# git svn .git/svn/*/index files taking up huge amounts of disk space

2 messages from 2009-07-18 to 2009-07-18. Participants: Robert Zeh, Peter Harris.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/20153

## Robert Zeh, 2009-07-18 14:58

Subject: git svn .git/svn/*/index files taking up huge amounts of disk space
Message-ID: <CFF1FF99-9237-4C89-BB2D-66F82CF683B1@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CFF1FF99-9237-4C89-BB2D-66F82CF683B1%40gmail.com

```
I have recently imported  a Subversion repository with   
1.6.4.rc0.17.gd9eb0, and ran into an interesting tidbit.  The .git/svn  
directory is the largest directory, taking up about twice as much  
space as the .git/objects directory.

Most of the space is taken up by index files under .git/svn under .git/ 
svn/tag or .git/svn/<branch name> directories in the subversion tree.

The repository uses the normal Subversion layout (trunk/tags/branches)  
and was setup with git svn init -s.  There are a lot of tags in the  
repository - about one per day for the past several years.

What are the index files under .git/svn used for?  Am I doing anything  
wrong?  Can the index files under .git/svn be safely removed?  My  
brief look at git-svn.perl makes me think that they are temporary, but  
I'm not sure.

Thanks,
Robert

```

## Peter Harris, 2009-07-18 18:10

Subject: Re: git svn .git/svn/*/index files taking up huge amounts of disk space
Message-ID: <eaa105840907181110q416a9dd0j989a63eedd9b15ca@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/eaa105840907181110q416a9dd0j989a63eedd9b15ca%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <CFF1FF99-9237-4C89-BB2D-66F82CF683B1@gmail.com>

```
On Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Robert Zeh wrote:
> What are the index files under .git/svn used for?  Am I doing anything
> wrong?  Can the index files under .git/svn be safely removed?  My brief look
> at git-svn.perl makes me think that they are temporary, but I'm not sure.

The index files are used to keep track of the commits that came from
svn, so that git-svn rebase knows where to start from (either when
committing or when doing a fetch from svn).

Unless you used the --no-metadata switch, the files under .git/svn can
be safely removed (at the cost of performance when operating a branch
that has had its index removed).

Peter Harris

```