# git-cvsimport

## NAME



           git-cvsimport - Salvage your data out of another SCM people love
           to hate
    


## SYNOPSIS



           _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 <commit-limit>]
                         [-r <remote>] [-R] [<CVS-module>]
    


## DESCRIPTION



           **WARNING: git cvsimport** uses cvsps version 2, which is considered
           deprecated; it does not work with cvsps version 3 and later. If
           you are performing a one-shot import of a CVS repository consider
           using **cvs2git******[1] or**cvs-fast-export******[2].
    
           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 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 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
           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 maps the name
               recorded in CVS to author name, e-mail and optional time zone:
    
                           exon=Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se>
                           spawn=Simon Pawn <spawn@frog-pond.org> America/Chicago
    
               _git cvsimport_ will make it appear as those authors had their
               GIT_AUTHOR_NAME and GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL set properly all along.
               If a time zone is specified, GIT_AUTHOR_DATE will have the
               corresponding offset applied.
    
               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



           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 cvs2git:
    
           •   cvs2git (part of cvs2svn), **https://subversion.apache.org/ **
    


## GIT



           Part of the git(1) suite
    


## NOTES



            1. cvs2git
               http://cvs2svn.tigris.org/cvs2git.html
    
            2. cvs-fast-export
               https://gitlab.com/esr/cvs-fast-export
    


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