Documentation/git-svn.txt

   1 git-svn(1)
   2 ==========
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-svn - Bidirectional operation between a single Subversion branch and git
   7
   8 SYNOPSIS
   9 --------
  10 'git-svn' <command> [options] [arguments]
  11
  12 DESCRIPTION
  13 -----------
  14 git-svn is a simple conduit for changesets between Subversion and git.
  15 It is not to be confused with gitlink:git-svnimport[1], which is
  16 read-only and geared towards tracking multiple branches.
  17
  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; but it cannot (yet) automatically detect new
  23 branches and tags like git-svnimport does.
  24
  25 git-svn is especially useful when it comes to tracking repositories
  26 not organized in the way Subversion developers recommend (trunk,
  27 branches, tags directories).
  28
  29 COMMANDS
  30 --------
  31 --
  32
  33 'init'::
  34         Creates an empty git repository with additional metadata
  35         directories for git-svn.  The Subversion URL must be specified
  36         as a command-line argument.  Optionally, the target directory
  37         to operate on can be specified as a second argument.  Normally
  38         this command initializes the current directory.
  39
  40 'fetch'::
  41
  42 Fetch unfetched revisions from the Subversion URL we are
  43 tracking.  refs/remotes/git-svn will be updated to the
  44 latest revision.
  45
  46 Note: You should never attempt to modify the remotes/git-svn
  47 branch outside of git-svn.  Instead, create a branch from
  48 remotes/git-svn and work on that branch.  Use the 'dcommit'
  49 command (see below) to write git commits back to
  50 remotes/git-svn.
  51
  52 'dcommit'::
  53         Commit each diff from a specified head directly to the SVN
  54         repository, and then rebase or reset (depending on whether or
  55         not there is a diff between SVN and head).  This will create
  56         a revision in SVN for each commit in git.
  57         It is recommended that you run git-svn fetch and rebase (not
  58         pull or merge) your commits against the latest changes in the
  59         SVN repository.
  60         An optional command-line argument may be specified as an
  61         alternative to HEAD.
  62         This is advantageous over 'set-tree' (below) because it produces
  63         cleaner, more linear history.
  64
  65 'log'::
  66         This should make it easy to look up svn log messages when svn
  67         users refer to -r/--revision numbers.
  68
  69         The following features from `svn log' are supported:
  70
  71         --revision=<n>[:<n>] - is supported, non-numeric args are not:
  72                                HEAD, NEXT, BASE, PREV, etc ...
  73         -v/--verbose         - it's not completely compatible with
  74                                the --verbose output in svn log, but
  75                                reasonably close.
  76         --limit=<n>          - is NOT the same as --max-count,
  77                                doesn't count merged/excluded commits
  78         --incremental        - supported
  79
  80         New features:
  81
  82         --show-commit        - shows the git commit sha1, as well
  83         --oneline            - our version of --pretty=oneline
  84
  85         Any other arguments are passed directly to `git log'
  86
  87 'set-tree'::
  88         You should consider using 'dcommit' instead of this command.
  89         Commit specified commit or tree objects to SVN.  This relies on
  90         your imported fetch data being up-to-date.  This makes
  91         absolutely no attempts to do patching when committing to SVN, it
  92         simply overwrites files with those specified in the tree or
  93         commit.  All merging is assumed to have taken place
  94         independently of git-svn functions.
  95
  96 'show-ignore'::
  97         Recursively finds and lists the svn:ignore property on
  98         directories.  The output is suitable for appending to
  99         the $GIT_DIR/info/exclude file.
 100
 101 'commit-diff'::
 102         Commits the diff of two tree-ish arguments from the
 103         command-line.  This command is intended for interoperability with
 104         git-svnimport and does not rely on being inside an git-svn
 105         init-ed repository.  This command takes three arguments, (a) the
 106         original tree to diff against, (b) the new tree result, (c) the
 107         URL of the target Subversion repository.  The final argument
 108         (URL) may be omitted if you are working from a git-svn-aware
 109         repository (that has been init-ed with git-svn).
 110         The -r<revision> option is required for this.
 111
 112 'graft-branches'::
 113         This command attempts to detect merges/branches from already
 114         imported history.  Techniques used currently include regexes,
 115         file copies, and tree-matches).  This command generates (or
 116         modifies) the $GIT_DIR/info/grafts file.  This command is
 117         considered experimental, and inherently flawed because
 118         merge-tracking in SVN is inherently flawed and inconsistent
 119         across different repositories.
 120
 121 'multi-init'::
 122         This command supports git-svnimport-like command-line syntax for
 123         importing repositories that are laid out as recommended by the
 124         SVN folks.  This is a bit more tolerant than the git-svnimport
 125         command-line syntax and doesn't require the user to figure out
 126         where the repository URL ends and where the repository path
 127         begins.
 128
 129 -T<trunk_subdir>::
 130 --trunk=<trunk_subdir>::
 131 -t<tags_subdir>::
 132 --tags=<tags_subdir>::
 133 -b<branches_subdir>::
 134 --branches=<branches_subdir>::
 135         These are the command-line options for multi-init.  Each of
 136         these flags can point to a relative repository path
 137         (--tags=project/tags') or a full url
 138         (--tags=https://foo.org/project/tags)
 139
 140 --prefix=<prefix>
 141         This allows one to specify a prefix which is prepended to the
 142         names of remotes.  The prefix does not automatically include a
 143         trailing slash, so be sure you include one in the argument if
 144         that is what you want.  This is useful if you wish to track
 145         multiple projects that share a common repository.
 146
 147 'multi-fetch'::
 148         This runs fetch on all known SVN branches we're tracking.  This
 149         will NOT discover new branches (unlike git-svnimport), so
 150         multi-init will need to be re-run (it's idempotent).
 151
 152 --
 153
 154 OPTIONS
 155 -------
 156 --
 157
 158 --shared::
 159 --template=<template_directory>::
 160         Only used with the 'init' command.
 161         These are passed directly to gitlink:git-init[1].
 162
 163 -r <ARG>::
 164 --revision <ARG>::
 165
 166 Only used with the 'fetch' command.
 167
 168 Takes any valid -r<argument> svn would accept and passes it
 169 directly to svn. -r<ARG1>:<ARG2> ranges and "{" DATE "}" syntax
 170 is also supported.  This is passed directly to svn, see svn
 171 documentation for more details.
 172
 173 This can allow you to make partial mirrors when running fetch.
 174
 175 -::
 176 --stdin::
 177
 178 Only used with the 'set-tree' command.
 179
 180 Read a list of commits from stdin and commit them in reverse
 181 order.  Only the leading sha1 is read from each line, so
 182 git-rev-list --pretty=oneline output can be used.
 183
 184 --rmdir::
 185
 186 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
 187
 188 Remove directories from the SVN tree if there are no files left
 189 behind.  SVN can version empty directories, and they are not
 190 removed by default if there are no files left in them.  git
 191 cannot version empty directories.  Enabling this flag will make
 192 the commit to SVN act like git.
 193
 194 config key: svn.rmdir
 195
 196 -e::
 197 --edit::
 198
 199 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
 200
 201 Edit the commit message before committing to SVN.  This is off by
 202 default for objects that are commits, and forced on when committing
 203 tree objects.
 204
 205 config key: svn.edit
 206
 207 -l<num>::
 208 --find-copies-harder::
 209
 210 Only used with the 'dcommit', 'set-tree' and 'commit-diff' commands.
 211
 212 They are both passed directly to git-diff-tree see
 213 gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] for more information.
 214
 215 [verse]
 216 config key: svn.l
 217 config key: svn.findcopiesharder
 218
 219 -A<filename>::
 220 --authors-file=<filename>::
 221
 222 Syntax is compatible with the files used by git-svnimport and
 223 git-cvsimport:
 224
 225 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 226         loginname = Joe User <user@example.com>
 227 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 228
 229 If this option is specified and git-svn encounters an SVN
 230 committer name that does not exist in the authors-file, git-svn
 231 will abort operation. The user will then have to add the
 232 appropriate entry.  Re-running the previous git-svn command
 233 after the authors-file is modified should continue operation.
 234
 235 config key: svn.authorsfile
 236
 237 -q::
 238 --quiet::
 239         Make git-svn less verbose.
 240
 241 --repack[=<n>]::
 242 --repack-flags=<flags>
 243         These should help keep disk usage sane for large fetches
 244         with many revisions.
 245
 246         --repack takes an optional argument for the number of revisions
 247         to fetch before repacking.  This defaults to repacking every
 248         1000 commits fetched if no argument is specified.
 249
 250         --repack-flags are passed directly to gitlink:git-repack[1].
 251
 252 config key: svn.repack
 253 config key: svn.repackflags
 254
 255 -m::
 256 --merge::
 257 -s<strategy>::
 258 --strategy=<strategy>::
 259
 260 These are only used with the 'dcommit' command.
 261
 262 Passed directly to git-rebase when using 'dcommit' if a
 263 'git-reset' cannot be used (see dcommit).
 264
 265 -n::
 266 --dry-run::
 267
 268 This is only used with the 'dcommit' command.
 269
 270 Print out the series of git arguments that would show
 271 which diffs would be committed to SVN.
 272
 273 --
 274
 275 ADVANCED OPTIONS
 276 ----------------
 277 --
 278
 279 -b<refname>::
 280 --branch <refname>::
 281 Used with 'fetch', 'dcommit' or 'set-tree'.
 282
 283 This can be used to join arbitrary git branches to remotes/git-svn
 284 on new commits where the tree object is equivalent.
 285
 286 When used with different GIT_SVN_ID values, tags and branches in
 287 SVN can be tracked this way, as can some merges where the heads
 288 end up having completely equivalent content.  This can even be
 289 used to track branches across multiple SVN _repositories_.
 290
 291 This option may be specified multiple times, once for each
 292 branch.
 293
 294 config key: svn.branch
 295
 296 -i<GIT_SVN_ID>::
 297 --id <GIT_SVN_ID>::
 298
 299 This sets GIT_SVN_ID (instead of using the environment).  See the
 300 section on
 301 '<<tracking-multiple-repos,Tracking Multiple Repositories or Branches>>'
 302 for more information on using GIT_SVN_ID.
 303
 304 --follow-parent::
 305         This is especially helpful when we're tracking a directory
 306         that has been moved around within the repository, or if we
 307         started tracking a branch and never tracked the trunk it was
 308         descended from.
 309
 310 config key: svn.followparent
 311
 312 --no-metadata::
 313         This gets rid of the git-svn-id: lines at the end of every commit.
 314
 315         If you lose your .git/svn/git-svn/.rev_db file, git-svn will not
 316         be able to rebuild it and you won't be able to fetch again,
 317         either.  This is fine for one-shot imports.
 318
 319         The 'git-svn log' command will not work on repositories using this,
 320         either.
 321
 322 config key: svn.nometadata
 323
 324 --
 325
 326 Basic Examples
 327 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 328
 329 Tracking and contributing to a the trunk of a Subversion-managed project:
 330
 331 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 332 # Initialize a repo (like git init):
 333         git-svn init http://svn.foo.org/project/trunk
 334 # Fetch remote revisions:
 335         git-svn fetch
 336 # Create your own branch to hack on:
 337         git checkout -b my-branch remotes/git-svn
 338 # Do some work, and then commit your new changes to SVN, as well as
 339 # automatically updating your working HEAD:
 340         git-svn dcommit
 341 # Something is committed to SVN, rebase the latest into your branch:
 342         git-svn fetch && git rebase remotes/git-svn
 343 # Append svn:ignore settings to the default git exclude file:
 344         git-svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude
 345 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 346
 347 Tracking and contributing to an entire Subversion-managed project
 348 (complete with a trunk, tags and branches):
 349 See also:
 350 '<<tracking-multiple-repos,Tracking Multiple Repositories or Branches>>'
 351
 352 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 353 # Initialize a repo (like git init):
 354         git-svn multi-init http://svn.foo.org/project \
 355                 -T trunk -b branches -t tags
 356 # Fetch remote revisions:
 357         git-svn multi-fetch
 358 # Create your own branch of trunk to hack on:
 359         git checkout -b my-trunk remotes/trunk
 360 # Do some work, and then commit your new changes to SVN, as well as
 361 # automatically updating your working HEAD:
 362         git-svn dcommit -i trunk
 363 # Something has been committed to trunk, rebase the latest into your branch:
 364         git-svn multi-fetch && git rebase remotes/trunk
 365 # Append svn:ignore settings of trunk to the default git exclude file:
 366         git-svn show-ignore -i trunk >> .git/info/exclude
 367 # Check for new branches and tags (no arguments are needed):
 368         git-svn multi-init
 369 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 370
 371 REBASE VS. PULL/MERGE
 372 ---------------------
 373
 374 Originally, git-svn recommended that the remotes/git-svn branch be
 375 pulled or merged from.  This is because the author favored
 376 'git-svn set-tree B' to commit a single head rather than the
 377 'git-svn set-tree A..B' notation to commit multiple commits.
 378
 379 If you use 'git-svn set-tree A..B' to commit several diffs and you do
 380 not have the latest remotes/git-svn merged into my-branch, you should
 381 use 'git rebase' to update your work branch instead of 'git pull' or
 382 'git merge'.  'pull/merge' can cause non-linear history to be flattened
 383 when committing into SVN, which can lead to merge commits reversing
 384 previous commits in SVN.
 385
 386 DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
 387 -----------------
 388 Merge tracking in Subversion is lacking and doing branched development
 389 with Subversion is cumbersome as a result.  git-svn does not do
 390 automated merge/branch tracking by default and leaves it entirely up to
 391 the user on the git side.
 392
 393 [[tracking-multiple-repos]]
 394 TRACKING MULTIPLE REPOSITORIES OR BRANCHES
 395 ------------------------------------------
 396 Because git-svn does not care about relationships between different
 397 branches or directories in a Subversion repository, git-svn has a simple
 398 hack to allow it to track an arbitrary number of related _or_ unrelated
 399 SVN repositories via one git repository.  Simply use the --id/-i flag or
 400 set the GIT_SVN_ID environment variable to a name other other than
 401 "git-svn" (the default) and git-svn will ignore the contents of the
 402 $GIT_DIR/svn/git-svn directory and instead do all of its work in
 403 $GIT_DIR/svn/$GIT_SVN_ID for that invocation.  The interface branch will
 404 be remotes/$GIT_SVN_ID, instead of remotes/git-svn.  Any
 405 remotes/$GIT_SVN_ID branch should never be modified by the user outside
 406 of git-svn commands.
 407
 408 If you're tracking a directory that has moved, or otherwise been
 409 branched or tagged off of another directory in the repository and you
 410 care about the full history of the project, then you can use
 411 the --follow-parent option.
 412
 413 ------------------------------------------------
 414         git-svn fetch --follow-parent
 415 ------------------------------------------------
 416
 417 BUGS
 418 ----
 419
 420 We ignore all SVN properties except svn:executable.  Too difficult to
 421 map them since we rely heavily on git write-tree being _exactly_ the
 422 same on both the SVN and git working trees and I prefer not to clutter
 423 working trees with metadata files.
 424
 425 Renamed and copied directories are not detected by git and hence not
 426 tracked when committing to SVN.  I do not plan on adding support for
 427 this as it's quite difficult and time-consuming to get working for all
 428 the possible corner cases (git doesn't do it, either).  Renamed and
 429 copied files are fully supported if they're similar enough for git to
 430 detect them.
 431
 432 SEE ALSO
 433 --------
 434 gitlink:git-rebase[1]
 435
 436 Author
 437 ------
 438 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.
 439
 440 Documentation
 441 -------------
 442 Written by Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>.