On 2020-12-25 23:24, M. Buecher wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> I finally had the time to start converting some older Subversion
> repositories to git repositiers and run into issues with repos using
> "parallel" branches, so-called vendor branches [1] in Subversion to
> track upstream changes via snapshots in a separate branch and merge
> them into the custom build on trunk.
> 
> Just wanting to convert the Subversion history as-is to git.
> I studied the git-svn reference docs [2] plus the related chapter of
> the ProGit book [3] and assume that I understood how git-svn works.
> Still I'm not a git expert, just a sporadic user.
> 
> Somehow `git svn fetch` (2.29.2.windows.3) looses merge information
> between vendor branch and trunk plus tags are referencing the
> predecessors instead of the original ancestor.
> Maybe there is a manual way to fix this for that small repository, but
> it wouldn't be feasible for larger repositories, that's why I deceided
> to write this bug report.
> Is there anything I missed? (see my procedure below)
> 
> Fortunately I ran quite early into these issues and also with a very
> small repository of just 11 commits, so I can provide a small
> reproduction case (see below after the links).
> Hoping you can enhance `git svn fetch`.

Tested further with re-created Subversion repositories, that either 
looked the same but made sure that svn:mergeinfo is present (Subversion 
 >=1.5 via "cherry pick merge", no "2-URL merge"), or that has the vendor branch being copied from trunk (both attached).
Only when the vendor branch was a copy from trunk, then svn-git got the 
merges correct. Otherwise - even with svn:mergeinfo - it does not get 
the merges.

Assumption:
It seems that git svn handles trunk and branches in a special way, but 
Subversion actually does not have branches.
In Subversion there are just directories and files, and a branch/tag is 
just a copy of another directory+revision and merges can happen between 
any directories independent if they have related ancestry or not.

Workaround:
As git svn does not recognize all merges correctly (especially 
cross-branch copies) those lost links must be added manually.
I wrote a small GNU awk script (attached) to determine all cross-branch 
copies from an `svnadmin dump`. This way the first revision when 
something got copied is known.
Running git svn just to that revision, then fixing the parents and 
continuing with git svn up the next revision.
This helps git svn to find the correct ancestors and correctly build the 
follow merges.
The parents can be changed with `git replace -f --graft <commit> 
<existing correct parents> <additional correct parents>`.
Additionally before continuing with git svn this `git replace` change 
can be made permanent with `git-filter-repo --force --replace-refs 
delete-no-add`.


> Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance
> Matthias Bücher
> 
> 
> [Links]
> [1]
> http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.8/svn.advanced.vendorbr.html#svn.advanced.vendorbr.mirrored-sources
> [2] https://git-scm.com/docs/git-svn
> [3] 
> https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-and-Other-Systems-Migrating-to-Git
> 
> 
> [System Info]
> git version:
> git version 2.29.2.windows.3
> cpu: x86_64
> built from commit: d054eb1fc46ff23e7c95756a7c747e2f2864b478
> sizeof-long: 4
> sizeof-size_t: 8
> shell-path: /bin/sh
> uname: Windows 10.0 19042
> compiler info: gnuc: 10.2
> libc info: no libc information available
> $SHELL (typically, interactive shell): C:\Program 
> Files\Git\usr\bin\bash.exe
> 
> [Enabled Hooks]
> none
> 
> 
> [Commits in Subversion]
> A Subversion repository dump is attached, plus a test where I
> recreated the same history directly in a git repository without an
> issue.
> 
> * trunk:  a------------d--e--h--i--j--k
> *                     /     /
> * vendor: a (empty)--b-----f
> *                    ^     ^
> * tags:              c     g
> 
> * Vendor releases: b, f
> * Custom modifications: e, i, j, k
> * Tags: really just used as tags, although Subversion internally they
> are branches. Therefore wanting to create lightweight git tags,
> although annotated git tags would be fine too.
> 
> 
> [Expected Subversion to git repo conversion]
> * trunk => branch "main"
> * branches/* => branch "*"
> * tags/* => tag "*"
> * vendor/current => branch "vendor/current" (can be renamed later to
> just "vendor")
> * vendor/* => tag "vendor/*" (except for vendor/current)
> 
> Expected "tags":
> vendor/5.4 = rev b (maybe c when annotated)
> vendor/5.8 = rev f (maybe g when annotated)
> 
> 
> [Wrong Results]
> Merges from "vendor/current" branch to trunk get lost.
> Tags are referencing the predecessors of the expected commit.
> 
> 
> [Procedure]
> ```
> ### a) preparation
> cd /d/Coding
> #
> cd dd-formmailer
> svn log --xml --quiet | grep author | sort -u | perl -pe
> 's/.*>(.*?)<.*/$1 = /' > authors-transform.txt
> ## edit authors-transform.txt accordingly
> 
> ### b) git-svn adapted from ProGit book, but with "svn/" prefix
> cd /d/Coding
> git svn init --stdlayout --no-metadata --prefix="svn/" --
> 'svn+ssh://svn@vcs/dd-formmailer' dd-formmailer-git
> cd dd-formmailer-git
> ## edit .git/config for additional vendor branches and tags
> << __EOF
> ...
> [svn-remote "svn"]
> 	...
> 	fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/svn/trunk
> #	branches = vendor/current:refs/remotes/svn/vendor/current ##
> non-glob definition not working for branches
> 	branches = vendor/{current}:refs/remotes/svn/vendor/*
> 	branches = branches/*:refs/remotes/svn/*
> 	tags = vendor/*:refs/remotes/svn/tags/vendor/*
> 	tags = tags/*:refs/remotes/svn/tags/*
> __EOF
> ##
> cat .git/config
> git svn fetch --authors-file ../dd-formmailer/authors-transform.txt
> #
> git branch -vv --list ; git for-each-ref
> gitk --all &
> ```
> 
> [Log]
> $ cat .git/config
> [core]
>         repositoryformatversion = 0
>         filemode = false
>         bare = false
>         logallrefupdates = true
>         symlinks = false
>         ignorecase = true
> [svn-remote "svn"]
>         noMetadata = 1
>         url = svn+ssh://svn@vcs/dd-formmailer
>         fetch = trunk:refs/remotes/svn/trunk
>         branches = vendor/{current}:refs/remotes/svn/vendor/*
>         branches = branches/*:refs/remotes/svn/*
>         tags = vendor/*:refs/remotes/svn/tags/vendor/*
>         tags = tags/*:refs/remotes/svn/tags/*
> 
> $ git svn fetch --authors-file ../dd-formmailer/authors-transform.txt
> r1 = 158d53044a5628897379403647a19ea13594b532 
> (refs/remotes/svn/vendor/current)
>         A       _svn__guideline.txt
>         A       _svn_client_config.txt
>         A       _svn_dir_ignore_list.txt
> r1 = a795b654edbc296e6f38da398f032a4851fd0a9e (refs/remotes/svn/trunk)
>         A       dd-formmailer.css
>         A       dd-formmailer.php
>         A       lang/BrazilianPortuguese.php
>         A       lang/Catalan.php
>         A       lang/Danish.php
>         A       lang/Deutsch.php
>         A       lang/Dutch.php
>         A       lang/English.php
>         A       lang/Finnish.php
>         A       lang/French.php
>         A       lang/Greek.php
>         A       lang/Italian.php
>         A       lang/NorwegianBokmaal.php
>         A       lang/Polish.php
>         A       lang/Portuguese.php
>         A       lang/Romanian.php
>         A       lang/Russian.php
>         A       lang/Slovak.php
>         A       lang/Slovene.php
>         A       lang/Spanish.php
>         A       lang/Swedish.php
>         A       lang/Turkish.php
>         A       recaptchalib.php
> r2 = 8fd8668dbed2dde6b55306c71b3b629f5ed794ec 
> (refs/remotes/svn/vendor/current)
> Found possible branch point:
> svn+ssh://svn@vcs/dd-formmailer/vendor/current =>
> svn+ssh://svn@vcs/dd-formmailer/vendor/5.4, 1
> Found branch parent: (refs/remotes/svn/tags/vendor/5.4)
> 158d53044a5628897379403647a19ea13594b532
> Following parent with do_switch
>         A       dd-formmailer.css
>         A       dd-formmailer.php
>         A       lang/BrazilianPortuguese.php
>         A       lang/Catalan.php
>         A       lang/Danish.php
>         A       lang/Deutsch.php
>         A       lang/Dutch.php
>         A       lang/English.php
>         A       lang/Finnish.php
>         A       lang/French.php
>         A       lang/Greek.php
>         A       lang/Italian.php
>         A       lang/NorwegianBokmaal.php
>         A       lang/Polish.php
>         A       lang/Portuguese.php
>         A       lang/Romanian.php
>         A       lang/Russian.php
>         A       lang/Slovak.php
>         A       lang/Slovene.php
>         A       lang/Spanish.php
>         A       lang/Swedish.php
>         A       lang/Turkish.php
>         A       recaptchalib.php
> Successfully followed parent
> r3 = 7ab4f436cafc8af3ed2e727a6d8cbef1a8f8b39f 
> (refs/remotes/svn/tags/vendor/5.4)
>         A       dd-formmailer.css
>         A       dd-formmailer.php
>         A       lang/BrazilianPortuguese.php
>         A       lang/Catalan.php
>         A       lang/Danish.php
>         A       lang/Deutsch.php
>         A       lang/Dutch.php
>         A       lang/English.php
>         A       lang/Finnish.php
>         A       lang/French.php
>         A       lang/Greek.php
>         A       lang/Italian.php
>         A       lang/NorwegianBokmaal.php
>         A       lang/Polish.php
>         A       lang/Portuguese.php
>         A       lang/Romanian.php
>         A       lang/Russian.php
>         A       lang/Slovak.php
>         A       lang/Slovene.php
>         A       lang/Spanish.php
>         A       lang/Swedish.php
>         A       lang/Turkish.php
>         A       recaptchalib.php
> r4 = 7ec3663fd8e7c9fcfeb2742968a948d6978776d4 (refs/remotes/svn/trunk)
>         M       dd-formmailer.css
>         M       dd-formmailer.php
>         A       dd-verify.php
> r5 = e65ba2bdcd12a1935c1a327507dad6b7117f452b (refs/remotes/svn/trunk)
>         A       calendar.gif
>         A       date_chooser.js
>         M       dd-formmailer.css
>         M       dd-formmailer.php
>         A       lang/Belarussian.php
>         A       lang/Czech.php
>         A       lang/Estonian.php
>         A       lang/Japanese.php
>         A       lang/Vietnamese.php
>         M       recaptchalib.php
> r6 = 9f95df7ce49c5d1cb4715017d223a8bd1c8dcffc 
> (refs/remotes/svn/vendor/current)
> Found possible branch point:
> svn+ssh://svn@vcs/dd-formmailer/vendor/current =>
> svn+ssh://svn@vcs/dd-formmailer/vendor/5.8, 3
> Found branch parent: (refs/remotes/svn/tags/vendor/5.8)
> 8fd8668dbed2dde6b55306c71b3b629f5ed794ec
> Following parent with do_switch
>         A       calendar.gif
>         A       date_chooser.js
>         M       dd-formmailer.css
>         M       dd-formmailer.php
>         A       lang/Belarussian.php
>         A       lang/Czech.php
>         A       lang/Estonian.php
>         A       lang/Japanese.php
>         A       lang/Vietnamese.php
>         M       recaptchalib.php
> Successfully followed parent
> r7 = cc00cb187386298cf974dda69f151d2ad4795917 
> (refs/remotes/svn/tags/vendor/5.8)
>         A       calendar.gif
>         A       date_chooser.js
>         M       dd-formmailer.css
>         M       dd-formmailer.php
>         M       dd-verify.php
>         A       lang/Belarussian.php
>         A       lang/Czech.php
>         A       lang/Estonian.php
>         A       lang/Japanese.php
>         A       lang/Vietnamese.php
>         M       recaptchalib.php
> Checking svn:mergeinfo changes since r5: 1 sources, 1 changed
> W: Cannot find common ancestor between
> e65ba2bdcd12a1935c1a327507dad6b7117f452b and
> 9f95df7ce49c5d1cb4715017d223a8bd1c8dcffc. Ignoring merge info.
> r8 = 9a5cd8f55f377f469280171cd87219b8f528c693 (refs/remotes/svn/trunk)
>         M       dd-formmailer.php
> r9 = 8143782376d9fbc91a9181b367b72701205b017f (refs/remotes/svn/trunk)
>         M       dd-formmailer.php
> r10 = 6f563fc4c511ddcc53c2ffc5d26c1e116725bc6b (refs/remotes/svn/trunk)
>         M       _svn_client_config.txt
> r11 = e9130854178d2c2743a981f303cdd7f34e54b052 (refs/remotes/svn/trunk)
> svnserve: E210002: Network connection closed unexpectedly
> Checked out HEAD:
>   svn+ssh://svn@vcs/dd-formmailer/trunk r11
> 
> $ git branch -vv --list ; git for-each-ref
> * main e913085 Updated client config for Windows Scripts
> e9130854178d2c2743a981f303cdd7f34e54b052 commit refs/heads/main
> 7ab4f436cafc8af3ed2e727a6d8cbef1a8f8b39f commit 
> refs/remotes/svn/tags/vendor/5.4
> cc00cb187386298cf974dda69f151d2ad4795917 commit 
> refs/remotes/svn/tags/vendor/5.8
> e9130854178d2c2743a981f303cdd7f34e54b052 commit refs/remotes/svn/trunk
> 9f95df7ce49c5d1cb4715017d223a8bd1c8dcffc commit 
> refs/remotes/svn/vendor/current