make git-svn work on Mac OSX Tiger

After a few hours of googling and pull some hair out, I have finally figured out how to make git-svn work on Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger. If you have installed git on your Mac using mac-ports or source, you will find that running git-svn causes an error similar to this:

Can't locate SVN/Core.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.6 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl /sw/lib/perl5 /sw/lib/perl5/darwin /System/Library/Perl/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/5.8.6 /Library/Perl/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/5.8.6 /Library/Perl /Network/Library/Perl/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Network/Library/Perl/5.8.6 /Network/Library/Perl /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.8.6 /Library/Perl/5.8.1 .) at /usr/bin/git-svn line 24.

This is because when you installed SVN it didn’t put the perl modules in the correct place. Here is a quick way to fix it.

mike@mikes-laptop$ locate SVN/Core.pm
In my case it was located in /usr/local/lib/svn-perl/SVN/Core.pm
Now we need to link that SVN directory in to your perl directory so perl can pick it up and use it. We will put it in /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.8.6
mike@mikes-laptop$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/svn-perl/SVN /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.8.6/SVN

Now if you run git-svn you will notice a different error that resembles this:

Can't locate loadable object for module SVN::_Core in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.6 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl /sw/lib/perl5 /sw/lib/perl5/darwin /System/Library/Perl/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/5.8.6 /Library/Perl/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/5.8.6 /Library/Perl /Network/Library/Perl/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Network/Library/Perl/5.8.6 /Network/Library/Perl /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.8.6 /Library/Perl/5.8.1 .) at /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.8.6/SVN/Base.pm line 59
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.8.6/SVN/Core.pm line 5.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/bin/git-svn line 24.

We just need to link the auto/svn directory as well. Use the prior base path but instead of SVN you use auto/svn. Like so:

mike@mikes-laptop$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/svn-perl/auto/svn /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.8.6/auto/svn

And there you have it. If you try running git-svn you should be presented with an available command list.