Why does git svn init create an empty repository?

i am trying to follow this guide in order to move a project from svn to git. i don't particularly care about merging things upstream so this seems like the cleanest solution of those i've explored.

my issue is that when i execute git svn init file:///Users/Ankur/path/to/repository --no-metadata

i get the message Initialized empty开发者_如何学Python Git repository in /Users/Ankur/path/to/repository/.git/ which is supposed to be the first line of the output anyway, but its supposed to be followed by individual messages about commits. i don't get anything else (and this executes pretty quickly).

i've verified the path that i am using is correct by doing svn co file:///Users/Ankur/path/to/repository with the same repository to make sure i can checkout the repository normally.

details about my system: Mac OS X 10.6.5, which git returns /usr/bin/git (which i think means it was installed with Xcode because i removed the version i got with the git-osx-installer thinking it might have been the culprit initially). git --version returns git version 1.7.2.3

When creating a git repository:

git svn init is analogous to git init or svnadmin create. They both create empty repos.

git svn clone is analogous to git clone or svn checkout. They both make copies of remote repos.