Documentation/git-clone.txt

   1 git-clone(1)
   2 ============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-clone - Clones a repository.
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 'git-clone' [-l [-s]] [-q] [-n] [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] <repository> [<directory>]
  12
  13 DESCRIPTION
  14 -----------
  15 Clones a repository into a newly created directory.  All remote
  16 branch heads are copied under `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/`, except
  17 that the remote `master` is also copied to `origin` branch.
  18
  19 In addition, `$GIT_DIR/remotes/origin` file is set up to have
  20 this line:
  21
  22         Pull: master:origin
  23
  24 This is to help the typical workflow of working off of the
  25 remote `master` branch.  Every time `git pull` without argument
  26 is run, the progress on the remote `master` branch is tracked by
  27 copying it into the local `origin` branch, and merged into the
  28 branch you are currently working on.  Remote branches other than
  29 `master` are also added there to be tracked.
  30
  31
  32 OPTIONS
  33 -------
  34 --local::
  35 -l::
  36         When the repository to clone from is on a local machine,
  37         this flag bypasses normal "git aware" transport
  38         mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of
  39         HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories.
  40         The files under .git/objects/ directory are hardlinked
  41         to save space when possible.
  42
  43 --shared::
  44 -s::
  45         When the repository to clone is on the local machine,
  46         instead of using hard links, automatically setup
  47         .git/objects/info/alternatives to share the objects
  48         with the source repository.  The resulting repository
  49         starts out without any object of its own.
  50
  51 --quiet::
  52 -q::
  53         Operate quietly.  This flag is passed to "rsync" and
  54         "git-clone-pack" commands when given.
  55
  56 -n::
  57         No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
  58
  59 -o <name>::
  60         Instead of using the branch name 'origin' to keep track
  61         of the upstream repository, use <name> instead.  Note
  62         that the shorthand name stored in `remotes/origin` is
  63         not affected, but the local branch name to pull the
  64         remote `master` branch into is.
  65
  66 --upload-pack <upload-pack>::
  67 -u <upload-pack>::
  68         When given, and the repository to clone from is handled
  69         by 'git-clone-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to
  70         the command to specify non-default path for the command
  71         run on the other end.
  72
  73 <repository>::
  74         The (possibly remote) repository to clone from.  It can
  75         be any URL git-fetch supports.
  76
  77 <directory>::
  78         The name of a new directory to clone into.  The "humanish"
  79         part of the source repository is used if no directory is
  80         explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo"
  81         for "host.xz:foo/.git").  Cloning into an existing directory
  82         is not allowed.
  83
  84 Examples
  85 ~~~~~~~~
  86
  87 Clone from upstream::
  88 +
  89 ------------
  90 $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
  91 $ cd my2.6
  92 $ make
  93 ------------
  94
  95
  96 Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out::
  97 +
  98 ------------
  99 $ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
 100 $ cd copy
 101 $ git show-branch
 102 ------------
 103
 104 Author
 105 ------
 106 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 107
 108
 109 Documentation
 110 --------------
 111 Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 112
 113
 114 GIT
 115 ---
 116 Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 117