191

I have checked out a svn repository using git svn. Now I need to checkout one of the branches and track it. Which is the best way to do it?

markovuksanovic
  • 15,676
  • 13
  • 46
  • 57

1 Answers1

368

Standard Subversion layout

Create a git clone of that includes your Subversion trunk, tags, and branches with

git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project -T trunk -b branches -t tags

The --stdlayout option is a nice shortcut if your Subversion repository uses the typical structure:

git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project --stdlayout

Make your git repository ignore everything the subversion repo does:

git svn show-ignore >> .git/info/exclude

You should now be able to see all the Subversion branches on the git side:

git branch -r

Say the name of the branch in Subversion is waldo. On the git side, you'd run

git checkout -b waldo-svn remotes/waldo

The -svn suffix is to avoid warnings of the form

warning: refname 'waldo' is ambiguous.

To update the git branch waldo-svn, run

git checkout waldo-svn
git svn rebase

Starting from a trunk-only checkout

To add a Subversion branch to a trunk-only clone, modify your git repository's .git/config to contain

[svn-remote "svn-mybranch"]
        url = http://svn.example.com/project/branches/mybranch
        fetch = :refs/remotes/mybranch

You'll need to develop the habit of running

git svn fetch --fetch-all

to update all of what git svn thinks are separate remotes. At this point, you can create and track branches as above. For example, to create a git branch that corresponds to mybranch, run

git checkout -b mybranch-svn remotes/mybranch

For the branches from which you intend to git svn dcommit, keep their histories linear!

Further information

You may also be interested in reading an answer to a related question.

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Greg Bacon
  • 134,834
  • 32
  • 188
  • 245
  • This doesn't work for me, as I have checked out the trunk using git svn clone.. I didn't set branches to be checked out... I think I need to to that firstly. – markovuksanovic Jul 13 '10 at 18:47
  • The fact is that I used git svn clone http://svn.example.com/project/trunk And now I don't know how to set other branches to be tracked without loosing my current repo... – markovuksanovic Jul 14 '10 at 16:17
  • 22
    I would suggest providing a prefix for your svn remotes. (add `--prefix=svn/` when doing `git-svn init` or `git-svn clone`) This will eliminate the need to add a suffix on your local branches. – jasonkarns Jun 13 '11 at 17:07
  • If you have several branches don't forget to do "git checkout master" before taking care of an other branche – Heetola Sep 27 '12 at 17:45
  • If the `show-ignore` errors out, try `git svn show-ignore -i trunk` – Antti Haapala -- Слава Україні Aug 10 '14 at 12:49
  • Also note that even if you use the `--prefix=svn/`, so that your remote branch is called `remotes/svn/my-branch`, the shorter `git checkout -b my-branch` variant will not be able to automatically find & use the remote branch. It's probably due to that `git svn` doesn't write any `[remote ""]` etc. into the `.git/config` file. – Petr Bodnár Feb 08 '20 at 14:48
  • What should be used in place of `http://svn.example.com/project` if the repository is stored on an NFS share, e.g. at `\\MyServer\Share\Project`? – Niko O Sep 21 '21 at 07:40