[-A <author-conv-file>] [-p <options-for-cvsps>] [-P <file>]
[-C <git_repository>] [-z <fuzz>] [-i] [-k] [-u] [-s <subst>]
[-a] [-m] [-M <regex>] [-S <regex>] [-L <commitlimit>]
- [-r <remote>] [<CVS_module>]
+ [-r <remote>] [-R] [<CVS_module>]
DESCRIPTION
Splitting the CVS log into patch sets is done by 'cvsps'.
At least version 2.1 is required.
+*WARNING:* for certain situations the import leads to incorrect results.
+Please see the section <<issues,ISSUES>> for further reference.
+
You should *never* do any work of your own on the branches that are
-created by 'git-cvsimport'. By default initial import will create and populate a
+created by 'git cvsimport'. By default initial import will create and populate a
"master" branch from the CVS repository's main branch which you're free
-to work with; after that, you need to 'git-merge' incremental imports, or
+to work with; after that, you need to 'git merge' incremental imports, or
any CVS branches, yourself. It is advisable to specify a named remote via
-r to separate and protect the incoming branches.
-d <CVSROOT>::
The root of the CVS archive. May be local (a simple path) or remote;
currently, only the :local:, :ext: and :pserver: access methods
- are supported. If not given, 'git-cvsimport' will try to read it
+ are supported. If not given, 'git cvsimport' will try to read it
from `CVS/Root`. If no such file exists, it checks for the
`CVSROOT` environment variable.
<CVS_module>::
The CVS module you want to import. Relative to <CVSROOT>.
- If not given, 'git-cvsimport' tries to read it from
+ If not given, 'git cvsimport' tries to read it from
`CVS/Repository`.
-C <target-dir>::
-r <remote>::
The git remote to import this CVS repository into.
Moves all CVS branches into remotes/<remote>/<branch>
- akin to the way 'git-clone' uses 'origin' by default.
+ akin to the way 'git clone' uses 'origin' by default.
-o <branch-for-HEAD>::
When no remote is specified (via -r) the 'HEAD' branch
from CVS is imported to the 'origin' branch within the git
repository, as 'HEAD' already has a special meaning for git.
When a remote is specified the 'HEAD' branch is named
- remotes/<remote>/master mirroring 'git-clone' behaviour.
+ remotes/<remote>/master mirroring 'git clone' behaviour.
Use this option if you want to import into a different
branch.
+
---------
+
-'git-cvsimport' will make it appear as those authors had
+'git cvsimport' will make it appear as those authors had
their GIT_AUTHOR_NAME and GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL set properly
all along.
+
For convenience, this data is saved to `$GIT_DIR/cvs-authors`
each time the '-A' option is provided and read from that same
-file each time 'git-cvsimport' is run.
+file each time 'git cvsimport' is run.
+
It is not recommended to use this feature if you intend to
export changes back to CVS again later with
-'git-cvsexportcommit'.
+'git cvsexportcommit'.
+
+-R::
+ Generate a `$GIT_DIR/cvs-revisions` file containing a mapping from CVS
+ revision numbers to newly-created Git commit IDs. The generated file
+ will contain one line for each (filename, revision) pair imported;
+ each line will look like
++
+---------
+src/widget.c 1.1 1d862f173cdc7325b6fa6d2ae1cfd61fd1b512b7
+---------
++
+The revision data is appended to the file if it already exists, for use when
+doing incremental imports.
++
+This option may be useful if you have CVS revision numbers stored in commit
+messages, bug-tracking systems, email archives, and the like.
-h::
Print a short usage message and exit.
Otherwise, success is indicated the Unix way, i.e. by simply exiting with
a zero exit status.
+[[issues]]
+ISSUES
+------
+Problems related to timestamps:
+
+ * If timestamps of commits in the cvs repository are not stable enough
+ to be used for ordering commits changes may show up in the wrong
+ order.
+ * If any files were ever "cvs import"ed more than once (e.g., import of
+ more than one vendor release) the HEAD contains the wrong content.
+ * If the timestamp order of different files cross the revision order
+ within the commit matching time window the order of commits may be
+ wrong.
+
+Problems related to branches:
+
+ * Branches on which no commits have been made are not imported.
+ * All files from the branching point are added to a branch even if
+ never added in cvs.
+ * This applies to files added to the source branch *after* a daughter
+ branch was created: if previously no commit was made on the daughter
+ branch they will erroneously be added to the daughter branch in git.
+
+Problems related to tags:
+
+* Multiple tags on the same revision are not imported.
+
+If you suspect that any of these issues may apply to the repository you
+want to import consider using these alternative tools which proved to be
+more stable in practice:
+
+* cvs2git (part of cvs2svn), `http://cvs2svn.tigris.org`
+* parsecvs, `http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~keithp/parsecvs`
Author
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