Using git with svn

Before continuing to read this page, you have two options:

1. If you are happy with using svn, stop reading here.
2. If you would like to experiment with git, continue reading.

This page has been benefited a lot from the following pages:

• Effectively Using Git With Subversion

Install first git and a graphical client (e.g. gitk) for it

sudo apt-get install git gitk

Create the following git-clone-rg-repository.sh script in order to clone the repository

#!/bin/bash
USERNAME=<username>
ERROR_CODE=-1
while [ $ERROR_CODE -ne 0 ]; do
  # repeat until final success
  git svn clone -s https://${USERNAME}@rosegarden.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/rosegarden rosegarden.git
  # it may be possible that the commands ends to an error like 'RA layer request failed:'
  let ERROR_CODE=$?
  # just a small pause before repeating the command
  sleep 1
done
echo Finished.

The clone the repository (takes a long, long time (several, or, even tens of hours) and 662 Mb to fetch all branches) by running the script

bash ./git-clone-rg-repository.sh

If the script still fails, end the loop by pressing Ctrl+C and rerun the script.

(These lines have already been executed once.)

Generate the ignore file with

cd rosegarden.git
git-svn show-ignore > .gitignore

Add the generated file to the local commit

git add .gitignore

and check the status of the repository, if you wish

git status

the following lines will result

# On branch master                                         
# Changes to be committed:                                 
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)            
#                                                          
#       new file:   .gitignore                             
#    

Commit locally the changes

git commit .gitignore

write then the comment

Add .gitignore file as a result of the following command:
 git svn show-ignore > .gitignore

after writing the comment, save the file in editor and finally quit the editor. This will commit locally the changes and the following information will be given

Created commit 4dcfaa7: Add .gitignore file as a result of the following command:
 1 files changed, 181 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)                              
 create mode 100644 .gitignore                                                   

Before committing, you want make sure that you have the latest version of the source

git svn rebase

Invoking the above command

1. reverts temporarily the changes you have made
2. downloads all changes from subversion,
3. applies the downloaded changes from subversion to the previous version downloaded from subversion, and
4. applies again the changes you have made.

The following lines will be printed

First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it...                        
Applying: Add .gitignore file as a result of the following command:              

Suggesting that there were no code to merge and no conflicts to solve, you can then commit back to subversion

git svn dcommit

You will see then the following output

Committing to https://hjunes@rosegarden.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/rosegarden/trunk ...
        A       .gitignore                                                              
Committed r10792                                                                        
        A       .gitignore                                                              
r10792 = 8d3f93067b542f7e770c08a3e84c8fb4bb8fb46f (trunk)                               
No changes between current HEAD and refs/remotes/trunk                                  
Resetting to the latest refs/remotes/trunk                                              

As you can see, the commit has been assigned subversion's version number 10792.

First you check for new updates

git svn rebase

Then you make your changes, compile and test

[... editing ...]
make
./rosegarden

Now lets prepare for the commit. First lets see what changes we are going to commit

git diff

Add files which were changed and commit them locally

git add [file1 file2 ...]
git commit -m "Message..."

Then one more check for probable new set of changes

git svn rebase

No merge was needed in this example.

Finally, submit the changes

git svn dcommit

That was it. The above set of commands is not optimal, but it works.

First you may want to fetch (the code word) the changes in all branches

git svn fetch