git-cvsimport.txt

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>] [<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.

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 'git-clone' "--use-separate-remote" option.

-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'.

-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.


Author
------
Written by Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>, with help from
various participants of the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.

Documentation
--------------
Documentation by Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>.

GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite