# git-svn doesn't recognise trunk as parent of branch

7 messages from 2009-04-12 to 2009-04-13. Participants: Orestis Markou, Peter Baumann.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/18838

## Orestis Markou, 2009-04-12 16:40

Subject: git-svn doesn't recognise trunk as parent of branch
Message-ID: <F562B0FA-6E9F-45AD-ADD5-D6EE1AD9C248@orestis.gr>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/F562B0FA-6E9F-45AD-ADD5-D6EE1AD9C248%40orestis.gr

```
Hello there - this is my first post to this ML, so please be kind!

I have previously used git-svn with great success. However, in this  
project, the svn repo layout is a bit unusual and I'm having getting  
git-svn to do the correct thing.

The repository I'm trying to clone is a subdirectory under a huge repo:

http://svn.example.com/projects/trunk/MyProject/Production

which has trunk, branches and tags and a couple of other directories  
(which I'm not interested in).

Complications so far:

* I don't have read access to the lower directories, only to Production
* Being a part of a big repo, the initial revision is something like  
2000
* trunk, branches, tags where not created in the same revision. trunk  
didn't exist until revision say 2050.


Doing 'git svn init -s http://svn.example.com/projects/trunk/MyProject/Production' 
  produces the following configuration:

[svn-remote "svn"]
url = http://svn.example.com/trunk/projects/MyProject/Production
fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
branches = trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/branches/*:refs/remotes/*
tags = trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*

Fetching this fetches only trunk and no branches.

Amending the config to be:

[svn-remote "svn"]
	url = http://svn.example.com/trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/
	fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
	branches = branches/*:refs/remotes/*
	tags = tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*


and fetching (minor issue - have to start from scratch again), does  
fetch all commits. However, there is no link between branches and  
trunk. Using gitk (don't know how else to visualise this) shows  
branches as having no parent. Indeed, in the fetch messages there is  
no 'found possible parent' message. Also, when creating new branches  
in svn, nothing shows up in git until a change happens. Then the  
branch is created (again, with no parent).

The only case where a correct parent was set was when someone branched  
*from a branch*. Then the usual 'found possible parent' message  
appeared, and gitk shows a sane tree.

I'm on Mac OS X, git version 1.6.2.2.471.g6da14 (built from source,  
master branch). This includes a recent commit that fixed an issue with  
deep directories in git-svn, (without it I couldn't get the branches  
anyway), but it doesn't seem to have fixed the problem completely.

Any pointers welcome.

Regards,
Orestis
--
orestis@orestis.gr
http://orestis.gr/

```

## Peter Baumann, 2009-04-12 18:54

Subject: Re: git-svn doesn't recognise trunk as parent of branch
Message-ID: <20090412185440.GA25300@m62s10.vlinux.de>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20090412185440.GA25300%40m62s10.vlinux.de
In-Reply-To: <F562B0FA-6E9F-45AD-ADD5-D6EE1AD9C248@orestis.gr>

```
On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 07:40:46PM +0300, Orestis Markou wrote:
> Hello there - this is my first post to this ML, so please be kind!
>
> I have previously used git-svn with great success. However, in this  
> project, the svn repo layout is a bit unusual and I'm having getting  
> git-svn to do the correct thing.
>
> The repository I'm trying to clone is a subdirectory under a huge repo:
>
> http://svn.example.com/projects/trunk/MyProject/Production
>
> which has trunk, branches and tags and a couple of other directories  
> (which I'm not interested in).
>
> Complications so far:
>
> * I don't have read access to the lower directories, only to Production
> * Being a part of a big repo, the initial revision is something like  
> 2000
> * trunk, branches, tags where not created in the same revision. trunk  
> didn't exist until revision say 2050.
>
>
> Doing 'git svn init -s 
> http://svn.example.com/projects/trunk/MyProject/Production' produces the 
> following configuration:
>
> [svn-remote "svn"]
> url = http://svn.example.com/trunk/projects/MyProject/Production
> fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
> branches = trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/branches/*:refs/remotes/*
> tags = trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*
>
> Fetching this fetches only trunk and no branches.
>
> Amending the config to be:
>
> [svn-remote "svn"]
> 	url = http://svn.example.com/trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/
> 	fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
> 	branches = branches/*:refs/remotes/*
> 	tags = tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*
>
>
> and fetching (minor issue - have to start from scratch again), does  
> fetch all commits. However, there is no link between branches and trunk. 
> Using gitk (don't know how else to visualise this) shows branches as 
> having no parent. Indeed, in the fetch messages there is no 'found 
> possible parent' message. Also, when creating new branches in svn, 
> nothing shows up in git until a change happens. Then the branch is 
> created (again, with no parent).
>
> The only case where a correct parent was set was when someone branched  
> *from a branch*. Then the usual 'found possible parent' message  
> appeared, and gitk shows a sane tree.
>
> I'm on Mac OS X, git version 1.6.2.2.471.g6da14 (built from source,  
> master branch). This includes a recent commit that fixed an issue with  
> deep directories in git-svn, (without it I couldn't get the branches  
> anyway), but it doesn't seem to have fixed the problem completely.
>
> Any pointers welcome.

It might be that git svn can't work with this strange repo or with trunk
created after the branches (no idea if this is a bug or intentional), but I'll
show you a easy way how to fix the git repo after the import by using grafts.

If you have a wrongly connected development (which you are trying to fix) line like
the following example:

Time goes from left to right

	1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6       branchA

       	        a - b - c - d   trunk

you could fix it by connecting the graph using

	echo a 2 >> .git/info/grafts

to get something like this

	1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6       branchA
	      \
       	        a - b - c - d   trunk

Replace 'a' and '2' with the sha1 value of the corresponding commit. The same
way you could teach git about merges in svn. To make the changes permantent,
use something like

	git filter-branch --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

(Pls. check the manpage, I'm not that familiar with git filter-branch)

-Peter

```

## Orestis Markou, 2009-04-12 19:27

Subject: Re: git-svn doesn't recognise trunk as parent of branch
Message-ID: <2EF72ACD-BD4E-4326-85F2-6BD0DF433D75@orestis.gr>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/2EF72ACD-BD4E-4326-85F2-6BD0DF433D75%40orestis.gr
In-Reply-To: <20090412185440.GA25300@m62s10.vlinux.de>

```
Many thanks - I'll try that. I would have to do this for every branch,  
but it's definitely a major help.

Orestis
--
orestis@orestis.gr
http://orestis.gr/




On 12 Apr 2009, at 21:54, Peter Baumann wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 07:40:46PM +0300, Orestis Markou wrote:
>> Hello there - this is my first post to this ML, so please be kind!
>>
>> I have previously used git-svn with great success. However, in this
>> project, the svn repo layout is a bit unusual and I'm having getting
>> git-svn to do the correct thing.
>>
>> The repository I'm trying to clone is a subdirectory under a huge  
>> repo:
>>
>> http://svn.example.com/projects/trunk/MyProject/Production
>>
>> which has trunk, branches and tags and a couple of other directories
>> (which I'm not interested in).
>>
>> Complications so far:
>>
>> * I don't have read access to the lower directories, only to  
>> Production
>> * Being a part of a big repo, the initial revision is something like
>> 2000
>> * trunk, branches, tags where not created in the same revision. trunk
>> didn't exist until revision say 2050.
>>
>>
>> Doing 'git svn init -s
>> http://svn.example.com/projects/trunk/MyProject/Production'  
>> produces the
>> following configuration:
>>
>> [svn-remote "svn"]
>> url = http://svn.example.com/trunk/projects/MyProject/Production
>> fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
>> branches = trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/branches/*:refs/ 
>> remotes/*
>> tags = trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*
>>
>> Fetching this fetches only trunk and no branches.
>>
>> Amending the config to be:
>>
>> [svn-remote "svn"]
>> 	url = http://svn.example.com/trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/
>> 	fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
>> 	branches = branches/*:refs/remotes/*
>> 	tags = tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*
>>
>>
>> and fetching (minor issue - have to start from scratch again), does
>> fetch all commits. However, there is no link between branches and  
>> trunk.
>> Using gitk (don't know how else to visualise this) shows branches as
>> having no parent. Indeed, in the fetch messages there is no 'found
>> possible parent' message. Also, when creating new branches in svn,
>> nothing shows up in git until a change happens. Then the branch is
>> created (again, with no parent).
>>
>> The only case where a correct parent was set was when someone  
>> branched
>> *from a branch*. Then the usual 'found possible parent' message
>> appeared, and gitk shows a sane tree.
>>
>> I'm on Mac OS X, git version 1.6.2.2.471.g6da14 (built from source,
>> master branch). This includes a recent commit that fixed an issue  
>> with
>> deep directories in git-svn, (without it I couldn't get the branches
>> anyway), but it doesn't seem to have fixed the problem completely.
>>
>> Any pointers welcome.
>
> It might be that git svn can't work with this strange repo or with  
> trunk
> created after the branches (no idea if this is a bug or  
> intentional), but I'll
> show you a easy way how to fix the git repo after the import by  
> using grafts.
>
> If you have a wrongly connected development (which you are trying to  
> fix) line like
> the following example:
>
> Time goes from left to right
>
> 	1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6       branchA
>
>       	        a - b - c - d   trunk
>
> you could fix it by connecting the graph using
>
> 	echo a 2 >> .git/info/grafts
>
> to get something like this
>
> 	1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6       branchA
> 	      \
>       	        a - b - c - d   trunk
>
> Replace 'a' and '2' with the sha1 value of the corresponding commit.  
> The same
> way you could teach git about merges in svn. To make the changes  
> permantent,
> use something like
>
> 	git filter-branch --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
>
> (Pls. check the manpage, I'm not that familiar with git filter-branch)
>
> -Peter

