Documentation/git-pack-objects.txt

   1 git-pack-objects(1)
   2 ===================
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-pack-objects - Create a packed archive of objects
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git pack-objects' [-q] [--no-reuse-delta] [--delta-base-offset] [--non-empty]
  13         [--local] [--incremental] [--window=N] [--depth=N] [--all-progress]
  14         [--revs [--unpacked | --all]*] [--stdout | base-name]
  15         [--keep-true-parents] < object-list
  16
  17
  18 DESCRIPTION
  19 -----------
  20 Reads list of objects from the standard input, and writes a packed
  21 archive with specified base-name, or to the standard output.
  22
  23 A packed archive is an efficient way to transfer set of objects
  24 between two repositories, and also is an archival format which
  25 is efficient to access.  The packed archive format (.pack) is
  26 designed to be self contained so that it can be unpacked without
  27 any further information, but for fast, random access to the objects
  28 in the pack, a pack index file (.idx) will be generated.
  29
  30 Placing both in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
  31 any of the directories on $GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES)
  32 enables git to read from such an archive.
  33
  34 The 'git-unpack-objects' command can read the packed archive and
  35 expand the objects contained in the pack into "one-file
  36 one-object" format; this is typically done by the smart-pull
  37 commands when a pack is created on-the-fly for efficient network
  38 transport by their peers.
  39
  40 In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a compressed
  41 whole, or as a difference from some other object.  The latter is
  42 often called a delta.
  43
  44
  45 OPTIONS
  46 -------
  47 base-name::
  48         Write into a pair of files (.pack and .idx), using
  49         <base-name> to determine the name of the created file.
  50         When this option is used, the two files are written in
  51         <base-name>-<SHA1>.{pack,idx} files.  <SHA1> is a hash
  52         of the sorted object names to make the resulting filename
  53         based on the pack content, and written to the standard
  54         output of the command.
  55
  56 --stdout::
  57         Write the pack contents (what would have been written to
  58         .pack file) out to the standard output.
  59
  60 --revs::
  61         Read the revision arguments from the standard input, instead of
  62         individual object names.  The revision arguments are processed
  63         the same way as 'git-rev-list' with the `--objects` flag
  64         uses its `commit` arguments to build the list of objects it
  65         outputs.  The objects on the resulting list are packed.
  66
  67 --unpacked::
  68         This implies `--revs`.  When processing the list of
  69         revision arguments read from the standard input, limit
  70         the objects packed to those that are not already packed.
  71
  72 --all::
  73         This implies `--revs`.  In addition to the list of
  74         revision arguments read from the standard input, pretend
  75         as if all refs under `$GIT_DIR/refs` are specified to be
  76         included.
  77
  78 --include-tag::
  79         Include unasked-for annotated tags if the object they
  80         reference was included in the resulting packfile.  This
  81         can be useful to send new tags to native git clients.
  82
  83 --window=[N]::
  84 --depth=[N]::
  85         These two options affect how the objects contained in
  86         the pack are stored using delta compression.  The
  87         objects are first internally sorted by type, size and
  88         optionally names and compared against the other objects
  89         within --window to see if using delta compression saves
  90         space.  --depth limits the maximum delta depth; making
  91         it too deep affects the performance on the unpacker
  92         side, because delta data needs to be applied that many
  93         times to get to the necessary object.
  94         The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50.
  95
  96 --window-memory=[N]::
  97         This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
  98         the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
  99         up more than N bytes in memory.  This is useful in
 100         repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
 101         out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
 102         advantage of the large window for the smaller objects.  The
 103         size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
 104         `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited, which is the
 105         default.
 106
 107 --max-pack-size=<n>::
 108         Maximum size of each output packfile, expressed in MiB.
 109         If specified,  multiple packfiles may be created.
 110         The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
 111         `pack.packSizeLimit` is set.
 112
 113 --honor-pack-keep::
 114         This flag causes an object already in a local pack that
 115         has a .keep file to be ignored, even if it appears in the
 116         standard input.
 117
 118 --incremental::
 119         This flag causes an object already in a pack ignored
 120         even if it appears in the standard input.
 121
 122 --local::
 123         This flag is similar to `--incremental`; instead of
 124         ignoring all packed objects, it only ignores objects
 125         that are packed and/or not in the local object store
 126         (i.e. borrowed from an alternate).
 127
 128 --non-empty::
 129         Only create a packed archive if it would contain at
 130         least one object.
 131
 132 --progress::
 133         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
 134         by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
 135         is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
 136         the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
 137
 138 --all-progress::
 139         When --stdout is specified then progress report is
 140         displayed during the object count and deltification phases
 141         but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is
 142         that in some cases the output stream is directly linked
 143         to another command which may wish to display progress
 144         status of its own as it processes incoming pack data.
 145         This flag is like --progress except that it forces progress
 146         report for the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is
 147         used.
 148
 149 -q::
 150         This flag makes the command not to report its progress
 151         on the standard error stream.
 152
 153 --no-reuse-delta::
 154         When creating a packed archive in a repository that
 155         has existing packs, the command reuses existing deltas.
 156         This sometimes results in a slightly suboptimal pack.
 157         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing deltas
 158         but compute them from scratch.
 159
 160 --no-reuse-object::
 161         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing object data at all,
 162         including non deltified object, forcing recompression of everything.
 163         This implies --no-reuse-delta. Useful only in the obscure case where
 164         wholesale enforcement of a different compression level on the
 165         packed data is desired.
 166
 167 --compression=[N]::
 168         Specifies compression level for newly-compressed data in the
 169         generated pack.  If not specified,  pack compression level is
 170         determined first by pack.compression,  then by core.compression,
 171         and defaults to -1,  the zlib default,  if neither is set.
 172         Add --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression
 173         level on all data no matter the source.
 174
 175 --delta-base-offset::
 176         A packed archive can express base object of a delta as
 177         either 20-byte object name or as an offset in the
 178         stream, but older version of git does not understand the
 179         latter.  By default, 'git-pack-objects' only uses the
 180         former format for better compatibility.  This option
 181         allows the command to use the latter format for
 182         compactness.  Depending on the average delta chain
 183         length, this option typically shrinks the resulting
 184         packfile by 3-5 per-cent.
 185
 186 --threads=<n>::
 187         Specifies the number of threads to spawn when searching for best
 188         delta matches.  This requires that pack-objects be compiled with
 189         pthreads otherwise this option is ignored with a warning.
 190         This is meant to reduce packing time on multiprocessor machines.
 191         The required amount of memory for the delta search window is
 192         however multiplied by the number of threads.
 193         Specifying 0 will cause git to auto-detect the number of CPU's
 194         and set the number of threads accordingly.
 195
 196 --index-version=<version>[,<offset>]::
 197         This is intended to be used by the test suite only. It allows
 198         to force the version for the generated pack index, and to force
 199         64-bit index entries on objects located above the given offset.
 200
 201 --keep-true-parents::
 202         With this option, parents that are hidden by grafts are packed
 203         nevertheless.
 204
 205
 206 Author
 207 ------
 208 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 209
 210 Documentation
 211 -------------
 212 Documentation by Junio C Hamano
 213
 214 SEE ALSO
 215 --------
 216 linkgit:git-rev-list[1]
 217 linkgit:git-repack[1]
 218 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
 219
 220 GIT
 221 ---
 222 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite