I want to convert a Subversion repository sub-directory (denoted by module
here) into a git repository with full history. There are many svn copy
opera
I recently migrated a long list of SVN repositories into Git and towards the end ran into this problem. Our SVN structure was pretty sloppy, so I had to use --no-minimize-url
quite a bit. Typically, I'd run a command like:
$ git svn clone http://[url]/svn/[repo]/[path-to-code] \
-s --no-minimize-url \
-A authors.txt
The last few migrations I ran had a space in the URL. I don't know if it was the space or something else, but I was getting the same error you were seeing. I didn't want to get into modifying config files if I didn't have to, and luckily I ended up finding a solution. I ended up skipping the -s --no-minimize-url
options in favor of explicitly declaring the paths differently.
$ git svn clone http://[url]/svn/[repo]/ \
--trunk="/[path-to-code]/trunk" \
--branches="/[path-to-code]/branches" \
--tags="/[path-to-code]/tags" \
-A authors.txt \
--follow-parent
--follow-parent
from your example, but I'm also not sure that it made any difference.""
around the trunk/branches/tags paths.Not a full answer, but perhaps the snippet you are missing (I am interested in migrating as well, so I have found that part of the puzzle).
When you look at the documentation of git-svn, you will find the following option:
--no-minimize-url
When tracking multiple directories (using --stdlayout, --branches, or --tags options), git svn will attempt to connect to the root (or highest allowed level) of the Subversion repository. This default allows better tracking of history if entire projects are moved within a repository, but may cause issues on repositories where read access restrictions are in place. Passing --no-minimize-url will allow git svn to accept URLs as-is without attempting to connect to a higher level directory. This option is off by default when only one URL/branch is tracked (it would do little good).
This fits to the situation you have, so that git svn
does not try to read a higher level of the directory tree (which will be blocked).
At least you could give it a try ...
[I realize this should be a comment on Jeff Fairley's answer but I don't have the reputation to post it as such. Since the original poster did ask for confirmation the approach worked I'm providing it as an answer.]
I can confirm that his solution works for the problem he (and I) ran into caused by spaces in the path. I had the same requirements (clone a single module from an SVN repo with history) except that I had no branches or tags to worry about whatsoever.
I tried several permutations of providing the full path to the module in the URL (e.g. using --no-minimise-url
, specifying --trunk
or --stdlayout
) with no success. For me the result was usually a git repo with a full history log but no files whatsoever. This may or may not be the same problem FooF encountered (no read access in SVN) but it was certainly caused by having a space in the path to my module.
Trying again with only the SVN repo base as the URL and the path to my module in --trunk
worked flawlessly. Afterwards my .git/config looks like this:
[core]
repositoryformatversion = 0
filemode = false
bare = false
loggallrefupdates = true
symlinks = false
ignorecase = true
hideDotFiles = dotGitOnly
[svn-remote "svn"]
url = https://[url]/svn/[repo]
fetch = trunk/[path-to-code]:refs/remotes/trunk
[svn]
authorsfile = ~/working/authors-transform.txt
and subsequent git
and git svn
commands are throwing no errors at all. Thanks Jeff!
[This is the original poster speaking writing. The below used to be update to the question, but as it solved the case - albeit unsatisfactorily to my taste - I will post it as an answer lacking a better solution.]
I do not like this, but I ended up doing clone
splitted into init
and fetch
with some editing of .git/config
between (repopath=apps/module
, gitreponame=module
):
$ git svn init--username=mysvnusername \
--branches=/src/branches/ \
--trunk=/src/trunk/${repopath} \
--tags=/src/tags/ \
http://svnserver/svn/src ${gitreponame}
$ cd ${gitreponame}
$ sed -i.bak "s|*:|*/${repopath}:|" .git/config
$ git svn fetch --authors-file=../authors.txt --follow-parent
I could not find how to specify the branches for subdirectory migration with git svn
- hence the editing of the .git/config
file. The following unified diff illustrates the effect of the editing with sed
:
[svn-remote "svn"]
url = http://svnserver/svn/src
fetch = trunk/apps/module:refs/remotes/trunk
- branches = branches/*:refs/remotes/*
- tags = tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*
+ branches = branches/*/apps/module:refs/remotes/*
+ tags = tags/*/apps/module:refs/remotes/tags/*
As the actual desired HEAD
was in an another URL, I ended just adding another [svn-remote]
section to .git/config
:
+ [svn-remote "svn-newest"]
+ url = http://svnserver/svn/src
+ fetch = branches/x/y/apps/module:refs/remotes/trunk
+ branches = branches/*/apps/module:refs/remotes/*
+ tags = tags/*/apps/module:refs/remotes/tags/*
(in real life experiment I also added here some branches that were not picked up by the first fetch), and fetching again:
$ git svn fetch --authors-file=../authors.txt --follow-parent svn-newest
This way I ended having the full Subversion history migrated to the newly generated git repository.