```

## Orestis Markou, 2009-04-12 23:44

Subject: Re: git-svn doesn't recognise trunk as parent of branch
Message-ID: <3110D1F9-B096-4E10-8795-748EF5E38318@orestis.gr>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/3110D1F9-B096-4E10-8795-748EF5E38318%40orestis.gr
In-Reply-To: <20090412185440.GA25300@m62s10.vlinux.de>

```
That seems to be working - the only extra thing that I needed to do  
after the rewrite of the history is to update the svn remote branch:

echo $rewritten_history_tip > .git/refs/remotes/svn-branch-name

I would still consider this to be a bug though - it's a perfectly  
valid svn repo and git-svn should handle it... Is this the correct  
place to report such issues?

Regards,
Orestis
--
orestis@orestis.gr
http://orestis.gr/




On 12 Apr 2009, at 21:54, Peter Baumann wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 07:40:46PM +0300, Orestis Markou wrote:
>> Hello there - this is my first post to this ML, so please be kind!
>>
>> I have previously used git-svn with great success. However, in this
>> project, the svn repo layout is a bit unusual and I'm having getting
>> git-svn to do the correct thing.
>>
>> The repository I'm trying to clone is a subdirectory under a huge  
>> repo:
>>
>> http://svn.example.com/projects/trunk/MyProject/Production
>>
>> which has trunk, branches and tags and a couple of other directories
>> (which I'm not interested in).
>>
>> Complications so far:
>>
>> * I don't have read access to the lower directories, only to  
>> Production
>> * Being a part of a big repo, the initial revision is something like
>> 2000
>> * trunk, branches, tags where not created in the same revision. trunk
>> didn't exist until revision say 2050.
>>
>>
>> Doing 'git svn init -s
>> http://svn.example.com/projects/trunk/MyProject/Production'  
>> produces the
>> following configuration:
>>
>> [svn-remote "svn"]
>> url = http://svn.example.com/trunk/projects/MyProject/Production
>> fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
>> branches = trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/branches/*:refs/ 
>> remotes/*
>> tags = trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*
>>
>> Fetching this fetches only trunk and no branches.
>>
>> Amending the config to be:
>>
>> [svn-remote "svn"]
>> 	url = http://svn.example.com/trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/
>> 	fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
>> 	branches = branches/*:refs/remotes/*
>> 	tags = tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*
>>
>>
>> and fetching (minor issue - have to start from scratch again), does
>> fetch all commits. However, there is no link between branches and  
>> trunk.
>> Using gitk (don't know how else to visualise this) shows branches as
>> having no parent. Indeed, in the fetch messages there is no 'found
>> possible parent' message. Also, when creating new branches in svn,
>> nothing shows up in git until a change happens. Then the branch is
>> created (again, with no parent).
>>
>> The only case where a correct parent was set was when someone  
>> branched
>> *from a branch*. Then the usual 'found possible parent' message
>> appeared, and gitk shows a sane tree.
>>
>> I'm on Mac OS X, git version 1.6.2.2.471.g6da14 (built from source,
>> master branch). This includes a recent commit that fixed an issue  
>> with
>> deep directories in git-svn, (without it I couldn't get the branches
>> anyway), but it doesn't seem to have fixed the problem completely.
>>
>> Any pointers welcome.
>
> It might be that git svn can't work with this strange repo or with  
> trunk
> created after the branches (no idea if this is a bug or  
> intentional), but I'll
> show you a easy way how to fix the git repo after the import by  
> using grafts.
>
> If you have a wrongly connected development (which you are trying to  
> fix) line like
> the following example:
>
> Time goes from left to right
>
> 	1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6       branchA
>
>       	        a - b - c - d   trunk
>
> you could fix it by connecting the graph using
>
> 	echo a 2 >> .git/info/grafts
>
> to get something like this
>
> 	1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6       branchA
> 	      \
>       	        a - b - c - d   trunk
>
> Replace 'a' and '2' with the sha1 value of the corresponding commit.  
> The same
> way you could teach git about merges in svn. To make the changes  
> permantent,
> use something like
>
> 	git filter-branch --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
>
> (Pls. check the manpage, I'm not that familiar with git filter-branch)
>
> -Peter

```

## Orestis Markou, 2009-04-12 23:58

Subject: Re: git-svn doesn't recognise trunk as parent of branch
Message-ID: <CDAC8304-EADC-4481-96C9-968DCC4E61A5@orestis.gr>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CDAC8304-EADC-4481-96C9-968DCC4E61A5%40orestis.gr
In-Reply-To: <3110D1F9-B096-4E10-8795-748EF5E38318@orestis.gr>

```
And I also realised that I don't need to rewrite the history itself. I  
was confused because gitk was caching something and I had to restart  
it to see the updated info.
--
orestis@orestis.gr
http://orestis.gr/




On 13 Apr 2009, at 02:44, Orestis Markou wrote:

> That seems to be working - the only extra thing that I needed to do  
> after the rewrite of the history is to update the svn remote branch:
>
> echo $rewritten_history_tip > .git/refs/remotes/svn-branch-name
>
> I would still consider this to be a bug though - it's a perfectly  
> valid svn repo and git-svn should handle it... Is this the correct  
> place to report such issues?
>
> Regards,
> Orestis
> --
> orestis@orestis.gr
> http://orestis.gr/
>
>
>
>
> On 12 Apr 2009, at 21:54, Peter Baumann wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 07:40:46PM +0300, Orestis Markou wrote:
>>> Hello there - this is my first post to this ML, so please be kind!
>>>
>>> I have previously used git-svn with great success. However, in this
>>> project, the svn repo layout is a bit unusual and I'm having getting
>>> git-svn to do the correct thing.
>>>
>>> The repository I'm trying to clone is a subdirectory under a huge  
>>> repo:
>>>
>>> http://svn.example.com/projects/trunk/MyProject/Production
>>>
>>> which has trunk, branches and tags and a couple of other directories
>>> (which I'm not interested in).
>>>
>>> Complications so far:
>>>
>>> * I don't have read access to the lower directories, only to  
>>> Production
>>> * Being a part of a big repo, the initial revision is something like
>>> 2000
>>> * trunk, branches, tags where not created in the same revision.  
>>> trunk
>>> didn't exist until revision say 2050.
>>>
>>>
>>> Doing 'git svn init -s
>>> http://svn.example.com/projects/trunk/MyProject/Production'  
>>> produces the
>>> following configuration:
>>>
>>> [svn-remote "svn"]
>>> url = http://svn.example.com/trunk/projects/MyProject/Production
>>> fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
>>> branches = trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/branches/*:refs/ 
>>> remotes/*
>>> tags = trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/tags/*:refs/remotes/ 
>>> tags/*
>>>
>>> Fetching this fetches only trunk and no branches.
>>>
>>> Amending the config to be:
>>>
>>> [svn-remote "svn"]
>>> 	url = http://svn.example.com/trunk/projects/MyProject/Production/
>>> 	fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/trunk
>>> 	branches = branches/*:refs/remotes/*
>>> 	tags = tags/*:refs/remotes/tags/*
>>>
>>>
>>> and fetching (minor issue - have to start from scratch again), does
>>> fetch all commits. However, there is no link between branches and  
>>> trunk.
>>> Using gitk (don't know how else to visualise this) shows branches as
>>> having no parent. Indeed, in the fetch messages there is no 'found
>>> possible parent' message. Also, when creating new branches in svn,
>>> nothing shows up in git until a change happens. Then the branch is
>>> created (again, with no parent).
>>>
>>> The only case where a correct parent was set was when someone  
>>> branched
>>> *from a branch*. Then the usual 'found possible parent' message
>>> appeared, and gitk shows a sane tree.
>>>
>>> I'm on Mac OS X, git version 1.6.2.2.471.g6da14 (built from source,
>>> master branch). This includes a recent commit that fixed an issue  
>>> with
>>> deep directories in git-svn, (without it I couldn't get the branches
>>> anyway), but it doesn't seem to have fixed the problem completely.
>>>
>>> Any pointers welcome.
>>
>> It might be that git svn can't work with this strange repo or with  
>> trunk
>> created after the branches (no idea if this is a bug or  
>> intentional), but I'll
>> show you a easy way how to fix the git repo after the import by  
>> using grafts.
>>
>> If you have a wrongly connected development (which you are trying  
>> to fix) line like
>> the following example:
>>
>> Time goes from left to right
>>
>> 	1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6       branchA
>>
>>      	        a - b - c - d   trunk
>>
>> you could fix it by connecting the graph using
>>
>> 	echo a 2 >> .git/info/grafts
>>
>> to get something like this
>>
>> 	1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 6       branchA
>> 	      \
>>      	        a - b - c - d   trunk
>>
>> Replace 'a' and '2' with the sha1 value of the corresponding  
>> commit. The same
>> way you could teach git about merges in svn. To make the changes  
>> permantent,
>> use something like
>>
>> 	git filter-branch --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
>>
>> (Pls. check the manpage, I'm not that familiar with git filter- 
>> branch)
>>
>> -Peter
>

