I can't find much on this anywhere, before diving into git-svn I was wondering how safe it is to use against an SVN repository. I have experimented a little, and had one check in which seemed to fail part way through, but didn't seem to affect my test repository.
Does git-svn only use the public SVN api? Or does it implement any hacks to get around the api in order to implement any more advanced commit features? Are there any known cases where git-svn can corrupt or otherwise damage an SVN repository when used incorrectly?
git-svn is safe to use (where "is safe" is defined as: There is never a guarantee that software won't just blow your house off). It mimics an SVN client and cannot perform server other/magic server actions.
If you are unsure you can always create a svn repository locally
svnadmin create ~/svn-repo
clone it locally
git svn clone ~/svn-repo
and then you play around: commit (git svn dcommit), update (git svn rebase), etc.