SYNOPSIS
--------
-'git-svn' <command> [options] [arguments]
+'git svn' <command> [options] [arguments]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-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.
+'git-svn' is a simple conduit for changesets between Subversion and git.
+It provides a bidirectional flow of changes between a Subversion and a git
+repository.
-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.
+'git-svn' can track a single Subversion branch simply by using a
+URL to the branch, follow branches laid out in the Subversion recommended
+method (trunk, branches, tags directories) with the --stdlayout option, or
+follow branches in any layout with the -T/-t/-b options (see options to
+'init' below, and also the 'clone' command).
-git-svn is especially useful when it comes to tracking repositories
-not organized in the way Subversion developers recommend (trunk,
-branches, tags directories).
+Once tracking a Subversion branch (with any of the above methods), the git
+repository can be updated from Subversion by the 'fetch' command and
+Subversion updated from git by the 'dcommit' command.
COMMANDS
--------
--
'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.
+--use-log-author;;
+ When retrieving svn commits into git (as part of fetch, rebase, or
+ dcommit operations), look for the first From: or Signed-off-by: line
+ in the log message and use that as the author string.
+--add-author-from;;
+ When committing to svn from git (as part of commit or dcommit
+ operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
+ From: or Signed-off-by: line, append a From: line based on the
+ git commit's author string. If you use this, then --use-log-author
+ will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
+--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.
+ 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 dcommitting with 'git-svn'.
+
+This accepts all options that 'git-svn fetch' and 'git-rebase'
+accept. 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
repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
- It is recommended that you run git-svn fetch and rebase (not
+ It is recommended that you run 'git-svn' fetch and rebase (not
pull or merge) your commits against the latest changes in the
SVN repository.
An optional command-line argument may be specified as an
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.
+--commit-url <URL>;;
+ Commit to this SVN URL (the full path). This is intended to
+ allow existing git-svn repositories created with one transport
+ method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
+ reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
+ method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
+
+ Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask)
+ is very strongly discouraged.
+--
-'log'::
- This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
- users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
+'branch'::
+ Create a branch in the SVN repository.
- The following features from `svn log' are supported:
+-m;;
+--message;;
+ Allows to specify the commit message.
- --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
+-t;;
+--tag;;
+ Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
+ specified during git svn init.
- New features:
+'tag'::
+ Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
+ 'branch -t'.
- --show-commit - shows the git commit sha1, as well
- --oneline - our version of --pretty=oneline
+'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
+--
++
+NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
+client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
+environment). This command has the same behaviour.
++
+Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git-log'
+
+'blame'::
+ Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
+ output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
+ `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
+ local uncommitted changes in the working copy are ignored;
+ the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
+ arguments are passed directly to 'git-blame'.
++
+--git-format;;
+ Produce output in the same format as 'git-blame', but with
+ SVN revision numbers instead of git commit hashes. In this mode,
+ changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
+ working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
- 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.
absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
- independently of git-svn functions.
+ independently of 'git-svn' functions.
+
+'create-ignore'::
+ Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
+ creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
+ be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
+ specific revision.
'show-ignore'::
Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
'commit-diff'::
Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
- command-line. This command is intended for interoperability with
- git-svnimport and does not rely on being inside an git-svn
- init-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
+ command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git-svn
+ init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
- (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a git-svn-aware
- repository (that has been init-ed with git-svn).
+ (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git-svn'-aware
+ 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)
+'info'::
+ Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
+ `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
+ argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
+ 'URL:' field.
+
+'proplist'::
+ Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
+ given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
+ Subversion revision.
---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.
+'propget'::
+ Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
+ file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
-'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).
+'show-externals'::
+ Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
+ specific revision.
--
-------
--
---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].
+ These are passed directly to 'git-init'.
-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::
Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
-git-rev-list --pretty=oneline output can be used.
+'git-rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
--rmdir::
Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
-They are both passed directly to git-diff-tree see
-gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
+They are both passed directly to 'git-diff-tree'; see
+linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
[verse]
config key: svn.l
-A<filename>::
--authors-file=<filename>::
-Syntax is compatible with the files used by git-svnimport and
-git-cvsimport:
+Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git-cvsimport':
------------------------------------------------------------------------
loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-If this option is specified and git-svn encounters an SVN
-committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, git-svn
+If this option is specified and 'git-svn' encounters an SVN
+committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git-svn'
will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
-appropriate entry. Re-running the previous git-svn command
+appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git-svn' command
after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
config key: svn.authorsfile
-q::
--quiet::
- Make git-svn less verbose.
+ 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>::
+
+These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
+with many revisions.
- --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 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].
+--repack-flags are passed directly to 'git-repack'.
+[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).
+Passed directly to 'git-rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
+'git-reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
-n::
--dry-run::
-This is only used with the 'dcommit' command.
+This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and 'tag'
+commands.
-Print out the series of git arguments that would show
+For 'dcommit', print out the series of git arguments that would show
which diffs would be committed to SVN.
+For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
+repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
+repository that will be fetched from.
+
+For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
+creating the branch or tag.
+
--
ADVANCED OPTIONS
----------------
--
--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 multiple repositories to be tracked.
- Default: git-svn
+ this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
+ Default: "svn"
--follow-parent::
This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
config key: svn.followparent
-svn.noMetadata:
-svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata:
- This gets rid of the git-svn-id: lines at the end of every commit.
+--
+CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
+------------------------
+--
+
+svn.noMetadata::
+svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
+
+This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
+
+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.
- 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.
- The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using
- this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
- option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
+svn.useSvmProps::
+svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
-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.
+This allows 'git-svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
+mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
- 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.
+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.
- Using this conflicts with the 'noMetadata' option for
- (hopefully) obvious reasons.
+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.
+
+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.
--
-Basic Examples
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+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.
+
+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
+--------------
-Tracking and contributing to a the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
+Tracking and contributing to 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:
- git-svn dcommit
-# Something is committed to SVN, rebase the latest into your branch:
- git-svn fetch && git rebase remotes/git-svn
+# Clone a repo (like git clone):
+ git svn clone http://svn.example.com/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
# Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
- git-svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
+ 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.example.com/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
+# View all branches and tags you have cloned:
+ git branch -r
+# Create a new branch in SVN
+ git svn branch waldo
+# 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.example.com/project
+# Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
+ mkdir project
+ cd project
+ git init
+ git remote add origin server:/pub/project
+ git config --add remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
+ git fetch
+# Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
+ git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
+# 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.example.com/project
+# Pull the latest changes from Subversion
+ git svn rebase
------------------------------------------------------------------------
REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
---------------------
-Originally, git-svn recommended that the remotes/git-svn branch be
+Originally, 'git-svn' recommended that the 'remotes/git-svn' branch be
pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
-'git-svn set-tree B' to commit a single head rather than the
-'git-svn set-tree A..B' notation to commit multiple commits.
+`git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
+`git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits.
-If you use 'git-svn set-tree A..B' to commit several diffs and you do
+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
-'git merge'. 'pull/merge' can cause non-linear history to be flattened
+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.
-
-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 'dcommit'ing 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' 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 linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
+
+Do not use the --amend option of linkgit: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 'git-config'.
SEE ALSO
--------
-gitlink:git-rebase[1]
+linkgit:git-rebase[1]
Author
------