Cloning a git-svn repository with svn metadata

Question

I\'ve cloned my main repository with git-svn clone svn://url/trunk --stdlayout. Now I want to clone the repository, with the svn meta data. So that I\'ll be able to

Answer 1

Super-fast simple copy-clone between remote machines

From the docs:

'git clone' does not clone branches under the refs/remotes/ hierarchy or any 'git svn' metadata, or config. So repositories created and managed with using 'git svn' should use 'rsync' for cloning, if cloning is to be done at all.

A copy-clone on the same machine can simply be done using cp -rp , and from a remote machine using scp -rCp .

However, the remote case can be very very slow (10 minutes even on ethernet) because of the large number of tiny files it has to copy.

Using cpio you can avoid this overhead, meaning (depending upon bandwidth) it just takes a few seconds (for a 100Mb git repo on a 50Mbit/s connection).

ssh -C @ "cd ; \
find  -depth -print | cpio -oa" | cpio -imd

For example

ssh -C alex@myhost "cd ~alex/repos/; \
find WonderProject -depth -print | cpio -oa" | cpio -imd

results in a new git repo 'WonderProject' in the current working directory on the local machine.

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(note that the documentation I refer to almost denies the existence of the section @Elazar refers to, so I'm not discrediting @Elazar's excellent solution, but looking for a more concise memorable one)