1GIT-CVSIMPORT(1) Git Manual GIT-CVSIMPORT(1)
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6 git-cvsimport - Salvage your data out of another SCM people love to
7 hate
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10 git cvsimport [-o <branch-for-HEAD>] [-h] [-v] [-d <CVSROOT>]
11 [-A <author-conv-file>] [-p <options-for-cvsps>] [-P <file>]
12 [-C <git-repository>] [-z <fuzz>] [-i] [-k] [-u] [-s <subst>]
13 [-a] [-m] [-M <regex>] [-S <regex>] [-L <commit-limit>]
14 [-r <remote>] [-R] [<CVS-module>]
15
17 WARNING: git cvsimport uses cvsps version 2, which is considered
18 deprecated; it does not work with cvsps version 3 and later. If you are
19 performing a one-shot import of a CVS repository consider using
20 cvs2git[1] or cvs-fast-export[2].
21 Imports a CVS repository into Git. It will either create a new
23 repository, or incrementally import into an existing one.
24 Splitting the CVS log into patch sets is done by cvsps. At least
26 version 2.1 is required.
27 WARNING: for certain situations the import leads to incorrect results.
29 Please see the section ISSUES for further reference.
30 You should never do any work of your own on the branches that are
32 created by git cvsimport. By default initial import will create and
33 populate a "master" branch from the CVS repository’s main branch which
34 you’re free to work with; after that, you need to git merge incremental
35 imports, or any CVS branches, yourself. It is advisable to specify a
36 named remote via -r to separate and protect the incoming branches.
37 If you intend to set up a shared public repository that all developers
39 can read/write, or if you want to use git-cvsserver(1), then you
40 probably want to make a bare clone of the imported repository, and use
41 the clone as the shared repository. See gitcvs-migration(7).
42
44 -v
45 Verbosity: let cvsimport report what it is doing.
46 -d <CVSROOT>
48 The root of the CVS archive. May be local (a simple path) or
49 remote; currently, only the :local:, :ext: and :pserver: access
50 methods are supported. If not given, git cvsimport will try to read
51 it from CVS/Root. If no such file exists, it checks for the CVSROOT
52 environment variable.
53 <CVS-module>
55 The CVS module you want to import. Relative to <CVSROOT>. If not
56 given, git cvsimport tries to read it from CVS/Repository.
57 -C <target-dir>
59 The Git repository to import to. If the directory doesn’t exist, it
60 will be created. Default is the current directory.
61 -r <remote>
63 The Git remote to import this CVS repository into. Moves all CVS
64 branches into remotes/<remote>/<branch> akin to the way git clone
65 uses origin by default.
66 -o <branch-for-HEAD>
68 When no remote is specified (via -r) the HEAD branch from CVS is
69 imported to the origin branch within the Git repository, as HEAD
70 already has a special meaning for Git. When a remote is specified
71 the HEAD branch is named remotes/<remote>/master mirroring git
72 clone behaviour. Use this option if you want to import into a
73 different branch.
74 Use -o master for continuing an import that was initially done by
76 the old cvs2git tool.
77 -i
79 Import-only: don’t perform a checkout after importing. This option
80 ensures the working directory and index remain untouched and will
81 not create them if they do not exist.
82 -k
84 Kill keywords: will extract files with -kk from the CVS archive to
85 avoid noisy changesets. Highly recommended, but off by default to
86 preserve compatibility with early imported trees.
87 -u
89 Convert underscores in tag and branch names to dots.
90 -s <subst>
92 Substitute the character "/" in branch names with <subst>
93 -p <options-for-cvsps>
95 Additional options for cvsps. The options -u and -A are implicit
96 and should not be used here.
97 If you need to pass multiple options, separate them with a comma.
99 -z <fuzz>
101 Pass the timestamp fuzz factor to cvsps, in seconds. If unset,
102 cvsps defaults to 300s.
103 -P <cvsps-output-file>
105 Instead of calling cvsps, read the provided cvsps output file.
106 Useful for debugging or when cvsps is being handled outside
107 cvsimport.
108 -m
110 Attempt to detect merges based on the commit message. This option
111 will enable default regexes that try to capture the source branch
112 name from the commit message.
113 -M <regex>
115 Attempt to detect merges based on the commit message with a custom
116 regex. It can be used with -m to enable the default regexes as
117 well. You must escape forward slashes.
118 The regex must capture the source branch name in $1.
120 This option can be used several times to provide several detection
122 regexes.
123 -S <regex>
125 Skip paths matching the regex.
126 -a
128 Import all commits, including recent ones. cvsimport by default
129 skips commits that have a timestamp less than 10 minutes ago.
130 -L <limit>
132 Limit the number of commits imported. Workaround for cases where
133 cvsimport leaks memory.
134 -A <author-conv-file>
136 CVS by default uses the Unix username when writing its commit logs.
137 Using this option and an author-conv-file maps the name recorded in
138 CVS to author name, e-mail and optional time zone:
139 exon=Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se>
141 spawn=Simon Pawn <spawn@frog-pond.org> America/Chicago
142 git cvsimport will make it appear as those authors had their
144 GIT_AUTHOR_NAME and GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL set properly all along. If a
145 time zone is specified, GIT_AUTHOR_DATE will have the corresponding
146 offset applied.
147 For convenience, this data is saved to $GIT_DIR/cvs-authors each
149 time the -A option is provided and read from that same file each
150 time git cvsimport is run.
151 It is not recommended to use this feature if you intend to export
153 changes back to CVS again later with git cvsexportcommit.
154 -R
156 Generate a $GIT_DIR/cvs-revisions file containing a mapping from
157 CVS revision numbers to newly-created Git commit IDs. The generated
158 file will contain one line for each (filename, revision) pair
159 imported; each line will look like
160 src/widget.c 1.1 1d862f173cdc7325b6fa6d2ae1cfd61fd1b512b7
162 The revision data is appended to the file if it already exists, for
164 use when doing incremental imports.
165 This option may be useful if you have CVS revision numbers stored
167 in commit messages, bug-tracking systems, email archives, and the
168 like.
169 -h
171 Print a short usage message and exit.
172
174 If -v is specified, the script reports what it is doing.
175 Otherwise, success is indicated the Unix way, i.e. by simply exiting
177 with a zero exit status.
178
180 Problems related to timestamps:
181 • If timestamps of commits in the CVS repository are not stable
183 enough to be used for ordering commits changes may show up in the
184 wrong order.
185 • If any files were ever "cvs import"ed more than once (e.g., import
187 of more than one vendor release) the HEAD contains the wrong
188 content.
189 • If the timestamp order of different files cross the revision order
191 within the commit matching time window the order of commits may be
192 wrong.
193 Problems related to branches:
195 • Branches on which no commits have been made are not imported.
197 • All files from the branching point are added to a branch even if
199 never added in CVS.
200 • This applies to files added to the source branch after a daughter
202 branch was created: if previously no commit was made on the
203 daughter branch they will erroneously be added to the daughter
204 branch in git.
205 Problems related to tags:
207 • Multiple tags on the same revision are not imported.
209 If you suspect that any of these issues may apply to the repository you
211 want to import, consider using cvs2git:
212 • cvs2git (part of cvs2svn), http://subversion.apache.org/
214
216 Part of the git(1) suite
217
219 1. cvs2git
220 http://cvs2svn.tigris.org/cvs2git.html
221 2. cvs-fast-export
223 http://www.catb.org/esr/cvs-fast-export/
224Git 2.39.1 2023-01-13 GIT-CVSIMPORT(1)