6 git-svn - Bidirectional operation between a Subversion repository and git
10 'git svn' <command> [options] [arguments]
14 'git svn' is a simple conduit for changesets between Subversion and git.
15 It provides a bidirectional flow of changes between a Subversion and a git
18 'git svn' can track a standard Subversion repository,
19 following the common "trunk/branches/tags" layout, with the --stdlayout option.
20 It can also follow branches and tags in any layout with the -T/-t/-b options
21 (see options to 'init' below, and also the 'clone' command).
23 Once tracking a Subversion repository (with any of the above methods), the git
24 repository can be updated from Subversion by the 'fetch' command and
25 Subversion updated from git by the 'dcommit' command.
31 Initializes an empty git repository with additional
32 metadata directories for 'git svn'. The Subversion URL
33 may be specified as a command-line argument, or as full
34 URL arguments to -T/-t/-b. Optionally, the target
35 directory to operate on can be specified as a second
36 argument. Normally this command initializes the current
40 --trunk=<trunk_subdir>;;
42 --tags=<tags_subdir>;;
44 --branches=<branches_subdir>;;
47 These are optional command-line options for init. Each of
48 these flags can point to a relative repository path
49 (--tags=project/tags) or a full url
50 (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags).
51 You can specify more than one --tags and/or --branches options, in case
52 your Subversion repository places tags or branches under multiple paths.
53 The option --stdlayout is
54 a shorthand way of setting trunk,tags,branches as the relative paths,
55 which is the Subversion default. If any of the other options are given
56 as well, they take precedence.
58 Set the 'noMetadata' option in the [svn-remote] config.
60 Set the 'useSvmProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
62 Set the 'useSvnsyncProps' option in the [svn-remote] config.
63 --rewrite-root=<URL>;;
64 Set the 'rewriteRoot' option in the [svn-remote] config.
66 For transports that SVN handles authentication for (http,
67 https, and plain svn), specify the username. For other
68 transports (eg svn+ssh://), you must include the username in
69 the URL, eg svn+ssh://foo@svn.bar.com/project
71 This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended
72 to the names of remotes if trunk/branches/tags are
73 specified. The prefix does not automatically include a
74 trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the
75 argument if that is what you want. If --branches/-b is
76 specified, the prefix must include a trailing slash.
77 Setting a prefix is useful if you wish to track multiple
78 projects that share a common repository.
79 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
80 When passed to 'init' or 'clone' this regular expression will
81 be preserved as a config key. See 'fetch' for a description
85 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion remote we are
86 tracking. The name of the [svn-remote "..."] section in the
87 .git/config file may be specified as an optional command-line
91 Store Git commit times in the local timezone instead of UTC. This
92 makes 'git log' (even without --date=local) show the same times
93 that `svn log` would in the local timezone.
96 Fetch only from the SVN parent of the current HEAD.
98 This doesn't interfere with interoperating with the Subversion
99 repository you cloned from, but if you wish for your local Git
100 repository to be able to interoperate with someone else's local Git
101 repository, either don't use this option or you should both use it in
102 the same local timezone.
104 --ignore-paths=<regex>;;
105 This allows one to specify a Perl regular expression that will
106 cause skipping of all matching paths from checkout from SVN.
107 The '--ignore-paths' option should match for every 'fetch'
108 (including automatic fetches due to 'clone', 'dcommit',
109 'rebase', etc) on a given repository.
112 config key: svn-remote.<name>.ignore-paths
114 If the ignore-paths config key is set and the command line option is
115 also given, both regular expressions will be used.
120 Skip "doc*" directory for every fetch;;
122 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
123 --ignore-paths="^doc"
124 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
126 Skip "branches" and "tags" of first level directories;;
128 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
129 --ignore-paths="^[^/]+/(?:branches|tags)"
130 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
134 When retrieving svn commits into git (as part of fetch, rebase, or
135 dcommit operations), look for the first From: or Signed-off-by: line
136 in the log message and use that as the author string.
138 When committing to svn from git (as part of commit or dcommit
139 operations), if the existing log message doesn't already have a
140 From: or Signed-off-by: line, append a From: line based on the
141 git commit's author string. If you use this, then --use-log-author
142 will retrieve a valid author string for all commits.
145 Runs 'init' and 'fetch'. It will automatically create a
146 directory based on the basename of the URL passed to it;
147 or if a second argument is passed; it will create a directory
148 and work within that. It accepts all arguments that the
149 'init' and 'fetch' commands accept; with the exception of
150 '--fetch-all' and '--parent'. After a repository is cloned,
151 the 'fetch' command will be able to update revisions without
152 affecting the working tree; and the 'rebase' command will be
153 able to update the working tree with the latest changes.
156 This fetches revisions from the SVN parent of the current HEAD
157 and rebases the current (uncommitted to SVN) work against it.
159 This works similarly to `svn update` or 'git pull' except that
160 it preserves linear history with 'git rebase' instead of
161 'git merge' for ease of dcommitting with 'git svn'.
163 This accepts all options that 'git svn fetch' and 'git rebase'
164 accept. However, '--fetch-all' only fetches from the current
165 [svn-remote], and not all [svn-remote] definitions.
167 Like 'git rebase'; this requires that the working tree be clean
168 and have no uncommitted changes.
172 Do not fetch remotely; only run 'git rebase' against the
173 last fetched commit from the upstream SVN.
176 Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
177 repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
178 not there is a diff between SVN and head). This will create
179 a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
180 It is recommended that you run 'git svn' fetch and rebase (not
181 pull or merge) your commits against the latest changes in the
183 An optional revision or branch argument may be specified, and
184 causes 'git svn' to do all work on that revision/branch
186 This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
187 cleaner, more linear history.
190 After committing, do not rebase or reset.
192 Commit to this SVN URL (the full path). This is intended to
193 allow existing 'git svn' repositories created with one transport
194 method (e.g. `svn://` or `http://` for anonymous read) to be
195 reused if a user is later given access to an alternate transport
196 method (e.g. `svn+ssh://` or `https://`) for commit.
199 config key: svn-remote.<name>.commiturl
200 config key: svn.commiturl (overwrites all svn-remote.<name>.commiturl options)
202 Using this option for any other purpose (don't ask) is very strongly
206 Create a branch in the SVN repository.
210 Allows to specify the commit message.
214 Create a tag by using the tags_subdir instead of the branches_subdir
215 specified during git svn init.
219 If more than one --branches (or --tags) option was given to the 'init'
220 or 'clone' command, you must provide the location of the branch (or
221 tag) you wish to create in the SVN repository. The value of this
222 option must match one of the paths specified by a --branches (or
223 --tags) option. You can see these paths with the commands
225 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.branches
226 git config --get-all svn-remote.<name>.tags
228 where <name> is the name of the SVN repository as specified by the -R option to
229 'init' (or "svn" by default).
232 Create a tag in the SVN repository. This is a shorthand for
236 This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
237 users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
239 The following features from `svn log' are supported:
243 --revision=<n>[:<n>];;
244 is supported, non-numeric args are not:
245 HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
248 it's not completely compatible with the --verbose
249 output in svn log, but reasonably close.
251 is NOT the same as --max-count, doesn't count
252 merged/excluded commits
261 shows the git commit sha1, as well
263 our version of --pretty=oneline
266 NOTE: SVN itself only stores times in UTC and nothing else. The regular svn
267 client converts the UTC time to the local time (or based on the TZ=
268 environment). This command has the same behaviour.
270 Any other arguments are passed directly to 'git log'
273 Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file. The
274 output of this mode is format-compatible with the output of
275 `svn blame' by default. Like the SVN blame command,
276 local uncommitted changes in the working copy are ignored;
277 the version of the file in the HEAD revision is annotated. Unknown
278 arguments are passed directly to 'git blame'.
281 Produce output in the same format as 'git blame', but with
282 SVN revision numbers instead of git commit hashes. In this mode,
283 changes that haven't been committed to SVN (including local
284 working-copy edits) are shown as revision 0.
287 When given an SVN revision number of the form 'rN', returns the
288 corresponding git commit hash (this can optionally be followed by a
289 tree-ish to specify which branch should be searched). When given a
290 tree-ish, returns the corresponding SVN revision number.
293 You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
294 Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN. This relies on
295 your imported fetch data being up-to-date. This makes
296 absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
297 simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
298 commit. All merging is assumed to have taken place
299 independently of 'git svn' functions.
302 Recursively finds the svn:ignore property on directories and
303 creates matching .gitignore files. The resulting files are staged to
304 be committed, but are not committed. Use -r/--revision to refer to a
308 Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
309 directories. The output is suitable for appending to
310 the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
313 Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
314 command-line. This command does not rely on being inside an `git svn
315 init`-ed repository. This command takes three arguments, (a) the
316 original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
317 URL of the target Subversion repository. The final argument
318 (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a 'git svn'-aware
319 repository (that has been `init`-ed with 'git svn').
320 The -r<revision> option is required for this.
323 Shows information about a file or directory similar to what
324 `svn info' provides. Does not currently support a -r/--revision
325 argument. Use the --url option to output only the value of the
329 Lists the properties stored in the Subversion repository about a
330 given file or directory. Use -r/--revision to refer to a specific
334 Gets the Subversion property given as the first argument, for a
335 file. A specific revision can be specified with -r/--revision.
338 Shows the Subversion externals. Use -r/--revision to specify a
342 Undoes the effects of 'fetch' back to the specified revision.
343 This allows you to re-'fetch' an SVN revision. Normally the
344 contents of an SVN revision should never change and 'reset'
345 should not be necessary. However, if SVN permissions change,
346 or if you alter your --ignore-paths option, a 'fetch' may fail
347 with "not found in commit" (file not previously visible) or
348 "checksum mismatch" (missed a modification). If the problem
349 file cannot be ignored forever (with --ignore-paths) the only
350 way to repair the repo is to use 'reset'.
352 Only the rev_map and refs/remotes/git-svn are changed. Follow 'reset'
353 with a 'fetch' and then 'git reset' or 'git rebase' to move local
354 branches onto the new tree.
358 Specify the most recent revision to keep. All later revisions
362 Discard the specified revision as well, keeping the nearest
365 Assume you have local changes in "master", but you need to refetch "r2".
368 r1---r2---r3 remotes/git-svn
373 Fix the ignore-paths or SVN permissions problem that caused "r2" to
374 be incomplete in the first place. Then:
381 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
383 r2---r3---A---B master
386 Then fixup "master" with 'git rebase'.
387 Do NOT use 'git merge' or your history will not be compatible with a
391 git rebase --onto remotes/git-svn A^ master
394 r1---r2'--r3' remotes/git-svn
402 --shared[={false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody}]::
403 --template=<template_directory>::
404 Only used with the 'init' command.
405 These are passed directly to 'git init'.
409 Used with the 'fetch' command.
411 This allows revision ranges for partial/cauterized history
412 to be supported. $NUMBER, $NUMBER1:$NUMBER2 (numeric ranges),
413 $NUMBER:HEAD, and BASE:$NUMBER are all supported.
415 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch;
416 but is generally not recommended because history will be skipped
421 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
423 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
424 order. Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
425 'git rev-list --pretty=oneline' output can be used.
428 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
430 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
431 behind. SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
432 removed by default if there are no files left in them. git
433 cannot version empty directories. Enabling this flag will make
434 the commit to SVN act like git.
437 config key: svn.rmdir
441 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
443 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN. This is off by
444 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
451 --find-copies-harder::
452 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
454 They are both passed directly to 'git diff-tree'; see
455 linkgit:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
459 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
462 --authors-file=<filename>::
463 Syntax is compatible with the file used by 'git cvsimport':
465 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
466 loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
467 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
469 If this option is specified and 'git svn' encounters an SVN
470 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, 'git svn'
471 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
472 appropriate entry. Re-running the previous 'git svn' command
473 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
476 config key: svn.authorsfile
478 --authors-prog=<filename>::
479 If this option is specified, for each SVN committer name that
480 does not exist in the authors file, the given file is executed
481 with the committer name as the first argument. The program is
482 expected to return a single line of the form "Name <email>",
483 which will be treated as if included in the authors file.
487 Make 'git svn' less verbose. Specify a second time to make it
491 --repack-flags=<flags>::
492 These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches with
495 --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
496 to fetch before repacking. This defaults to repacking every
497 1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
499 --repack-flags are passed directly to 'git repack'.
502 config key: svn.repack
503 config key: svn.repackflags
508 --strategy=<strategy>::
509 These are only used with the 'dcommit' and 'rebase' commands.
511 Passed directly to 'git rebase' when using 'dcommit' if a
512 'git reset' cannot be used (see 'dcommit').
516 This can be used with the 'dcommit', 'rebase', 'branch' and
519 For 'dcommit', print out the series of git arguments that would show
520 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
522 For 'rebase', display the local branch associated with the upstream svn
523 repository associated with the current branch and the URL of svn
524 repository that will be fetched from.
526 For 'branch' and 'tag', display the urls that will be used for copying when
527 creating the branch or tag.
535 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment). This
536 allows the user to override the default refname to fetch from
537 when tracking a single URL. The 'log' and 'dcommit' commands
538 no longer require this switch as an argument.
541 --svn-remote <remote name>::
542 Specify the [svn-remote "<remote name>"] section to use,
543 this allows SVN multiple repositories to be tracked.
547 This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
548 that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
549 started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
550 descended from. This feature is enabled by default, use
551 --no-follow-parent to disable it.
554 config key: svn.followparent
556 CONFIG FILE-ONLY OPTIONS
557 ------------------------
560 svn-remote.<name>.noMetadata::
561 This gets rid of the 'git-svn-id:' lines at the end of every commit.
563 If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, 'git svn' will not
564 be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
565 either. This is fine for one-shot imports.
567 The 'git svn log' command will not work on repositories using
568 this, either. Using this conflicts with the 'useSvmProps'
569 option for (hopefully) obvious reasons.
572 svn-remote.<name>.useSvmProps::
573 This allows 'git svn' to re-map repository URLs and UUIDs from
574 mirrors created using SVN::Mirror (or svk) for metadata.
576 If an SVN revision has a property, "svm:headrev", it is likely
577 that the revision was created by SVN::Mirror (also used by SVK).
578 The property contains a repository UUID and a revision. We want
579 to make it look like we are mirroring the original URL, so
580 introduce a helper function that returns the original identity
581 URL and UUID, and use it when generating metadata in commit
584 svn.useSvnsyncProps::
585 svn-remote.<name>.useSvnsyncprops::
586 Similar to the useSvmProps option; this is for users
587 of the svnsync(1) command distributed with SVN 1.4.x and
590 svn-remote.<name>.rewriteRoot::
591 This allows users to create repositories from alternate
592 URLs. For example, an administrator could run 'git svn' on the
593 server locally (accessing via file://) but wish to distribute
594 the repository with a public http:// or svn:// URL in the
595 metadata so users of it will see the public URL.
597 svn.brokenSymlinkWorkaround::
598 This disables potentially expensive checks to workaround
599 broken symlinks checked into SVN by broken clients. Set this
600 option to "false" if you track a SVN repository with many
601 empty blobs that are not symlinks. This option may be changed
602 while 'git svn' is running and take effect on the next
603 revision fetched. If unset, 'git svn' assumes this option to
606 Since the noMetadata, rewriteRoot, useSvnsyncProps and useSvmProps
607 options all affect the metadata generated and used by 'git svn'; they
608 *must* be set in the configuration file before any history is imported
609 and these settings should never be changed once they are set.
611 Additionally, only one of these four options can be used per-svn-remote
612 section because they affect the 'git-svn-id:' metadata line.
618 Tracking and contributing to the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
620 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
621 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
622 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk
623 # Enter the newly cloned directory:
625 # You should be on master branch, double-check with 'git branch'
627 # Do some work and commit locally to git:
629 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase your local changes against the
630 # latest changes in SVN:
632 # Now commit your changes (that were committed previously using git) to SVN,
633 # as well as automatically updating your working HEAD:
635 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
636 git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
637 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
639 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
640 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
642 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
643 # Clone a repo (like git clone):
644 git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags
645 # View all branches and tags you have cloned:
647 # Create a new branch in SVN
649 # Reset your master to trunk (or any other branch, replacing 'trunk'
650 # with the appropriate name):
651 git reset --hard remotes/trunk
652 # You may only dcommit to one branch/tag/trunk at a time. The usage
653 # of dcommit/rebase/show-ignore should be the same as above.
654 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
656 The initial 'git svn clone' can be quite time-consuming
657 (especially for large Subversion repositories). If multiple
658 people (or one person with multiple machines) want to use
659 'git svn' to interact with the same Subversion repository, you can
660 do the initial 'git svn clone' to a repository on a server and
661 have each person clone that repository with 'git clone':
663 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
664 # Do the initial import on a server
665 ssh server "cd /pub && git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project
666 # Clone locally - make sure the refs/remotes/ space matches the server
670 git remote add origin server:/pub/project
671 git config --add remote.origin.fetch '+refs/remotes/*:refs/remotes/*'
673 # Create a local branch from one of the branches just fetched
674 git checkout -b master FETCH_HEAD
675 # Initialize 'git svn' locally (be sure to use the same URL and -T/-b/-t options as were used on server)
676 git svn init http://svn.example.com/project
677 # Pull the latest changes from Subversion
679 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
681 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
682 ---------------------
684 Originally, 'git svn' recommended that the 'remotes/git-svn' branch be
685 pulled or merged from. This is because the author favored
686 `git svn set-tree B` to commit a single head rather than the
687 `git svn set-tree A..B` notation to commit multiple commits.
689 If you use `git svn set-tree A..B` to commit several diffs and you do
690 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
691 use `git svn rebase` to update your work branch instead of `git pull` or
692 `git merge`. `pull`/`merge` can cause non-linear history to be flattened
693 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
694 previous commits in SVN.
698 Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
699 with Subversion can be cumbersome as a result. While 'git svn' can track
700 copy history (including branches and tags) for repositories adopting a
701 standard layout, it cannot yet represent merge history that happened
702 inside git back upstream to SVN users. Therefore it is advised that
703 users keep history as linear as possible inside git to ease
704 compatibility with SVN (see the CAVEATS section below).
709 For the sake of simplicity and interoperating with a less-capable system
710 (SVN), it is recommended that all 'git svn' users clone, fetch and dcommit
711 directly from the SVN server, and avoid all 'git clone'/'pull'/'merge'/'push'
712 operations between git repositories and branches. The recommended
713 method of exchanging code between git branches and users is
714 'git format-patch' and 'git am', or just 'dcommit'ing to the SVN repository.
716 Running 'git merge' or 'git pull' is NOT recommended on a branch you
717 plan to 'dcommit' from. Subversion does not represent merges in any
718 reasonable or useful fashion; so users using Subversion cannot see any
719 merges you've made. Furthermore, if you merge or pull from a git branch
720 that is a mirror of an SVN branch, 'dcommit' may commit to the wrong
723 'git clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or
724 any 'git svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with
725 using 'git svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done
728 Since 'dcommit' uses rebase internally, any git branches you 'git push' to
729 before 'dcommit' on will require forcing an overwrite of the existing ref
730 on the remote repository. This is generally considered bad practice,
731 see the linkgit:git-push[1] documentation for details.
733 Do not use the --amend option of linkgit:git-commit[1] on a change you've
734 already dcommitted. It is considered bad practice to --amend commits
735 you've already pushed to a remote repository for other users, and
736 dcommit with SVN is analogous to that.
738 When using multiple --branches or --tags, 'git svn' does not automatically
739 handle name collisions (for example, if two branches from different paths have
740 the same name, or if a branch and a tag have the same name). In these cases,
741 use 'init' to set up your git repository then, before your first 'fetch', edit
742 the .git/config file so that the branches and tags are associated with
743 different name spaces. For example:
745 branches = stable/*:refs/remotes/svn/stable/*
746 branches = debug/*:refs/remotes/svn/debug/*
751 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable. Any unhandled
752 properties are logged to $GIT_DIR/svn/<refname>/unhandled.log
754 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
755 tracked when committing to SVN. I do not plan on adding support for
756 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
757 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either). Committing
758 renamed and copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough
759 for git to detect them.
764 'git svn' stores [svn-remote] configuration information in the
765 repository .git/config file. It is similar the core git
766 [remote] sections except 'fetch' keys do not accept glob
767 arguments; but they are instead handled by the 'branches'
768 and 'tags' keys. Since some SVN repositories are oddly
769 configured with multiple projects glob expansions such those
770 listed below are allowed:
772 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
773 [svn-remote "project-a"]
774 url = http://server.org/svn
775 fetch = trunk/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/trunk
776 branches = branches/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/branches/*
777 tags = tags/*/project-a:refs/remotes/project-a/tags/*
778 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
780 Keep in mind that the '\*' (asterisk) wildcard of the local ref
781 (right of the ':') *must* be the farthest right path component;
782 however the remote wildcard may be anywhere as long as it's an
783 independent path component (surrounded by '/' or EOL). This
784 type of configuration is not automatically created by 'init' and
785 should be manually entered with a text-editor or using 'git config'.
789 linkgit:git-rebase[1]
793 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
797 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.