
- git-svn multi-fetch && git rebase remotes/trunk
-# Append svn:ignore settings of trunk to the default git exclude file:
- git-svn show-ignore -i trunk >> .git/info/exclude
-# Check for new branches and tags (no arguments are needed):
- git-svn multi-init
+# Clone a repo (like git clone):
+ git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
+# View all branches and tags you have cloned:
+ git branch -r
+# Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
+# with the appropriate name):
+ git reset --hard remotes/trunk
+# You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
+# of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The initial 'git-svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
+(especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
+people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
+git-svn to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
+do the initial 'git-svn clone' to a repository on a server and
+have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Do the initial import on a server
+ ssh server "cd /pub && git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project
+# Clone locally
+ git clone server:/pub/project
+# Tell git-svn which branch contains the Subversion commits
+ git update-ref refs/remotes/git-svn origin/master
+# Initialize git-svn locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
+ git-svn init http://svn.foo.org/project
+# Pull the latest changes from Subversion
+ git-svn rebase
------------------------------------------------------------------------
REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
If you use 'git-svn set-tree A..B' to commit several diffs and you do
not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
-use 'git rebase' to update your work branch instead of 'git pull' or
+use 'git-svn rebase' to update your work branch instead of 'git pull' or
'git merge'. 'pull/merge' can cause non-linear history to be flattened
when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
previous commits in SVN.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
-----------------
Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
-with Subversion is cumbersome as a result. git-svn does not do
-automated merge/branch tracking by default and leaves it entirely up to
-the user on the git side.
-
-[[tracking-multiple-repos]]
-TRACKING MULTIPLE REPOSITORIES OR BRANCHES
-------------------------------------------
-Because git-svn does not care about relationships between different
-branches or directories in a Subversion repository, git-svn has a simple
-hack to allow it to track an arbitrary number of related _or_ unrelated
-SVN repositories via one git repository. Simply use the --id/-i flag or
-set the GIT_SVN_ID environment variable to a name other other than
-"git-svn" (the default) and git-svn will ignore the contents of the
-$GIT_DIR/svn/git-svn directory and instead do all of its work in
-$GIT_DIR/svn/$GIT_SVN_ID for that invocation. The interface branch will
-be remotes/$GIT_SVN_ID, instead of remotes/git-svn. Any
-remotes/$GIT_SVN_ID branch should never be modified by the user outside
-of git-svn commands.
-
-[[fetch-args]]
-ADDITIONAL FETCH ARGUMENTS
---------------------------
-This is for advanced users, most users should ignore this section.
-
-Unfetched SVN revisions may be imported as children of existing commits
-by specifying additional arguments to 'fetch'. Additional parents may
-optionally be specified in the form of sha1 hex sums at the
-command-line. Unfetched SVN revisions may also be tied to particular
-git commits with the following syntax:
-
-------------------------------------------------
- svn_revision_number=git_commit_sha1
-------------------------------------------------
-
-This allows you to tie unfetched SVN revision 375 to your current HEAD:
-
-------------------------------------------------
- git-svn fetch 375=$(git-rev-parse HEAD)
-------------------------------------------------
-
-If you're tracking a directory that has moved, or otherwise been
-branched or tagged off of another directory in the repository and you
-care about the full history of the project, then you can use
-the --follow-parent option.
-
-------------------------------------------------
- git-svn fetch --follow-parent
-------------------------------------------------
+with Subversion can be cumbersome as a result. While git-svn can track
+copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
+standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
+inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
+users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
+compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
+
+CAVEATS
+-------
+
+For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with a less-capable system
+(SVN), it is recommended that all git-svn users clone, fetch and dcommit
+directly from the SVN server, and avoid all git-clone/pull/merge/push
+operations between git repositories and branches. The recommended
+method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
+git-format-patch and git-am, or just dcommiting to the SVN repository.
+
+Running 'git-merge' or 'git-pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
+plan to dcommit from. Subversion does not represent merges in any
+reasonable or useful fashion; so users using Subversion cannot see any
+merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
+that is a mirror of an SVN branch, dcommit may commit to the wrong
+branch.
+
+'git-clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
+any git-svn metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
+using git-svn should use rsync(1) for cloning, if cloning is to be done
+at all.
+
+Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you git-push to
+before dcommit on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
+on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
+see the git-push(1) documentation for details.
+
+Do not use the --amend option of git-commit(1) on a change you've
+already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
+you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
+dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
BUGS
----
-We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Too difficult to
-map them since we rely heavily on git write-tree being _exactly_ the
-same on both the SVN and git working trees and I prefer not to clutter
-working trees with metadata files.
+We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
+properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
-the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Renamed and
-copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough for git to
-detect them.
+the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
+renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
+for git to detect them.
+
+CONFIGURATION
+-------------
+
+git-svn stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
+repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
+[remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
+arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
+and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
+configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
+listed below are allowed:
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+[svn-remote "project-a"]
+ url = http://server.org/svn
+ branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
+ tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
+ trunk = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Keep in mind that the '*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
+(right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
+however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's own
+independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
+type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
+should be manually entered with a text-editor or using
+gitlink:git-config[1]
SEE ALSO
--------