Documentation/git-repack.txt

   1 git-repack(1)
   2 =============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-repack - Pack unpacked objects in a repository
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git repack' [-a] [-A] [-d] [-f] [-F] [-l] [-n] [-q] [-b] [-m] [--window=<n>] [--depth=<n>] [--threads=<n>] [--keep-pack=<pack-name>] [--write-midx]
  13
  14 DESCRIPTION
  15 -----------
  16
  17 This command is used to combine all objects that do not currently
  18 reside in a "pack", into a pack.  It can also be used to re-organize
  19 existing packs into a single, more efficient pack.
  20
  21 A pack is a collection of objects, individually compressed, with
  22 delta compression applied, stored in a single file, with an
  23 associated index file.
  24
  25 Packs are used to reduce the load on mirror systems, backup
  26 engines, disk storage, etc.
  27
  28 OPTIONS
  29 -------
  30
  31 -a::
  32         Instead of incrementally packing the unpacked objects,
  33         pack everything referenced into a single pack.
  34         Especially useful when packing a repository that is used
  35         for private development. Use
  36         with `-d`.  This will clean up the objects that `git prune`
  37         leaves behind, but `git fsck --full --dangling` shows as
  38         dangling.
  39 +
  40 Note that users fetching over dumb protocols will have to fetch the
  41 whole new pack in order to get any contained object, no matter how many
  42 other objects in that pack they already have locally.
  43 +
  44 Promisor packfiles are repacked separately: if there are packfiles that
  45 have an associated ".promisor" file, these packfiles will be repacked
  46 into another separate pack, and an empty ".promisor" file corresponding
  47 to the new separate pack will be written.
  48
  49 -A::
  50         Same as `-a`, unless `-d` is used.  Then any unreachable
  51         objects in a previous pack become loose, unpacked objects,
  52         instead of being left in the old pack.  Unreachable objects
  53         are never intentionally added to a pack, even when repacking.
  54         This option prevents unreachable objects from being immediately
  55         deleted by way of being left in the old pack and then
  56         removed.  Instead, the loose unreachable objects
  57         will be pruned according to normal expiry rules
  58         with the next 'git gc' invocation. See linkgit:git-gc[1].
  59
  60 -d::
  61         After packing, if the newly created packs make some
  62         existing packs redundant, remove the redundant packs.
  63         Also run  'git prune-packed' to remove redundant
  64         loose object files.
  65
  66 --cruft::
  67         Same as `-a`, unless `-d` is used. Then any unreachable objects
  68         are packed into a separate cruft pack. Unreachable objects can
  69         be pruned using the normal expiry rules with the next `git gc`
  70         invocation (see linkgit:git-gc[1]). Incompatible with `-k`.
  71
  72 --cruft-expiration=<approxidate>::
  73         Expire unreachable objects older than `<approxidate>`
  74         immediately instead of waiting for the next `git gc` invocation.
  75         Only useful with `--cruft -d`.
  76
  77 --expire-to=<dir>::
  78         Write a cruft pack containing pruned objects (if any) to the
  79         directory `<dir>`. This option is useful for keeping a copy of
  80         any pruned objects in a separate directory as a backup. Only
  81         useful with `--cruft -d`.
  82
  83 -l::
  84         Pass the `--local` option to 'git pack-objects'. See
  85         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  86
  87 -f::
  88         Pass the `--no-reuse-delta` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
  89         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  90
  91 -F::
  92         Pass the `--no-reuse-object` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
  93         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  94
  95 -q::
  96 --quiet::
  97         Show no progress over the standard error stream and pass the `-q`
  98         option to 'git pack-objects'. See linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  99
 100 -n::
 101         Do not update the server information with
 102         'git update-server-info'.  This option skips
 103         updating local catalog files needed to publish
 104         this repository (or a direct copy of it)
 105         over HTTP or FTP.  See linkgit:git-update-server-info[1].
 106
 107 --window=<n>::
 108 --depth=<n>::
 109         These two options affect how the objects contained in the pack are
 110         stored using delta compression. The objects are first internally
 111         sorted by type, size and optionally names and compared against the
 112         other objects within `--window` to see if using delta compression saves
 113         space. `--depth` limits the maximum delta depth; making it too deep
 114         affects the performance on the unpacker side, because delta data needs
 115         to be applied that many times to get to the necessary object.
 116 +
 117 The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50. The maximum
 118 depth is 4095.
 119
 120 --threads=<n>::
 121         This option is passed through to `git pack-objects`.
 122
 123 --window-memory=<n>::
 124         This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
 125         the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
 126         up more than '<n>' bytes in memory.  This is useful in
 127         repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
 128         out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
 129         advantage of the large window for the smaller objects.  The
 130         size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
 131         `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited.  The default
 132         is taken from the `pack.windowMemory` configuration variable.
 133         Note that the actual memory usage will be the limit multiplied
 134         by the number of threads used by linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
 135
 136 --max-pack-size=<n>::
 137         Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed with
 138         "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
 139         If specified, multiple packfiles may be created, which also
 140         prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
 141         The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
 142         `pack.packSizeLimit` is set. Note that this option may result in
 143         a larger and slower repository; see the discussion in
 144         `pack.packSizeLimit`.
 145
 146 -b::
 147 --write-bitmap-index::
 148         Write a reachability bitmap index as part of the repack. This
 149         only makes sense when used with `-a`, `-A` or `-m`, as the bitmaps
 150         must be able to refer to all reachable objects. This option
 151         overrides the setting of `repack.writeBitmaps`. This option
 152         has no effect if multiple packfiles are created, unless writing a
 153         MIDX (in which case a multi-pack bitmap is created).
 154
 155 --pack-kept-objects::
 156         Include objects in `.keep` files when repacking.  Note that we
 157         still do not delete `.keep` packs after `pack-objects` finishes.
 158         This means that we may duplicate objects, but this makes the
 159         option safe to use when there are concurrent pushes or fetches.
 160         This option is generally only useful if you are writing bitmaps
 161         with `-b` or `repack.writeBitmaps`, as it ensures that the
 162         bitmapped packfile has the necessary objects.
 163
 164 --keep-pack=<pack-name>::
 165         Exclude the given pack from repacking. This is the equivalent
 166         of having `.keep` file on the pack. `<pack-name>` is the
 167         pack file name without leading directory (e.g. `pack-123.pack`).
 168         The option could be specified multiple times to keep multiple
 169         packs.
 170
 171 --unpack-unreachable=<when>::
 172         When loosening unreachable objects, do not bother loosening any
 173         objects older than `<when>`. This can be used to optimize out
 174         the write of any objects that would be immediately pruned by
 175         a follow-up `git prune`.
 176
 177 -k::
 178 --keep-unreachable::
 179         When used with `-ad`, any unreachable objects from existing
 180         packs will be appended to the end of the packfile instead of
 181         being removed. In addition, any unreachable loose objects will
 182         be packed (and their loose counterparts removed).
 183
 184 -i::
 185 --delta-islands::
 186         Pass the `--delta-islands` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
 187         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
 188
 189 -g=<factor>::
 190 --geometric=<factor>::
 191         Arrange resulting pack structure so that each successive pack
 192         contains at least `<factor>` times the number of objects as the
 193         next-largest pack.
 194 +
 195 `git repack` ensures this by determining a "cut" of packfiles that need
 196 to be repacked into one in order to ensure a geometric progression. It
 197 picks the smallest set of packfiles such that as many of the larger
 198 packfiles (by count of objects contained in that pack) may be left
 199 intact.
 200 +
 201 Unlike other repack modes, the set of objects to pack is determined
 202 uniquely by the set of packs being "rolled-up"; in other words, the
 203 packs determined to need to be combined in order to restore a geometric
 204 progression.
 205 +
 206 When `--unpacked` is specified, loose objects are implicitly included in
 207 this "roll-up", without respect to their reachability. This is subject
 208 to change in the future. This option (implying a drastically different
 209 repack mode) is not guaranteed to work with all other combinations of
 210 option to `git repack`.
 211 +
 212 When writing a multi-pack bitmap, `git repack` selects the largest resulting
 213 pack as the preferred pack for object selection by the MIDX (see
 214 linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1]).
 215
 216 -m::
 217 --write-midx::
 218         Write a multi-pack index (see linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1])
 219         containing the non-redundant packs.
 220
 221 CONFIGURATION
 222 -------------
 223
 224 Various configuration variables affect packing, see
 225 linkgit:git-config[1] (search for "pack" and "delta").
 226
 227 By default, the command passes `--delta-base-offset` option to
 228 'git pack-objects'; this typically results in slightly smaller packs,
 229 but the generated packs are incompatible with versions of Git older than
 230 version 1.4.4. If you need to share your repository with such ancient Git
 231 versions, either directly or via the dumb http protocol, then you
 232 need to set the configuration variable `repack.UseDeltaBaseOffset` to
 233 "false" and repack. Access from old Git versions over the native protocol
 234 is unaffected by this option as the conversion is performed on the fly
 235 as needed in that case.
 236
 237 Delta compression is not used on objects larger than the
 238 `core.bigFileThreshold` configuration variable and on files with the
 239 attribute `delta` set to false.
 240
 241 SEE ALSO
 242 --------
 243 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1]
 244 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
 245
 246 GIT
 247 ---
 248 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite