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I've got a 'git-svn' working tree. I'd like to clone a "pure" git repo off this, and then use git push/pull to move changes between the git-svn tree and the git tree, while also using 'git svn dcommit/rebase' to move changes between the git-svn tree and the SVN repo it's based on.

This seems to work okay as far as moving things back and forth between the git trees using git methods, but as soon as I interact with the SVN repo in the git-svn tree, things get wonky -- either I get errors when pushing or pulling between the git trees, or I lose commits in the git-svn tree, or other oddness.

Is this type of SVN <-> git-svn <-> git workflow supported at all or should I just quit barking up this tree?

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6 Answers 6

Reset to default
10

I have a bridge setup for some of my projects, but it's only one-way from git to svn (providing a public readonly SVN mirror of our git master branch). However, since it works fine it might help you or point you in the right direction in your two-way scenario anyway, as I assume it's git->svn that makes problems, not svn->git:

My one-way scenario: Existing git repository at github, need a readonly svn mirror of the git master branch

  • Create and initialize the target subversion repository on the Server:

    svnadmin create svnrepo
mkdir trunk
svn import trunk svn://yoursvnserver/svnrepo
rmdir -rf trunk

  • Create a mixed Git-Svn checkout and initialize subversion repository

    git svn clone svn://yoursvnserver/svnrepo/trunk
cd trunk
git remote add github git://github.com/yourname/repo.git
git fetch github
git branch tmp $(cat .git/refs/remotes/github/master)
git tag -a -m "Last fetch" last tmp
INIT_COMMIT=$(git log tmp --pretty=format:%H | tail -1)
git checkout $INIT_COMMIT .
git commit -C $INIT_COMMIT
git rebase master tmp
git branch -M tmp master
git svn dcommit --rmdir --find-copies-harder

  • Update the mirror

    git fetch github
git branch tmp $(cat .git/refs/remotes/github/master)
git tag -a -m "Last fetch" newlast tmp
git rebase --onto master last tmp
git branch -M tmp master
git svn dcommit --rmdir --find-copies-harder
mv .git/refs/tags/newlast .git/refs/tags/last

This two articles from googlecode might help as well:

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1 Comment

I have voted this answer up, since I think that it is generally useful, however it is based on a flawed premise. The problem is almost certainly not the git->svn, nor the svn->git, at least not directly. Rather the git-svn->git step will be the problem, since the history is being rewritten by the svn->git, which means that the two repositories will no longer have the same history, and life will become confusing.
9

One thing that may be causing you trouble is that git svn dcommit will rewrite all the commits it sends to SVN- at least if it's configured to add the SVN metadata note to the bottom of the commit messages. So you will have to adopt a flow where any repositories taking commits from your git-svn workspace rebase against it, losing all the merge history which can't be stored in SVN anyway.

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voted up, since this is likely the real cause of the issue, at least based on my understanding of the problem.
5

Based on what I've seen, this workflow isn't supported with git-svn, and won't be, due to the way SVN represents merges.

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So this question sits here with one answer for almost a year, and I finally add something so I have something reasonably correct to accept (no offense to Christoph), and then two people pop out of the woodwork to offer versions of the same thing I posted. Awesome. </snark>
3

As I've often said on #git:

git-svn is like a flying car. Everybody wants a flying car, until they realize a flying car is pretty bad as either a car or a plane.

The real solution is to get away from SVN entirely, as quickly as possible. Use git-svn for a one-time migrate, then move everyone over. Git is not that hard to learn.

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Your real solution presumes that the choice of moving away from Subversion is available. Short of "move to a new job", sometimes it isn't.
2

If you're able to install custom hooks into Subversion repository, consider using SubGit.

SubGit is a server-side solution that automatically synchronizes SVN and Git repositories. In order to install SubGit do the following:

    $ subgit configure $SVN_REPOS
    $ # Adjust $SVN_REPOS/conf/subgit.conf 
    $ #     to specify your branches and tags
    $ # Adjust $SVN_REPOS/conf/authors.txt 
    $ #     to introduce svn author names to their git counterparts
    $ subgit install $SVN_REPOS
    $ ...
    $ INSTALLATION SUCCESSFUL

At this moment SubGit has installed hooks that are triggered by every svn commit and git push. This way SubGit converts any incoming modification.

See also comparison with git-svn.

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1

Using git and git-svn 1.7.1, it seems that the test I just did seems to work just fine.

git svn init [url]
git svn fetch

you must then create and checkout a dummy branch to be able to push to the master branch.

git checkout -b dummy

Then you can clone it (git clone ...) into another pure git repo, modify it, commit it (git commit) then push (git push) into the git-svn repo.

back to the git svn repo:

git checkout master
git svn dcommit

will commit all git commits that have been pushed.

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This does not address the question. You do not have a separate git dir when you do as you write.

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