[ANNOUNCE] git-as-svn: subversion frontend server for git repository

Some time ago I complained [1] about troubles using Git on a project with high ratio of non-programmers.

Since then, a conclusion was made: Git is too complex. While Git provides many nice advanced stuff, its simplest workflow isn't simple enough.

So we examined other options:

  * Splitting project in two repos (Git + SVN). It was
    thought to be the worst idea because we lost commit
    atomicity

  * Use GitHub SVN integration [2]. Rejected due to security
    considerations: our closed-source project isn't allowed to be
    hosted outside.

  * Use GitHub Enterprise: rejected due to pricing

  * Use SubGit [3]: rejected because of its architecture.

Then, a lost'n'forgotten git_svn_server [4] was found. After playing with it, we found out that its approach can work, though several decisions (Python and extensive forking of `git`) made it very slow.

So we thought "we're programmers, after all".

And that's when *git-as-svn* [5] was born. It is a daemon that sits on top of Git repository and talks svn:// protocol.

Features supported:

  * checkout/update

  * log

  * blame
                                                                                                                                                             
  * commit (!)                                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                             
  * rename detection (though a bit slow yet)                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                             
  * svn:eol-style                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                             
  * Git pre-receive hooks                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                             
  * simple or LDAP authentication                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                             
  * partial checkout                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                             
  * sparse working copy (svn --depth/--set-depth)                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                             
  * git submodules                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                             
Current limitations:                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                             
  * Only a single Git branch from a single repository

  * Needs at least one commit in Git

  * Parses whole history on startup and doesn't cache it anywhere

  * You must not do 'inverted merges'. Old HEAD must be reachable from
    new HEAD by first-parent traversal.

[1]: http://marc.info/?l=git&m=139866660018802 [2]: https://help.github.com/articles/support-for-subversion-clients [3]: http://subgit.com/ [4]: http://git.q42.co.uk/git_svn_server.git [5]: https://github.com/bozaro/git-as-svn/