After upgrading Git to 1.5.4.2, I was having problems checking out projects from Apache’s subversion repository. When I would try to do something like:

git svn clone --stdlayout https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/mina/asyncweb

Git would output:

Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
Using higher level of URL: https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/mina/asyncweb => https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf
W: Ignoring error from SVN, path probably does not exist: (175002): RA layer request failed: REPORT request failed on '/repos/asf/!svn/bc/100': REPORT of '/repos/asf/!svn/bc/100': Could not read chunk size: Secure connection truncated (https://svn.apache.org)
W: Do not be alarmed at the above message git-svn is just searching aggressively for old history.
This may take a while on large repositories

It would churn for a LONG while and finally die spewing out:

RA layer request failed: REPORT request failed on '/repos/asf/!svn/vcc/default': REPORT of '/repos/asf/!svn/vcc/default': 400 Bad Request (https://svn.apache.org) at /usr/bin/git-svn line 3813

I Googled for a solution, of course, and didn’t find anything. Git would create a project folder but it didn’t have anything in it except for the .git directory. I tried doing a ‘git svn rebase’ and it would fail. Out of desperation I tried doing ‘git svn fetch’ and voila! Git started pulling down the project and its history. It still takes a painfully long time to find the project’s history and fetch it but the flexibility and dynamics of Git make the required patience worth it.