How do I migrate an SVN repository with history to a new Git repository?

Question

I read the Git manual, FAQ, Git - SVN crash course, etc. and they all explain this and that, but nowhere can you find a simple instruction like:

SVN repository in: <

Answer 1

We can use git svn clone commands as below.

• svn log -q | awk -F '|' '/^r/ {sub("^ ", "", $2); sub(" $", "", $2); print $2" = "$2" <"$2">"}' | sort -u > authors.txt

Above command will create authors file from SVN commits.

• svn log --stop-on-copy

Above command will give you first revision number when your SVN project got created.

• git svn clone -r:HEAD --no-minimize-url --stdlayout --no-metadata --authors-file authors.txt

Above command will create the Git repository in local.

Problem is that it won't convert branches and tags to push. You will have to do them manually. For example below for branches:

$ git remote add origin https://github.com/pankaj0323/JDProjects.git
$ git branch -a
* master
  remotes/origin/MyDevBranch
  remotes/origin/tags/MyDevBranch-1.0
  remotes/origin/trunk
$$ git checkout -b MyDevBranch origin/MyDevBranch
Branch MyDevBranch set up to track remote branch MyDevBranch from origin.
Switched to a new branch 'MyDevBranch'
$ git branch -a
* MyDevBranch
  master
  remotes/origin/MyDevBranch
  remotes/origin/tags/MyDevBranch-1.0
  remotes/origin/trunk
$

For tags:

$git checkout origin/tags/MyDevBranch-1.0
Note: checking out 'origin/tags/MyDevBranch-1.0'.
You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental
changes and commit them, and you can discard any commits you make in this
state without impacting any branches by performing another checkout.

If you want to create a new branch to retain commits you create, you may
do so (now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example:

  git checkout -b new_branch_name

HEAD is now at 3041d81... Creating a tag
$ git branch -a
* (detached from origin/tags/MyDevBranch-1.0)
  MyDevBranch
  master
  remotes/origin/MyDevBranch
  remotes/origin/tags/MyDevBranch-1.0
  remotes/origin/trunk
$ git tag -a MyDevBranch-1.0 -m "creating tag"
$git tag
MyDevBranch-1.0
$

Now push master, branches and tags to remote git repository.

$ git push origin master MyDevBranch MyDevBranch-1.0
Counting objects: 14, done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (11/11), done.
Writing objects: 100% (14/14), 2.28 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
Total 14 (delta 3), reused 0 (delta 0)
To https://github.com/pankaj0323/JDProjects.git
 * [new branch]      master -> master
 * [new branch]      MyDevBranch -> MyDevBranch
 * [new tag]         MyDevBranch-1.0 -> MyDevBranch-1.0
$

svn2git utility

svn2git utility removes manual efforts with branches and tags.

Install it using command sudo gem install svn2git. After that run below command.

• $ svn2git --authors authors.txt --revision

Now you can list the branches, tags and push them easily.

$ git remote add origin https://github.com/pankaj0323/JDProjects.git
$ git branch -a
  MyDevBranch
* master
  remotes/svn/MyDevBranch
  remotes/svn/trunk
$ git tag
  MyDevBranch-1.0
$ git push origin master MyDevBranch MyDevBranch-1.0

Imagine you have 20 branches and tags, obviously svn2git will save you a lot of time and that's why I like it better than native commands. It's a nice wrapper around native git svn clone command.

For a complete example, refer my blog entry.