```

## Peter Baumann, 2009-04-13 07:26

Subject: Re: git-svn doesn't recognise trunk as parent of branch
Message-ID: <20090413072601.GC25300@m62s10.vlinux.de>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20090413072601.GC25300%40m62s10.vlinux.de
In-Reply-To: <CDAC8304-EADC-4481-96C9-968DCC4E61A5@orestis.gr>

```
On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 02:58:45AM +0300, Orestis Markou wrote:
> And I also realised that I don't need to rewrite the history itself. I  
> was confused because gitk was caching something and I had to restart it 
> to see the updated info.

The rewrite is done by git filter-branch and this *will* be necessary if you
ever want to clone/push/fetch from/to this heavily grafted repo. Grafts are
only repository local and using filter-branch, you could make them permanent.

-Peter

```

## Orestis Markou, 2009-04-13 07:35

Subject: Re: git-svn doesn't recognise trunk as parent of branch
Message-ID: <C093912B-E316-4AC1-B50D-D91FF9823582@orestis.gr>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/C093912B-E316-4AC1-B50D-D91FF9823582%40orestis.gr
In-Reply-To: <20090413072601.GC25300@m62s10.vlinux.de>

```
On 13 Apr 2009, at 10:26, Peter Baumann wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 02:58:45AM +0300, Orestis Markou wrote:
>> And I also realised that I don't need to rewrite the history  
>> itself. I
>> was confused because gitk was caching something and I had to  
>> restart it
>> to see the updated info.
>
> The rewrite is done by git filter-branch and this *will* be  
> necessary if you
> ever want to clone/push/fetch from/to this heavily grafted repo.  
> Grafts are
> only repository local and using filter-branch, you could make them  
> permanent.
>
> -Peter


Thanks - I understand that. However, this is a git-svn repo, and I  
don't have a need to do so. The suggestion is to not push or pull  
between git-svn repos but go through svn - AFAICT, that is.

Orestis

```
