Documentation/git-clone.txt

   1 git-clone(1)
   2 ============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git clone' [--template=<template_directory>]
  13           [-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror]
  14           [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>]
  15           [--depth <depth>] [--recursive] [--] <repository> [<directory>]
  16
  17 DESCRIPTION
  18 -----------
  19
  20 Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates
  21 remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository
  22 (visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an initial
  23 branch equal to the cloned repository's currently active branch.
  24
  25 After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update
  26 all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without
  27 arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the
  28 current master branch, if any.
  29
  30 This default configuration is achieved by creating references to
  31 the remote branch heads under `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin` and
  32 by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch`
  33 configuration variables.
  34
  35
  36 OPTIONS
  37 -------
  38 --local::
  39 -l::
  40         When the repository to clone from is on a local machine,
  41         this flag bypasses normal "git aware" transport
  42         mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of
  43         HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories.
  44         The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked
  45         to save space when possible.  This is now the default when
  46         the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo`
  47         syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option.  To force
  48         copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable
  49         if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository),
  50         but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport
  51         mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used.
  52
  53 --no-hardlinks::
  54         Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a
  55         local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects`
  56         directory.
  57
  58 --shared::
  59 -s::
  60         When the repository to clone is on the local machine,
  61         instead of using hard links, automatically setup
  62         .git/objects/info/alternates to share the objects
  63         with the source repository.  The resulting repository
  64         starts out without any object of its own.
  65 +
  66 *NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use
  67 it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your
  68 repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any
  69 other git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the
  70 source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling).
  71 These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as 'git-commit')
  72 which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].)
  73 If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository,
  74 then the cloned repository will become corrupt.
  75 +
  76 Note that running `git repack` without the `-l` option in a repository
  77 cloned with `-s` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack
  78 in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone -s`.
  79 It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `-l` option by
  80 default.
  81 +
  82 If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `-s` on
  83 its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all
  84 objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository.
  85
  86 --reference <repository>::
  87         If the reference repository is on the local machine,
  88         automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to
  89         obtain objects from the reference repository.  Using
  90         an already existing repository as an alternate will
  91         require fewer objects to be copied from the repository
  92         being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs.
  93 +
  94 *NOTE*: see NOTE to --shared option.
  95
  96 --quiet::
  97 -q::
  98         Operate quietly.  This flag is also passed to the `rsync'
  99         command when given.
 100
 101 --verbose::
 102 -v::
 103         Display the progressbar, even in case the standard output is not
 104         a terminal.
 105
 106 --no-checkout::
 107 -n::
 108         No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
 109
 110 --bare::
 111         Make a 'bare' GIT repository.  That is, instead of
 112         creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative
 113         files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>`
 114         itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n`
 115         because there is nowhere to check out the working tree.
 116         Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly
 117         to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping
 118         them to `refs/remotes/origin/`.  When this option is
 119         used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related
 120         configuration variables are created.
 121
 122 --mirror::
 123         Set up a mirror of the remote repository.  This implies --bare.
 124
 125 --origin <name>::
 126 -o <name>::
 127         Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track
 128         of the upstream repository, use <name>.
 129
 130 --branch <name>::
 131 -b <name>::
 132         Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed
 133         to by the cloned repositoroy's HEAD, point to <name> branch
 134         instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will
 135         be checked out.
 136
 137 --upload-pack <upload-pack>::
 138 -u <upload-pack>::
 139         When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed
 140         via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command
 141         run on the other end.
 142
 143 --template=<template_directory>::
 144         Specify the directory from which templates will be used;
 145         if unset the templates are taken from the installation
 146         defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`.
 147
 148 --depth <depth>::
 149         Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the
 150         specified number of revisions.  A shallow repository has a
 151         number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from
 152         it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you
 153         are only interested in the recent history of a large project
 154         with a long history, and would want to send in fixes
 155         as patches.
 156
 157 --recursive::
 158         After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within,
 159         using their default settings. This is equivalent to running
 160         'git submodule update --init --recursive' immediately after
 161         the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned
 162         repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of
 163         `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given)
 164
 165 <repository>::
 166         The (possibly remote) repository to clone from.  See the
 167         <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying
 168         repositories.
 169
 170 <directory>::
 171         The name of a new directory to clone into.  The "humanish"
 172         part of the source repository is used if no directory is
 173         explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo"
 174         for "host.xz:foo/.git").  Cloning into an existing directory
 175         is only allowed if the directory is empty.
 176
 177 :git-clone: 1
 178 include::urls.txt[]
 179
 180 Examples
 181 --------
 182
 183 Clone from upstream::
 184 +
 185 ------------
 186 $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
 187 $ cd my2.6
 188 $ make
 189 ------------
 190
 191
 192 Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out::
 193 +
 194 ------------
 195 $ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
 196 $ cd ../copy
 197 $ git show-branch
 198 ------------
 199
 200
 201 Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory::
 202 +
 203 ------------
 204 $ git clone --reference my2.6 \
 205         git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \
 206         my2.7
 207 $ cd my2.7
 208 ------------
 209
 210
 211 Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public::
 212 +
 213 ------------
 214 $ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git
 215 ------------
 216
 217
 218 Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus::
 219 +
 220 ------------
 221 $ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \
 222     /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git
 223 ------------
 224
 225
 226 Author
 227 ------
 228 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 229
 230
 231 Documentation
 232 --------------
 233 Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 234
 235
 236 GIT
 237 ---
 238 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite