git-svn dcommits messages not in UTF-8 charset to mod_dav_svn?

["Matthias Andree" <matthias.andree@gmx.de>]

Greetings,

I had tried to use git cvsimport and git svn to transfer a CVS repository  
(I have access to it) to an SVN repository (where I don't have access to  
the repo, so I cannot use cvs2svn or similar).

The problem is that the CVS repo had non-UTF-8 commit log messages, and I  
didn't bother to convert them to UTF-8. However, SVN insists on encoding  
filenames and log messages in UTF-8.

"git svn dcommit" (which uses the SVN Perl bindings under the hood)  
happily committed such a non-UTF-8 message and br0ke the repo. The actual  
reason is that the SVN server (https://...) is now wedged, as in:

$ svn log -r130
svn: REPORT of '/repos/!svn/bc/130': 200 OK (https://svn-serv...de)

$ svn --xml log -r130  2>/dev/null
[stdout:]
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<log>
[stderr:]
svn: REPORT of '/repos/!svn/bc/130': 200 OK (https://svn-serv...de)

$ svn propget --revprop svn:log -r130 https://svn-serv...de/path/
aktuelle version (disclaimer)
kopf und fu?\223zeilen
etc.


While mod_dav_svn arguably shouldn't accept b0rked messages, git-svn  
shouldn't attempt to commit them either. It seems that the svn command  
line utilities validate the message format by themselves, and apparently  
the svn server module (likely mod_dav_svn - or are there others?) does not.

So, could
a) git-svn be modified to refuse dcommiting non-UTF-8 messages?
b) mod_dav_svn be modified to refuse commits/propedits/propsets with  
non-UTF-8 messages?

I'm sorry to say I don't have information how the SVN server is configured  
and which version it's running.

Thanks.

-- 
Matthias Andree