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 -l::
  67         Pass the `--local` option to 'git pack-objects'. See
  68         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  69
  70 -f::
  71         Pass the `--no-reuse-delta` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
  72         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  73
  74 -F::
  75         Pass the `--no-reuse-object` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
  76         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  77
  78 -q::
  79 --quiet::
  80         Show no progress over the standard error stream and pass the `-q`
  81         option to 'git pack-objects'. See linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  82
  83 -n::
  84         Do not update the server information with
  85         'git update-server-info'.  This option skips
  86         updating local catalog files needed to publish
  87         this repository (or a direct copy of it)
  88         over HTTP or FTP.  See linkgit:git-update-server-info[1].
  89
  90 --window=<n>::
  91 --depth=<n>::
  92         These two options affect how the objects contained in the pack are
  93         stored using delta compression. The objects are first internally
  94         sorted by type, size and optionally names and compared against the
  95         other objects within `--window` to see if using delta compression saves
  96         space. `--depth` limits the maximum delta depth; making it too deep
  97         affects the performance on the unpacker side, because delta data needs
  98         to be applied that many times to get to the necessary object.
  99 +
 100 The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50. The maximum
 101 depth is 4095.
 102
 103 --threads=<n>::
 104         This option is passed through to `git pack-objects`.
 105
 106 --window-memory=<n>::
 107         This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
 108         the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
 109         up more than '<n>' bytes in memory.  This is useful in
 110         repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
 111         out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
 112         advantage of the large window for the smaller objects.  The
 113         size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
 114         `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited.  The default
 115         is taken from the `pack.windowMemory` configuration variable.
 116         Note that the actual memory usage will be the limit multiplied
 117         by the number of threads used by linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
 118
 119 --max-pack-size=<n>::
 120         Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed with
 121         "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
 122         If specified, multiple packfiles may be created, which also
 123         prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
 124         The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
 125         `pack.packSizeLimit` is set. Note that this option may result in
 126         a larger and slower repository; see the discussion in
 127         `pack.packSizeLimit`.
 128
 129 -b::
 130 --write-bitmap-index::
 131         Write a reachability bitmap index as part of the repack. This
 132         only makes sense when used with `-a`, `-A` or `-m`, as the bitmaps
 133         must be able to refer to all reachable objects. This option
 134         overrides the setting of `repack.writeBitmaps`. This option
 135         has no effect if multiple packfiles are created, unless writing a
 136         MIDX (in which case a multi-pack bitmap is created).
 137
 138 --pack-kept-objects::
 139         Include objects in `.keep` files when repacking.  Note that we
 140         still do not delete `.keep` packs after `pack-objects` finishes.
 141         This means that we may duplicate objects, but this makes the
 142         option safe to use when there are concurrent pushes or fetches.
 143         This option is generally only useful if you are writing bitmaps
 144         with `-b` or `repack.writeBitmaps`, as it ensures that the
 145         bitmapped packfile has the necessary objects.
 146
 147 --keep-pack=<pack-name>::
 148         Exclude the given pack from repacking. This is the equivalent
 149         of having `.keep` file on the pack. `<pack-name>` is the
 150         pack file name without leading directory (e.g. `pack-123.pack`).
 151         The option could be specified multiple times to keep multiple
 152         packs.
 153
 154 --unpack-unreachable=<when>::
 155         When loosening unreachable objects, do not bother loosening any
 156         objects older than `<when>`. This can be used to optimize out
 157         the write of any objects that would be immediately pruned by
 158         a follow-up `git prune`.
 159
 160 -k::
 161 --keep-unreachable::
 162         When used with `-ad`, any unreachable objects from existing
 163         packs will be appended to the end of the packfile instead of
 164         being removed. In addition, any unreachable loose objects will
 165         be packed (and their loose counterparts removed).
 166
 167 -i::
 168 --delta-islands::
 169         Pass the `--delta-islands` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
 170         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
 171
 172 -g=<factor>::
 173 --geometric=<factor>::
 174         Arrange resulting pack structure so that each successive pack
 175         contains at least `<factor>` times the number of objects as the
 176         next-largest pack.
 177 +
 178 `git repack` ensures this by determining a "cut" of packfiles that need
 179 to be repacked into one in order to ensure a geometric progression. It
 180 picks the smallest set of packfiles such that as many of the larger
 181 packfiles (by count of objects contained in that pack) may be left
 182 intact.
 183 +
 184 Unlike other repack modes, the set of objects to pack is determined
 185 uniquely by the set of packs being "rolled-up"; in other words, the
 186 packs determined to need to be combined in order to restore a geometric
 187 progression.
 188 +
 189 When `--unpacked` is specified, loose objects are implicitly included in
 190 this "roll-up", without respect to their reachability. This is subject
 191 to change in the future. This option (implying a drastically different
 192 repack mode) is not guaranteed to work with all other combinations of
 193 option to `git repack`.
 194 +
 195 When writing a multi-pack bitmap, `git repack` selects the largest resulting
 196 pack as the preferred pack for object selection by the MIDX (see
 197 linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1]).
 198
 199 -m::
 200 --write-midx::
 201         Write a multi-pack index (see linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1])
 202         containing the non-redundant packs.
 203
 204 CONFIGURATION
 205 -------------
 206
 207 Various configuration variables affect packing, see
 208 linkgit:git-config[1] (search for "pack" and "delta").
 209
 210 By default, the command passes `--delta-base-offset` option to
 211 'git pack-objects'; this typically results in slightly smaller packs,
 212 but the generated packs are incompatible with versions of Git older than
 213 version 1.4.4. If you need to share your repository with such ancient Git
 214 versions, either directly or via the dumb http protocol, then you
 215 need to set the configuration variable `repack.UseDeltaBaseOffset` to
 216 "false" and repack. Access from old Git versions over the native protocol
 217 is unaffected by this option as the conversion is performed on the fly
 218 as needed in that case.
 219
 220 Delta compression is not used on objects larger than the
 221 `core.bigFileThreshold` configuration variable and on files with the
 222 attribute `delta` set to false.
 223
 224 SEE ALSO
 225 --------
 226 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1]
 227 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
 228
 229 GIT
 230 ---
 231 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite