Using `git-svn` Commands

See the documentation here .

Installing the Package

To be able to use the svn commands in Git install the git-svn package. Git commands can be used locally to stash use branches and remote git-servers.

Useful Commands

Cloning

Full

Cloning a full repository with branches and tags intact. The login-name can be omitted when those are the same as the current one form the system.

git svn clone \
  --revision=20:HEAD \
  --trunk=trunk \
  --branches=branches \
  --tags=tags \
  --username=<login-name> \
  --authors-file=authors.txt \
  "https://svn.scanframe.com/svn/myrepo"

When porting the repository to GitLab the users must correspond. The authors.txt file example.

admin = Administrator <root@example.com>
myself = My Self <me@example.com>
another = Another Developer <another@example.com>

Shallow

In the example only SVN revision 20 and up is cloned locally by using option --revision=20:HEAD and surely will speed up cloning on a large repository. Omitting the option will do a full clone from the start.

Updating from SVN-Server

Fetch

The git svn fetch command updates revisions without affecting the working tree.

Rebase

The git svn rebase command does a fetch and updates the working tree with the latest changes. When no fetch is wanted, add --local or short -l option.

Rebase & Fetch

In Git this would be the pull and translates to git svn rebase --fetch-all --rebase-merges or short git svn rebase --all -p. Add option --dry-run or short -n to try it.

Maybe a git stash or creating a local branch git checkout -b my-new-local-branch before updating from the server could be smart to have a copy to compare with.

Tagging SVN

When adding a tag to an SVN repository it creates a new remote branch for Git locally.

git svn tag v0.0.1 --message "Patching from v0.0.0"

To see the new tag from Git use the git branch -a command and the following could be the result.

* hotfix
  master
  remotes/origin/hotfix
  remotes/origin/tags/v0.0.0
  remotes/origin/tags/v0.0.1
  remotes/origin/trunk

Info

Retrieving info about a local branch and remote when a checkout has been performed use the next command. It will only output the URL from all the information.

git svn info --url

Conflict Solving

Git `dcommit` Error

When having a conflict updating the server with changes already committed in the local Git repository.

Command git svn dcommit results in :

Committing to https://svn.scanframe.com/svn/myrepo ...
        M       trunk/main.cpp

ERROR from SVN:
Item is out of date: File '/trunk/main.cpp' is out of date
W: 0374de056a198fc1783f21a94126b87359b73bc3 and refs/remotes/git-svn differ, using rebase:
:040000 040000 713a7b860c6966456453d36c4091d95691918687 a28843ce399182ed284fc994f449d2d46b0a6517 M      trunk
Current branch master is up to date.
ERROR: Not all changes have been committed into SVN, however the committed
ones (if any) seem to be successfully integrated into the working tree.
Please see the above messages for details.

Command git svn info reports the local version is 21.

Path: .
URL: https://svn.example.com/svn/myrepo
Repository Root: https://svn.example.com/svn/myrepo
Repository UUID: f358270c-8f5c-4b07-8fc0-bf386e674591
Revision: 21
Node Kind: directory
Schedule: normal
Last Changed Author: username
Last Changed Rev: 21
Last Changed Date: 2023-03-10 21:43:06 +0100 (vr, 10 mrt 2023)

Command git svn fetch gets the changes from version 22 in a local Git commit.

M       trunk/main.cpp
r22 = a6d70e4c7cfaf1e3d635cc95c6088eb68b8cd8bf (refs/remotes/git-svn)

Command git diff a6d70e4c7cf shows the changes if there are any.

Command git svn rebase merges the Git commit and after this the git svn info command reports version 22.

If the are conflicts these are to be resolved and a new Git commit is pushed using git svn dcommit.

Using git-svn Commands