6 git-svn - Bidirectional operation between a single Subversion branch and git
10 'git-svn' <command> [options] [arguments]
14 git-svn is a simple conduit for changesets between Subversion and git.
15 It is not to be confused with linkgit:git-svnimport[1], which is
18 git-svn was originally designed for an individual developer who wants a
19 bidirectional flow of changesets between a single branch in Subversion
20 and an arbitrary number of branches in git. Since its inception,
21 git-svn has gained the ability to track multiple branches in a manner
22 similar to git-svnimport.
24 git-svn is especially useful when it comes to tracking repositories
25 not organized in the way Subversion developers recommend (trunk,
26 branches, tags directories).
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
42 --trunk=<trunk_subdir>;;
44 --tags=<tags_subdir>;;
46 --branches=<branches_subdir>;;
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.
57 Set the 'noMetadata' option in the [svn-remote] config.
59 Set the 'useSvmProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
61 Set the 'useSvnsyncProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
62 --rewrite-root=<URL>;;
63 Set the 'rewriteRoot' option in the [svn-remote] config.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
107 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
108 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
110 This works similarly to 'svn update' or 'git-pull' except that
111 it preserves linear history with 'git-rebase' instead of
112 'git-merge' for ease of dcommiting with git-svn.
114 This accepts all options that 'git-svn fetch' and 'git-rebase'
115 accepts. However '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
116 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
118 Like 'git-rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
119 and have no uncommitted changes.
123 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git-rebase' against the
124 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
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
134 An optional command-line argument may be specified as an
136 This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
137 cleaner, more linear history.
140 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
144 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
145 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
147 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
150 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
151 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
152 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
154 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
155 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
157 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
158 merged/excluded commits
167 shows the git commit sha1, as well
169 our version of --pretty=oneline
172 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
173 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
174 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
176 Any other arguments are passed directly to `git log'
179 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
180 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
181 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
182 local uncommitted changes in the working copy are ignored;
183 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
184 arguments are passed directly to git-blame.
187 Produce output in the same format as `git blame', but with
188 SVN revision numbers instead of git commit hashes. In this mode,
189 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
190 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
194 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
195 corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
196 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
197 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
200 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
201 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
202 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
203 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
204 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
205 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
206 independently of git-svn functions.
209 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
210 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
211 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
215 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
216 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
217 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
220 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
221 command-line. This command is intended for interoperability with
222 git-svnimport and does not rely on being inside an git-svn
223 init-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
224 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
225 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
226 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a git-svn-aware
227 repository (that has been init-ed with git-svn).
228 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
231 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
232 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
233 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
237 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
238 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
242 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
243 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
246 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
255 --shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
256 --template=<template_directory>::
257 Only used with the 'init' command.
258 These are passed directly to linkgit:git-init[1].
263 Used with the 'fetch' command.
265 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
266 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
267 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
269 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
270 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
276 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
278 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
279 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
280 git-rev-list --pretty=oneline output can be used.
284 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
286 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
287 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
288 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
289 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
290 the commit to SVN act like git.
292 config key: svn.rmdir
297 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
299 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
300 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
306 --find-copies-harder::
308 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
310 They are both passed directly to git-diff-tree see
311 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
315 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
318 --authors-file=<filename>::
320 Syntax is compatible with the files used by git-svnimport and
323 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
324 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
325 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
327 If this option is specified and git-svn encounters an SVN
328 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, git-svn
329 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
330 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous git-svn command
331 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
333 config key: svn.authorsfile
337 Make git-svn less verbose.
340 --repack-flags=<flags>::
342 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
345 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
346 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
347 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
349 --repack-flags are passed directly to linkgit:git-repack[1].
352 config key: svn.repack
353 config key: svn.repackflags
358 --strategy=<strategy>::
360 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
362 Passed directly to git-rebase when using 'dcommit' if a
363 'git-reset' cannot be used (see dcommit).
368 This is only used with the 'dcommit' command.
370 Print out the series of git arguments that would show
371 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
382 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
383 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
384 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
385 no longer require this switch as an argument.
388 --svn-remote <remote name>::
389 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
390 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
394 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
395 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
396 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
397 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
398 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
400 config key: svn.followparent
403 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
404 ------------------------
408 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
410 This gets rid of the git-svn-id: lines at the end of every commit.
412 If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, git-svn will not
413 be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
414 either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
416 The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using
417 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
418 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
421 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
423 This allows git-svn to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
424 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
426 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
427 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
428 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
429 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
430 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
431 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
434 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
435 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
436 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
437 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
440 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
441 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
442 URLs. For example, an administrator could run git-svn on the
443 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
444 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
445 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
447 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
448 options all affect the metadata generated and used by git-svn; they
449 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
450 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
452 Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
453 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
460 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
462 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
463 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
464 git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project/trunk
465 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
467 # You should be on master branch, double-check with git-branch
469 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
471 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
472 # latest changes in SVN:
474 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
475 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
477 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
478 git-svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
479 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
481 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
482 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
484 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
485 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
486 git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
487 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
489 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
490 # with the appropriate name):
491 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
492 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
493 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
494 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
496 The initial 'git-svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
497 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
498 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
499 git-svn to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
500 do the initial 'git-svn clone' to a repository on a server and
501 have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
503 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
504 # Do the initial import on a server
505 ssh server "cd /pub && git-svn clone http://svn.foo.org/project
506 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
510 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
511 git config --add remote.origin.fetch=+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*
513 # Initialize git-svn locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
514 git-svn init http://svn.foo.org/project
515 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
517 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
519 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
520 ---------------------
522 Originally, git-svn recommended that the remotes/git-svn branch be
523 pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
524 'git-svn set-tree B' to commit a single head rather than the
525 'git-svn set-tree A..B' notation to commit multiple commits.
527 If you use 'git-svn set-tree A..B' to commit several diffs and you do
528 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
529 use 'git-svn rebase' to update your work branch instead of 'git pull' or
530 'git merge'. 'pull/merge' can cause non-linear history to be flattened
531 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
532 previous commits in SVN.
536 Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
537 with Subversion can be cumbersome as a result. While git-svn can track
538 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
539 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
540 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
541 users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
542 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
547 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with a less-capable system
548 (SVN), it is recommended that all git-svn users clone, fetch and dcommit
549 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all git-clone/pull/merge/push
550 operations between git repositories and branches. The recommended
551 method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
552 git-format-patch and git-am, or just dcommiting to the SVN repository.
554 Running 'git-merge' or 'git-pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
555 plan to dcommit from. Subversion does not represent merges in any
556 reasonable or useful fashion; so users using Subversion cannot see any
557 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
558 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, dcommit may commit to the wrong
561 'git-clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
562 any git-svn metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
563 using git-svn should use rsync(1) for cloning, if cloning is to be done
566 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you git-push to
567 before dcommit on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
568 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
569 see the git-push(1) documentation for details.
571 Do not use the --amend option of git-commit(1) on a change you've
572 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
573 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
574 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
579 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
580 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
582 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
583 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
584 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
585 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
586 renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
587 for git to detect them.
592 git-svn stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
593 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
594 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
595 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
596 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
597 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
598 listed below are allowed:
600 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
601 [svn-remote "project-a"]
602 url = http://server.org/svn
603 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
604 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
605 trunk = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
606 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
608 Keep in mind that the '*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
609 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
610 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's own
611 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
612 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
613 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using
614 linkgit:git-config[1]
618 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
622 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
626 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.