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]
  14           [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>]
  15           [--depth <depth>] [--] <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[1])
  72 which automatically call git-gc[1]. If these objects are removed and
  73 were referenced by the cloned repository, then the cloned repository
  74 will become corrupt.
  75
  76
  77
  78 --reference <repository>::
  79         If the reference repository is on the local machine
  80         automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to
  81         obtain objects from the reference repository.  Using
  82         an already existing repository as an alternate will
  83         require fewer objects to be copied from the repository
  84         being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs.
  85 +
  86 *NOTE*: see NOTE to --shared option.
  87
  88 --quiet::
  89 -q::
  90         Operate quietly.  This flag is passed to "rsync" and
  91         "git-fetch-pack" commands when given.
  92
  93 --no-checkout::
  94 -n::
  95         No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
  96
  97 --bare::
  98         Make a 'bare' GIT repository.  That is, instead of
  99         creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative
 100         files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>`
 101         itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n`
 102         because there is nowhere to check out the working tree.
 103         Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly
 104         to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping
 105         them to `refs/remotes/origin/`.  When this option is
 106         used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related
 107         configuration variables are created.
 108
 109 --origin <name>::
 110 -o <name>::
 111         Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track
 112         of the upstream repository, use <name> instead.
 113
 114 --upload-pack <upload-pack>::
 115 -u <upload-pack>::
 116         When given, and the repository to clone from is handled
 117         by 'git-fetch-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to
 118         the command to specify non-default path for the command
 119         run on the other end.
 120
 121 --template=<template_directory>::
 122         Specify the directory from which templates will be used;
 123         if unset the templates are taken from the installation
 124         defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`.
 125
 126 --depth <depth>::
 127         Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the
 128         specified number of revisions.  A shallow repository has a
 129         number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from
 130         it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you
 131         are only interested in the recent history of a large project
 132         with a long history, and would want to send in fixes
 133         as patches.
 134
 135 <repository>::
 136         The (possibly remote) repository to clone from.  See the
 137         <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying
 138         repositories.
 139
 140 <directory>::
 141         The name of a new directory to clone into.  The "humanish"
 142         part of the source repository is used if no directory is
 143         explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo"
 144         for "host.xz:foo/.git").  Cloning into an existing directory
 145         is not allowed.
 146
 147 :git-clone: 1
 148 include::urls.txt[]
 149
 150 Examples
 151 --------
 152
 153 Clone from upstream::
 154 +
 155 ------------
 156 $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
 157 $ cd my2.6
 158 $ make
 159 ------------
 160
 161
 162 Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out::
 163 +
 164 ------------
 165 $ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
 166 $ cd ../copy
 167 $ git show-branch
 168 ------------
 169
 170
 171 Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory::
 172 +
 173 ------------
 174 $ git clone --reference my2.6 \
 175         git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \
 176         my2.7
 177 $ cd my2.7
 178 ------------
 179
 180
 181 Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public::
 182 +
 183 ------------
 184 $ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git
 185 ------------
 186
 187
 188 Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus::
 189 +
 190 ------------
 191 $ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \
 192     /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git
 193 ------------
 194
 195
 196 Author
 197 ------
 198 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 199
 200
 201 Documentation
 202 --------------
 203 Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 204
 205
 206 GIT
 207 ---
 208 Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite