the Hg-Git mercurial plugin

This is the Hg-Git plugin for Mercurial, adding the ability to push to and pull from a Git server repository from Mercurial. This means you can collaborate on Git based projects from Mercurial, or use a Git server as a collaboration point for a team with developers using both Git and Mercurial.

The Big Idea

The Hg-Git plugin can convert commits/changesets losslessly from one system to another, so you can push via a Mercurial repository and another Mercurial client can pull it. In theory, the changeset IDs should not change, although this may not hold true for complex histories.

Commands

Clone a Git repository

hg clone git://github.com/schacon/some-repo.git

Like with normal hg clone, you can optionally specify a destination directory.

Push an existing Hg repository to Git

$ cd mercurial-repo
$ hg bookmark -r default master # so a ref gets created

To avoid specifying the repo path when you push and pull, edit .hg/hgrc and add:

[paths]
default = git+ssh://git@github.com/schacon/some-repo.git

See the Mercurial docs for more detail on path settings.

$ hg push

This will convert all Mercurial data into Git objects and push them up to the Git server.

$ hg pull

That will pull down any commits that have been pushed to the server in the meantime and give you a new head that you can merge in.

Installing

Installing Hg-Git the easy way:

First, make sure that you have a working C compiler on your system. On Windows, one option is the free Microsoft Visual C++. (Be sure to install the 2008 version for compatibility reasons.) On Debian-style Linux, run apt-get install python-dev.

Secondly, run easy_install hg-git. If you don't have easy_install available, you can get it as part of Python's setuptools package.

Alternatively, on Windows, TortoiseHg comes with hg-git (and Dulwich), though it still needs to be enabled as shown below (or through the TortoiseHg settings).

Lastly, make sure the following is in your ~/.hgrc:

[extensions]
hgext.bookmarks =
hggit = 

...and that's it!

Installing Hg-Git manually

Use this method if you'd like to install a clone of the Hg-Git repository rather than a static package, or if you'd like to install Hg-Git in a location you choose yourself.

First, install version 0.8.0 or newer of Dulwich. You can do easy_install 'dulwich>=0.8.0' if you have setuptools installed. Next, clone the Hg-Git repository somewhere. Lastly, make the 'extensions' section in your '~/.hgrc' file look something like this:

[extensions]
hgext.bookmarks =
hggit = [path-to]/hg-git/hggit

That will enable the Hg-Git extension for you. The bookmarks section is only required prior to hg 1.7. Bookmarks will be translated to git heads when pushing.

Dependencies

Different versions of hg-git are known to work with different versions of Mercurial. For the most accurate info, go to the source on Heptapod, click the dropdown menu that says "branch/default", select the tag corresponding to the version you've installed, and click on the file "Makefile". There's a line that starts with "all-version-tests" which lists the versions of Mercurial known to work.

It also needs Dulwich version 0.8.0 or later; Dulwich is a pure-Python implementation of the Git file formats and protocols. There are no Git binary dependencies: you do not need to have Git installed on your system.

Sources

Source available at https://foss.heptapod.net/mercurial/hg-git. Patches preferred via email to the hg-git mailing list.

This plugin was originally developed by the folks at GitHub, and is currently maintained by Kevin Bullock.