how to use nested branches through git-svn

Question

our svn server has a trunk called Dev and Branches live in

/Branches/Release/1.0/
                 /2.0/
                 /2.3.4/

i cloned it with something like git svn clone -T Dev ... -b Branches ...
when I run git branch 2.1 remotes/Release/2.1 i get:
fatal: Not a valid object name: 'remotes/Release/2.1'.

• How do I refer to the remote branch?
• Do I need to re-clone with different args?

Answer 1

As mentioned in "How do I import svn branches rooted in different directories into git using git-svn?", you need to grab all the nested branch during the initial import:

[svn-remote "svn"]
    url = svn://svnserver/repo
    fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
    branches = branches/*/*:refs/remotes/*
    tags = tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*

That is also described in this thread.
For even more complex SVN branch layout (like branches within trunk!), a modification of the SVN repo might be in order first, before putting in place a git-svn integration.

Since Git1.6, "1.6.x offers deep cloning so that multiple wildcards can be used with the --branches option", as mentioned in "Cloning a Non-Standard Svn Repository with Git-Svn".

git svn clone https://svn.myrepos.com/myproject web-self-serve --trunk=trunk --branches=branches/*/* --prefix=svn/