Note-1 : I probably could have just told my "trunk" to be branches/x/y/apps/module
as the meaning of "trunk" for git-svn
seems to basically have the meaning of git HEAD
(Subversion concepts of trunk, branches, tags have no deep technical basis, they are matter of socially agreed convention).
Note-2 : probably --follow-parent
is not required for git svn fetch
, but I have no way of knowing or experimenting now.
Note-3 : While earlier reading of svn2git which seems to be a wrapper over git-svn
I failed to see the motivation, but seeing the messy presentation of tags I kind of get it now. I would try svn2git
next time if I had to try doing this again.
P.S. This is rather awkward way of doing the operation. Secondary problem here (why the editing of the .git/config
by external was required) seems to be that
git svn
implementation strictly assumes the social Subversion conventions to be followed to a degree (which is not possible if you just want to migrate a subdirectory and not the whole Subversion repository).TODO: It would be helpful to have the format of the .git/config
file explained here as it relates to git svn
- for example I have now (after one and half year of writing the original answer) no idea what the [svn-remote "svn-newest"]
means above. Also the approach could be automated by writing a script, but this is beyond my current interest in the problem and I do not have access to the original Subversion repository or replication of the issue.
I ran into this problem when I had identically-named subdirectories within branches or tags.
For example, I had tags candidates/1.0.0
and releases/1.0.0
, and this caused the documented error because subdirectory 1.0.0
appears within both candidates
and releases
.
Per git-svn docs:
When using multiple --branches or --tags, git svn does not automatically handle name collisions (for example, if two branches from different paths have the same name, or if a branch and a tag have the same name). In these cases, use init to set up your Git repository then, before your first fetch, edit the $GIT_DIR/config file so that the branches and tags are associated with different name spaces.
So while the following command failed due to similarly named candidates
and releases
tags:
git svn clone --authors-file=../authors.txt --no-metadata \
--trunk=/trunk --branches=/branches --tags=/candidates \
--tags=/releases --tags=/tags -r 100:HEAD \
--prefix=origin/ \
svn://example.com:3692/my-repos/path/to/project/
the following sequence of commands did work:
git svn init --no-metadata \
--trunk=/trunk --branches=/branches --tags=/tags \
--prefix=origin/ \
'svn://example.com:3692/my-repos/path/to/project/'
git config --add svn-remote.svn.tags \
'path/to/project/candidates/*:refs/remotes/origin/tags/Candidates/*'
git config --add svn-remote.svn.tags \
'path/to/project/releases/*:refs/remotes/origin/tags/Releases/*'
git svn fetch --authors-file=../authors.txt -r100:HEAD
Note that this only worked because there were no other conflicts within branches
and tags
. If there were, I would have had to resolve them similarly.
After successfully cloning the SVN repository, I then executed the following steps in order to: turn SVN tags into GIT tags; turn trunk
into master
; turn other references into branches; and relocate remote paths:
# Make tags into true tags
cp -Rf .git/refs/remotes/origin/tags/* .git/refs/tags/
rm -Rf .git/refs/remotes/origin/tags
# Make other references into branches
cp -Rf .git/refs/remotes/origin/* .git/refs/heads/
rm -Rf .git/refs/remotes/origin
cp -Rf .git/refs/remotes/* .git/refs/heads/ # May be missing; that's okay
rm -Rf .git/refs/remotes
# Change 'trunk' to 'master'
git checkout trunk
git branch -d master
git branch -m trunk master