Can Git-svn be used on large, branched repositories?

Question

I am trying to use Git as a frontend to a SVN repository in order to be able to use Git\'s nice features like simple branching, stashing etc.

The problem is that the SVN

Answer 1

You're using it correctly: the initial import of a Subversion repository with lots of history will be very slow.

The bad news is because Subversion's branches and tags are only directories, git-svn is forced to take the pessimistic route of reading each branch from its head all the way back to the first revision. Yes, if you've been disciplined in your use of Subversion, this will result in many fetches of the same data, but real-world usage patterns make this an unlikely case.

Start the clone in the evening and come back to a nice git repo the next morning!

Once you've cloned, git svn fetch even warns you:

This may take a while on large repositories

Subversion is simple and stupid, so git has to take things slowly.