|  | git-cvsimport(1) | 
|  | ================ | 
|  |  | 
|  | NAME | 
|  | ---- | 
|  | git-cvsimport - Salvage your data out of another SCM people love to hate | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | SYNOPSIS | 
|  | -------- | 
|  | [verse] | 
|  | 'git cvsimport' [-o <branch-for-HEAD>] [-h] [-v] [-d <CVSROOT>] | 
|  | [-A <author-conv-file>] [-p <options-for-cvsps>] [-P <file>] | 
|  | [-C <git_repository>] [-z <fuzz>] [-i] [-k] [-u] [-s <subst>] | 
|  | [-a] [-m] [-M <regex>] [-S <regex>] [-L <commitlimit>] | 
|  | [-r <remote>] [-R] [<CVS_module>] | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | DESCRIPTION | 
|  | ----------- | 
|  | Imports a CVS repository into git. It will either create a new | 
|  | repository, or incrementally import into an existing one. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Splitting the CVS log into patch sets is done by 'cvsps'. | 
|  | At least version 2.1 is required. | 
|  |  | 
|  | *WARNING:* for certain situations the import leads to incorrect results. | 
|  | Please see the section <<issues,ISSUES>> for further reference. | 
|  |  | 
|  | You should *never* do any work of your own on the branches that are | 
|  | created by 'git cvsimport'.  By default initial import will create and populate a | 
|  | "master" branch from the CVS repository's main branch which you're free | 
|  | to work with; after that, you need to 'git merge' incremental imports, or | 
|  | any CVS branches, yourself.  It is advisable to specify a named remote via | 
|  | -r to separate and protect the incoming branches. | 
|  |  | 
|  | If you intend to set up a shared public repository that all developers can | 
|  | read/write, or if you want to use linkgit:git-cvsserver[1], then you | 
|  | probably want to make a bare clone of the imported repository, | 
|  | and use the clone as the shared repository. | 
|  | See linkgit:gitcvs-migration[7]. | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | OPTIONS | 
|  | ------- | 
|  | -v:: | 
|  | Verbosity: let 'cvsimport' report what it is doing. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -d <CVSROOT>:: | 
|  | The root of the CVS archive. May be local (a simple path) or remote; | 
|  | currently, only the :local:, :ext: and :pserver: access methods | 
|  | are supported. If not given, 'git cvsimport' will try to read it | 
|  | from `CVS/Root`. If no such file exists, it checks for the | 
|  | `CVSROOT` environment variable. | 
|  |  | 
|  | <CVS_module>:: | 
|  | The CVS module you want to import. Relative to <CVSROOT>. | 
|  | If not given, 'git cvsimport' tries to read it from | 
|  | `CVS/Repository`. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -C <target-dir>:: | 
|  | The git repository to import to.  If the directory doesn't | 
|  | exist, it will be created.  Default is the current directory. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -r <remote>:: | 
|  | The git remote to import this CVS repository into. | 
|  | Moves all CVS branches into remotes/<remote>/<branch> | 
|  | akin to the way 'git clone' uses 'origin' by default. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -o <branch-for-HEAD>:: | 
|  | When no remote is specified (via -r) the 'HEAD' branch | 
|  | from CVS is imported to the 'origin' branch within the git | 
|  | repository, as 'HEAD' already has a special meaning for git. | 
|  | When a remote is specified the 'HEAD' branch is named | 
|  | remotes/<remote>/master mirroring 'git clone' behaviour. | 
|  | Use this option if you want to import into a different | 
|  | branch. | 
|  | + | 
|  | Use '-o master' for continuing an import that was initially done by | 
|  | the old cvs2git tool. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -i:: | 
|  | Import-only: don't perform a checkout after importing.  This option | 
|  | ensures the working directory and index remain untouched and will | 
|  | not create them if they do not exist. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -k:: | 
|  | Kill keywords: will extract files with '-kk' from the CVS archive | 
|  | to avoid noisy changesets. Highly recommended, but off by default | 
|  | to preserve compatibility with early imported trees. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -u:: | 
|  | Convert underscores in tag and branch names to dots. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -s <subst>:: | 
|  | Substitute the character "/" in branch names with <subst> | 
|  |  | 
|  | -p <options-for-cvsps>:: | 
|  | Additional options for cvsps. | 
|  | The options '-u' and '-A' are implicit and should not be used here. | 
|  | + | 
|  | If you need to pass multiple options, separate them with a comma. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -z <fuzz>:: | 
|  | Pass the timestamp fuzz factor to cvsps, in seconds. If unset, | 
|  | cvsps defaults to 300s. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -P <cvsps-output-file>:: | 
|  | Instead of calling cvsps, read the provided cvsps output file. Useful | 
|  | for debugging or when cvsps is being handled outside cvsimport. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -m:: | 
|  | Attempt to detect merges based on the commit message. This option | 
|  | will enable default regexes that try to capture the source | 
|  | branch name from the commit message. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -M <regex>:: | 
|  | Attempt to detect merges based on the commit message with a custom | 
|  | regex. It can be used with '-m' to enable the default regexes | 
|  | as well. You must escape forward slashes. | 
|  | + | 
|  | The regex must capture the source branch name in $1. | 
|  | + | 
|  | This option can be used several times to provide several detection regexes. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -S <regex>:: | 
|  | Skip paths matching the regex. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -a:: | 
|  | Import all commits, including recent ones. cvsimport by default | 
|  | skips commits that have a timestamp less than 10 minutes ago. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -L <limit>:: | 
|  | Limit the number of commits imported. Workaround for cases where | 
|  | cvsimport leaks memory. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -A <author-conv-file>:: | 
|  | CVS by default uses the Unix username when writing its | 
|  | commit logs. Using this option and an author-conv-file | 
|  | in this format | 
|  | + | 
|  | --------- | 
|  | exon=Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se> | 
|  | spawn=Simon Pawn <spawn@frog-pond.org> | 
|  |  | 
|  | --------- | 
|  | + | 
|  | 'git cvsimport' will make it appear as those authors had | 
|  | their GIT_AUTHOR_NAME and GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL set properly | 
|  | all along. | 
|  | + | 
|  | For convenience, this data is saved to `$GIT_DIR/cvs-authors` | 
|  | each time the '-A' option is provided and read from that same | 
|  | file each time 'git cvsimport' is run. | 
|  | + | 
|  | It is not recommended to use this feature if you intend to | 
|  | export changes back to CVS again later with | 
|  | 'git cvsexportcommit'. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -R:: | 
|  | Generate a `$GIT_DIR/cvs-revisions` file containing a mapping from CVS | 
|  | revision numbers to newly-created Git commit IDs.  The generated file | 
|  | will contain one line for each (filename, revision) pair imported; | 
|  | each line will look like | 
|  | + | 
|  | --------- | 
|  | src/widget.c 1.1 1d862f173cdc7325b6fa6d2ae1cfd61fd1b512b7 | 
|  | --------- | 
|  | + | 
|  | The revision data is appended to the file if it already exists, for use when | 
|  | doing incremental imports. | 
|  | + | 
|  | This option may be useful if you have CVS revision numbers stored in commit | 
|  | messages, bug-tracking systems, email archives, and the like. | 
|  |  | 
|  | -h:: | 
|  | Print a short usage message and exit. | 
|  |  | 
|  | OUTPUT | 
|  | ------ | 
|  | If '-v' is specified, the script reports what it is doing. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Otherwise, success is indicated the Unix way, i.e. by simply exiting with | 
|  | a zero exit status. | 
|  |  | 
|  | [[issues]] | 
|  | ISSUES | 
|  | ------ | 
|  | Problems related to timestamps: | 
|  |  | 
|  | * If timestamps of commits in the CVS repository are not stable enough | 
|  | to be used for ordering commits changes may show up in the wrong | 
|  | order. | 
|  | * If any files were ever "cvs import"ed more than once (e.g., import of | 
|  | more than one vendor release) the HEAD contains the wrong content. | 
|  | * If the timestamp order of different files cross the revision order | 
|  | within the commit matching time window the order of commits may be | 
|  | wrong. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Problems related to branches: | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Branches on which no commits have been made are not imported. | 
|  | * All files from the branching point are added to a branch even if | 
|  | never added in CVS. | 
|  | * This applies to files added to the source branch *after* a daughter | 
|  | branch was created: if previously no commit was made on the daughter | 
|  | branch they will erroneously be added to the daughter branch in git. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Problems related to tags: | 
|  |  | 
|  | * Multiple tags on the same revision are not imported. | 
|  |  | 
|  | If you suspect that any of these issues may apply to the repository you | 
|  | want to import consider using these alternative tools which proved to be | 
|  | more stable in practice: | 
|  |  | 
|  | * cvs2git (part of cvs2svn), `http://cvs2svn.tigris.org` | 
|  | * parsecvs, `http://cgit.freedesktop.org/~keithp/parsecvs` | 
|  |  | 
|  | GIT | 
|  | --- | 
|  | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |