git svn

Workable if your team is mostly on Git but origin is svn.

🎯 What & why

A two-way bridge between Git and Subversion. Lets you work locally in Git while the canonical history still lives in an svn server.

🧠 Mental model

git svn fetches svn revisions as Git commits (each tagged with a git-svn-id: trailer) and dcommits Git commits back as new svn revisions. The trailer is how it tracks correspondence; never edit it.

🛠️ Synopsis

git svn <subcommand> [<options>]

Typical bootstrap:
  git svn clone --stdlayout https://svn.example.org/repo myrepo
  cd myrepo
  # ... hack, commit locally ...
  git svn rebase
  git svn dcommit

🎚️ Switches & options

Flag	What it does
`--stdlayout`	Assume the standard svn trunk/branches/tags layout. Shorthand for -T trunk -b branches -t tags.
`-T <path>, -b <path>, -t <path>`	Custom paths for trunk/branches/tags when --stdlayout doesn't fit.
`--username=<user>`	svn auth username. Password comes from svn's own credential cache.
`--ignore-paths=<regex>`	Skip svn paths matching this regex (e.g. huge vendor dirs).
`--rewrite-root=<url>`	Record a different svn URL in the git-svn-id: trailer. Useful when the server moves.

📦 Subcommands

clone — Initial import of an svn repo into a new Git repo.

git svn clone --stdlayout https://svn.example.org/repo

init — Set up git-svn metadata in an existing Git repo (advanced).

git svn init --stdlayout https://svn.example.org/repo

fetch — Pull new svn revisions down as Git commits.

git svn fetch

rebase — fetch + rebase your local commits on top of new svn HEAD.

git svn rebase

dcommit — Replay each unpushed Git commit as a new svn revision.

git svn dcommit

branch — Create an svn branch (svn copy) from your current commit.

git svn branch my-feature

tag — Create an svn tag (svn copy into tags/).

git svn tag v1.2.3

log — Show history with svn revision numbers shown.

git svn log

info — Print svn-style info (URL, revision, UUID) for the working tree.

git svn info

💡 Use cases

Your team uses Git but the company mandates svn for the canonical repo.
Migrating an svn project to Git while keeping svn writeable during transition.
Reading-only mirror of an upstream svn project for local development.
Cherry-picking a fix from a git fork back to an svn upstream.

🧪 Examples

Initial clone of standard layout

git svn clone --stdlayout --username=alice https://svn.example.org/repo myrepo

Sync down then push back

git svn rebase && git svn dcommit

Skip giant binaries

git svn clone --stdlayout --ignore-paths='^vendor/blobs' https://svn.example.org/repo

Inspect svn provenance

git svn info

🎓 Recommendations

Always use 'git svn rebase' (not git pull) before dcommit; merges become unholy in the svn world.
Keep history linear on branches that will dcommit. svn has no merge commits worth speaking of.
For one-shot migrations, clone once and stop using git svn. The bridge is for ongoing dual-life repos.

🪤 Common pitfalls

Never edit or strip the 'git-svn-id:' trailer. git svn uses it to map commits to svn revisions; lose it, lose your bridge.
dcommit rewrites your local commits (new SHAs with the trailer added). Don't push to other Git remotes between commit and dcommit.
Initial clone of a large svn repo is slow and bandwidth-hungry. Plan for hours, not minutes.

🔗 Related modules

📝 Quiz

Hit each option, then Check answers. Score is recorded; Next is always open.