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Git and SVN

git-svn provides tools for bidirectional communication between a git local repository and an SVN remote server

Git often requires significantly more local storage than SVN because it is a distributed revision control system that downloads the entire repository history to each user's machine. On the other hand, SVN is a centralized system and stores the latest file revisions locally.

1. Basics

Preparation

  • Install SVN, such as TortoiseSVN, including command-line tools.
  • Install git
  • A student can access the team's SVN repository

Clone (Check Out) a Repository

IMPORTANT! Use a shallow clone.

The "git svn clone" command creates a full, standalone copy of a remote SVN repository, including the entire history, every file, and all commit messages on the user's local machine. Hence, it often requires a large local storage space. RPI could block the user's IP address because of frequent and many accesses to the EDN repository.

A shallow clone in Git is a repository copy that fetches only a truncated subset of commit history. Users can clone a specific SVN version by specifying the revision number. Use the team's EDN Repository to find revision numbers.

  • BAD: git svn clone --username EDNUsename RepositoyPath
  • Good: git svn clone -rXXX --username EDNUsename RepositoyPath /
    where XXX is an SVN revision number.

Add and Commit

Use git add and commit to manage files in the local repository. Provide a descriptive commit message.

Push

Use git-svn to push files to the SVN remote server.

  • git svn dcommit

References [Accessed on July 21, 2026]

  1. TortoiseSVN
  2. Git
  3. Get up to speed with partial clone and shallow clone

2. Adding a New Folder

The following list shows a simple method.

  • Add a folder to the SVN repository using an SVN tool, such as TortoiseSVN.
  • Clone the SVN folder using "git svn clone."
  • Manage files using git in the local folder.

3. Visual Studio (VS) Code, Git, and SVN

Preparation (Windows)

Operations

  • Clone a folder from the SVN repository. See Clone (Check Out) a Repository
  • Manage source files using VS Code's git interfaces.
  • Use the git svn dcommit button instead of the Push button to push (commit) the file(s) to the SVN repository.
Alternate Method for Push
  • Push files using a command terminal and "git svn dcommit" instead of the VS Code Push option.

References [Accessed on July 21, 2026]

  1. Quickstart: use source control in VS Code
  2. Source Control in VS Code This document contains the link to a video tutorial.