Documentation/git-bundle.txt

   1 git-bundle(1)
   2 =============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git bundle' create [-q | --quiet | --progress | --all-progress] [--all-progress-implied]
  13                     [--version=<version>] <file> <git-rev-list-args>
  14 'git bundle' verify [-q | --quiet] <file>
  15 'git bundle' list-heads <file> [<refname>...]
  16 'git bundle' unbundle <file> [<refname>...]
  17
  18 DESCRIPTION
  19 -----------
  20
  21 Some workflows require that one or more branches of development on one
  22 machine be replicated on another machine, but the two machines cannot
  23 be directly connected, and therefore the interactive Git protocols (git,
  24 ssh, http) cannot be used.
  25
  26 The 'git bundle' command packages objects and references in an archive
  27 at the originating machine, which can then be imported into another
  28 repository using 'git fetch', 'git pull', or 'git clone',
  29 after moving the archive by some means (e.g., by sneakernet).
  30
  31 As no
  32 direct connection between the repositories exists, the user must specify a
  33 basis for the bundle that is held by the destination repository: the
  34 bundle assumes that all objects in the basis are already in the
  35 destination repository.
  36
  37 OPTIONS
  38 -------
  39
  40 create [options] <file> <git-rev-list-args>::
  41         Used to create a bundle named 'file'.  This requires the
  42         '<git-rev-list-args>' arguments to define the bundle contents.
  43         'options' contains the options specific to the 'git bundle create'
  44         subcommand.
  45
  46 verify <file>::
  47         Used to check that a bundle file is valid and will apply
  48         cleanly to the current repository.  This includes checks on the
  49         bundle format itself as well as checking that the prerequisite
  50         commits exist and are fully linked in the current repository.
  51         'git bundle' prints a list of missing commits, if any, and exits
  52         with a non-zero status.
  53
  54 list-heads <file>::
  55         Lists the references defined in the bundle.  If followed by a
  56         list of references, only references matching those given are
  57         printed out.
  58
  59 unbundle <file>::
  60         Passes the objects in the bundle to 'git index-pack'
  61         for storage in the repository, then prints the names of all
  62         defined references. If a list of references is given, only
  63         references matching those in the list are printed. This command is
  64         really plumbing, intended to be called only by 'git fetch'.
  65
  66 <git-rev-list-args>::
  67         A list of arguments, acceptable to 'git rev-parse' and
  68         'git rev-list' (and containing a named ref, see SPECIFYING REFERENCES
  69         below), that specifies the specific objects and references
  70         to transport.  For example, `master~10..master` causes the
  71         current master reference to be packaged along with all objects
  72         added since its 10th ancestor commit.  There is no explicit
  73         limit to the number of references and objects that may be
  74         packaged.
  75
  76
  77 [<refname>...]::
  78         A list of references used to limit the references reported as
  79         available. This is principally of use to 'git fetch', which
  80         expects to receive only those references asked for and not
  81         necessarily everything in the pack (in this case, 'git bundle' acts
  82         like 'git fetch-pack').
  83
  84 --progress::
  85         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
  86         by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
  87         is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
  88         the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
  89
  90 --all-progress::
  91         When --stdout is specified then progress report is
  92         displayed during the object count and compression phases
  93         but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is
  94         that in some cases the output stream is directly linked
  95         to another command which may wish to display progress
  96         status of its own as it processes incoming pack data.
  97         This flag is like --progress except that it forces progress
  98         report for the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is
  99         used.
 100
 101 --all-progress-implied::
 102         This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display
 103         is activated.  Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn't actually
 104         force any progress display by itself.
 105
 106 --version=<version>::
 107         Specify the bundle version.  Version 2 is the older format and can only be
 108         used with SHA-1 repositories; the newer version 3 contains capabilities that
 109         permit extensions. The default is the oldest supported format, based on the
 110         hash algorithm in use.
 111
 112 -q::
 113 --quiet::
 114         This flag makes the command not to report its progress
 115         on the standard error stream.
 116
 117 SPECIFYING REFERENCES
 118 ---------------------
 119
 120 'git bundle' will only package references that are shown by
 121 'git show-ref': this includes heads, tags, and remote heads.  References
 122 such as `master~1` cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for
 123 defining the basis.  More than one reference may be packaged, and more
 124 than one basis can be specified.  The objects packaged are those not
 125 contained in the union of the given bases.  Each basis can be
 126 specified explicitly (e.g. `^master~10`), or implicitly (e.g.
 127 `master~10..master`, `--since=10.days.ago master`).
 128
 129 It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination.
 130 It is okay to err on the side of caution, causing the bundle file
 131 to contain objects already in the destination, as these are ignored
 132 when unpacking at the destination.
 133
 134 `git clone` can use any bundle created without negative refspecs
 135 (e.g., `new`, but not `old..new`).
 136 If you want to match `git clone --mirror`, which would include your
 137 refs such as `refs/remotes/*`, use `--all`.
 138 If you want to provide the same set of refs that a clone directly
 139 from the source repository would get, use `--branches --tags` for
 140 the `<git-rev-list-args>`.
 141
 142 EXAMPLES
 143 --------
 144
 145 Assume you want to transfer the history from a repository R1 on machine A
 146 to another repository R2 on machine B.
 147 For whatever reason, direct connection between A and B is not allowed,
 148 but we can move data from A to B via some mechanism (CD, email, etc.).
 149 We want to update R2 with development made on the branch master in R1.
 150
 151 To bootstrap the process, you can first create a bundle that does not have
 152 any basis. You can use a tag to remember up to what commit you last
 153 processed, in order to make it easy to later update the other repository
 154 with an incremental bundle:
 155
 156 ----------------
 157 machineA$ cd R1
 158 machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle master
 159 machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
 160 ----------------
 161
 162 Then you transfer file.bundle to the target machine B. Because this
 163 bundle does not require any existing object to be extracted, you can
 164 create a new repository on machine B by cloning from it:
 165
 166 ----------------
 167 machineB$ git clone -b master /home/me/tmp/file.bundle R2
 168 ----------------
 169
 170 This will define a remote called "origin" in the resulting repository that
 171 lets you fetch and pull from the bundle. The $GIT_DIR/config file in R2 will
 172 have an entry like this:
 173
 174 ------------------------
 175 [remote "origin"]
 176     url = /home/me/tmp/file.bundle
 177     fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
 178 ------------------------
 179
 180 To update the resulting mine.git repository, you can fetch or pull after
 181 replacing the bundle stored at /home/me/tmp/file.bundle with incremental
 182 updates.
 183
 184 After working some more in the original repository, you can create an
 185 incremental bundle to update the other repository:
 186
 187 ----------------
 188 machineA$ cd R1
 189 machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle lastR2bundle..master
 190 machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
 191 ----------------
 192
 193 You then transfer the bundle to the other machine to replace
 194 /home/me/tmp/file.bundle, and pull from it.
 195
 196 ----------------
 197 machineB$ cd R2
 198 machineB$ git pull
 199 ----------------
 200
 201 If you know up to what commit the intended recipient repository should
 202 have the necessary objects, you can use that knowledge to specify the
 203 basis, giving a cut-off point to limit the revisions and objects that go
 204 in the resulting bundle. The previous example used the lastR2bundle tag
 205 for this purpose, but you can use any other options that you would give to
 206 the linkgit:git-log[1] command. Here are more examples:
 207
 208 You can use a tag that is present in both:
 209
 210 ----------------
 211 $ git bundle create mybundle v1.0.0..master
 212 ----------------
 213
 214 You can use a basis based on time:
 215
 216 ----------------
 217 $ git bundle create mybundle --since=10.days master
 218 ----------------
 219
 220 You can use the number of commits:
 221
 222 ----------------
 223 $ git bundle create mybundle -10 master
 224 ----------------
 225
 226 You can run `git-bundle verify` to see if you can extract from a bundle
 227 that was created with a basis:
 228
 229 ----------------
 230 $ git bundle verify mybundle
 231 ----------------
 232
 233 This will list what commits you must have in order to extract from the
 234 bundle and will error out if you do not have them.
 235
 236 A bundle from a recipient repository's point of view is just like a
 237 regular repository which it fetches or pulls from. You can, for example, map
 238 references when fetching:
 239
 240 ----------------
 241 $ git fetch mybundle master:localRef
 242 ----------------
 243
 244 You can also see what references it offers:
 245
 246 ----------------
 247 $ git ls-remote mybundle
 248 ----------------
 249
 250 GIT
 251 ---
 252 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite