Index: /home/ntoper/workspace/jackrabbit/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/version/VersionManagerImpl.java
===================================================================
--- /home/ntoper/workspace/jackrabbit/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/version/VersionManagerImpl.java	(revision 431959)
+++ /home/ntoper/workspace/jackrabbit/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/core/version/VersionManagerImpl.java	(working copy)
@@ -17,9 +17,14 @@
 package org.apache.jackrabbit.core.version;
 
 import org.apache.commons.collections.map.ReferenceMap;
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.xml.SysViewImporter;
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.BatchedItemOperations;
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.HierarchyManager;
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.NamespaceRegistryImpl;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.NodeId;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.NodeImpl;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.PropertyId;
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.RestoreBatchedItemOperations;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.SessionImpl;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.fs.FileSystem;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.nodetype.NodeTypeRegistry;
@@ -32,12 +37,17 @@
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.state.NodeReferences;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.state.NodeReferencesId;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.state.NodeState;
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.state.NodeVersionHistoriesUpdatableStateManager;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.state.PersistenceManager;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.state.PropertyState;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.state.SharedItemStateManager;
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.state.UpdatableItemStateManager;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.value.InternalValue;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.virtual.VirtualItemStateProvider;
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.xml.ImportHandler;
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.core.xml.Importer;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.name.MalformedPathException;
+import org.apache.jackrabbit.name.NamespaceResolver;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.name.Path;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.name.QName;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
@@ -42,7 +52,13 @@
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.name.QName;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
+import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
+import org.xml.sax.XMLReader;
+import org.xml.sax.helpers.XMLReaderFactory;
 
+import javax.jcr.ImportUUIDBehavior;
+import javax.jcr.InvalidSerializedDataException;
 import javax.jcr.PropertyType;
 import javax.jcr.ReferentialIntegrityException;
 import javax.jcr.RepositoryException;
@@ -50,6 +66,9 @@
 import javax.jcr.version.Version;
 import javax.jcr.version.VersionException;
 import javax.jcr.version.VersionHistory;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.Iterator;
@@ -126,6 +145,7 @@
                               NodeTypeRegistry ntReg,
                               DelegatingObservationDispatcher obsMgr, NodeId rootId,
                               NodeId rootParentId) throws RepositoryException {
+        //TODO check if is not empty => throw exception
         try {
             this.pMgr = pMgr;
             this.fs = fs;
@@ -548,4 +568,51 @@
     private abstract class SourcedTarget {
         public abstract Object run() throws RepositoryException;
     }
+
+    /**
+     * <code>importVersions</code> allows you to import a version history
+     * in the system view format.
+     * <b>You need to restart the repository after the importation is over </b>
+     *
+     * @param in InputStream of the system view XML.
+     * @param hierMgr HierarchyManager of the repository
+     * @param nsResolver NamespaceResolver
+     * @param nsRegistry NameSpaceRegistryImpl
+     *
+     * @throws IOException in case of an IO error with the XML file
+     * @throws RepositoryException in any other case.
+     */
+    public void importVersions(InputStream in,
+            HierarchyManager hierMgr,
+            NamespaceResolver nsResolver,
+            NamespaceRegistryImpl nsRegistry
+    ) throws IOException, RepositoryException {
+
+        UpdatableItemStateManager upMgr = new NodeVersionHistoriesUpdatableStateManager(sharedStateMgr, pMgr);
+        BatchedItemOperations itemOps = new RestoreBatchedItemOperations(upMgr, ntReg, hierMgr, nsResolver);
+        Importer importer = new SysViewImporter(VERSION_STORAGE_PATH, hierMgr, ntReg,
+                ImportUUIDBehavior.IMPORT_UUID_COLLISION_REPLACE_EXISTING, itemOps);
+        ImportHandler handler = new ImportHandler(importer, nsResolver, nsRegistry);
+
+        try {
+
+            XMLReader parser =
+                XMLReaderFactory.createXMLReader("org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser");
+            parser.setContentHandler(handler);
+            parser.setErrorHandler(handler);
+            parser.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/namespaces", true);
+            parser.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/namespace-prefixes",
+                    false);
+            parser.parse(new InputSource(in));
+        } catch (SAXException se) {
+            // check for wrapped repository exception
+            Exception e = se.getException();
+            if (e != null && e instanceof RepositoryException) {
+                throw (RepositoryException) e;
+            } else {
+                String msg = "failed to parse XML stream";
+                throw new InvalidSerializedDataException(msg, se);
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }