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 | --progress | --all-progress] [--all-progress-implied]
  13         [--no-reuse-delta] [--delta-base-offset] [--non-empty]
  14         [--local] [--incremental] [--window=N] [--depth=N]
  15         [--revs [--unpacked | --all]*] [--stdout | base-name]
  16         [--keep-true-parents] < object-list
  17
  18
  19 DESCRIPTION
  20 -----------
  21 Reads list of objects from the standard input, and writes a packed
  22 archive with specified base-name, or to the standard output.
  23
  24 A packed archive is an efficient way to transfer set of objects
  25 between two repositories, and also is an archival format which
  26 is efficient to access.  The packed archive format (.pack) is
  27 designed to be self contained so that it can be unpacked without
  28 any further information, but for fast, random access to the objects
  29 in the pack, a pack index file (.idx) will be generated.
  30
  31 Placing both in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
  32 any of the directories on $GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES)
  33 enables git to read from such an archive.
  34
  35 The 'git unpack-objects' command can read the packed archive and
  36 expand the objects contained in the pack into "one-file
  37 one-object" format; this is typically done by the smart-pull
  38 commands when a pack is created on-the-fly for efficient network
  39 transport by their peers.
  40
  41 In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a compressed
  42 whole, or as a difference from some other object.  The latter is
  43 often called a delta.
  44
  45
  46 OPTIONS
  47 -------
  48 base-name::
  49         Write into a pair of files (.pack and .idx), using
  50         <base-name> to determine the name of the created file.
  51         When this option is used, the two files are written in
  52         <base-name>-<SHA1>.{pack,idx} files.  <SHA1> is a hash
  53         of the sorted object names to make the resulting filename
  54         based on the pack content, and written to the standard
  55         output of the command.
  56
  57 --stdout::
  58         Write the pack contents (what would have been written to
  59         .pack file) out to the standard output.
  60
  61 --revs::
  62         Read the revision arguments from the standard input, instead of
  63         individual object names.  The revision arguments are processed
  64         the same way as 'git rev-list' with the `--objects` flag
  65         uses its `commit` arguments to build the list of objects it
  66         outputs.  The objects on the resulting list are packed.
  67
  68 --unpacked::
  69         This implies `--revs`.  When processing the list of
  70         revision arguments read from the standard input, limit
  71         the objects packed to those that are not already packed.
  72
  73 --all::
  74         This implies `--revs`.  In addition to the list of
  75         revision arguments read from the standard input, pretend
  76         as if all refs under `refs/` are specified to be
  77         included.
  78
  79 --include-tag::
  80         Include unasked-for annotated tags if the object they
  81         reference was included in the resulting packfile.  This
  82         can be useful to send new tags to native git clients.
  83
  84 --window=[N]::
  85 --depth=[N]::
  86         These two options affect how the objects contained in
  87         the pack are stored using delta compression.  The
  88         objects are first internally sorted by type, size and
  89         optionally names and compared against the other objects
  90         within --window to see if using delta compression saves
  91         space.  --depth limits the maximum delta depth; making
  92         it too deep affects the performance on the unpacker
  93         side, because delta data needs to be applied that many
  94         times to get to the necessary object.
  95         The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50.
  96
  97 --window-memory=[N]::
  98         This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
  99         the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
 100         up more than N bytes in memory.  This is useful in
 101         repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
 102         out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
 103         advantage of the large window for the smaller objects.  The
 104         size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
 105         `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited, which is the
 106         default.
 107
 108 --max-pack-size=[N]::
 109         Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed with
 110         "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
 111         If specified,  multiple packfiles may be created.
 112         The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
 113         `pack.packSizeLimit` is set.
 114
 115 --honor-pack-keep::
 116         This flag causes an object already in a local pack that
 117         has a .keep file to be ignored, even if it appears in the
 118         standard input.
 119
 120 --incremental::
 121         This flag causes an object already in a pack ignored
 122         even if it appears in the standard input.
 123
 124 --local::
 125         This flag is similar to `--incremental`; instead of
 126         ignoring all packed objects, it only ignores objects
 127         that are packed and/or not in the local object store
 128         (i.e. borrowed from an alternate).
 129
 130 --non-empty::
 131         Only create a packed archive if it would contain at
 132         least one object.
 133
 134 --progress::
 135         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
 136         by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
 137         is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
 138         the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
 139
 140 --all-progress::
 141         When --stdout is specified then progress report is
 142         displayed during the object count and compression phases
 143         but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is
 144         that in some cases the output stream is directly linked
 145         to another command which may wish to display progress
 146         status of its own as it processes incoming pack data.
 147         This flag is like --progress except that it forces progress
 148         report for the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is
 149         used.
 150
 151 --all-progress-implied::
 152         This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display
 153         is activated.  Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn't actually
 154         force any progress display by itself.
 155
 156 -q::
 157         This flag makes the command not to report its progress
 158         on the standard error stream.
 159
 160 --no-reuse-delta::
 161         When creating a packed archive in a repository that
 162         has existing packs, the command reuses existing deltas.
 163         This sometimes results in a slightly suboptimal pack.
 164         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing deltas
 165         but compute them from scratch.
 166
 167 --no-reuse-object::
 168         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing object data at all,
 169         including non deltified object, forcing recompression of everything.
 170         This implies --no-reuse-delta. Useful only in the obscure case where
 171         wholesale enforcement of a different compression level on the
 172         packed data is desired.
 173
 174 --compression=[N]::
 175         Specifies compression level for newly-compressed data in the
 176         generated pack.  If not specified,  pack compression level is
 177         determined first by pack.compression,  then by core.compression,
 178         and defaults to -1,  the zlib default,  if neither is set.
 179         Add --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression
 180         level on all data no matter the source.
 181
 182 --delta-base-offset::
 183         A packed archive can express base object of a delta as
 184         either 20-byte object name or as an offset in the
 185         stream, but older version of git does not understand the
 186         latter.  By default, 'git pack-objects' only uses the
 187         former format for better compatibility.  This option
 188         allows the command to use the latter format for
 189         compactness.  Depending on the average delta chain
 190         length, this option typically shrinks the resulting
 191         packfile by 3-5 per-cent.
 192
 193 --threads=<n>::
 194         Specifies the number of threads to spawn when searching for best
 195         delta matches.  This requires that pack-objects be compiled with
 196         pthreads otherwise this option is ignored with a warning.
 197         This is meant to reduce packing time on multiprocessor machines.
 198         The required amount of memory for the delta search window is
 199         however multiplied by the number of threads.
 200         Specifying 0 will cause git to auto-detect the number of CPU's
 201         and set the number of threads accordingly.
 202
 203 --index-version=<version>[,<offset>]::
 204         This is intended to be used by the test suite only. It allows
 205         to force the version for the generated pack index, and to force
 206         64-bit index entries on objects located above the given offset.
 207
 208 --keep-true-parents::
 209         With this option, parents that are hidden by grafts are packed
 210         nevertheless.
 211
 212
 213 Author
 214 ------
 215 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 216
 217 Documentation
 218 -------------
 219 Documentation by Junio C Hamano
 220
 221 SEE ALSO
 222 --------
 223 linkgit:git-rev-list[1]
 224 linkgit:git-repack[1]
 225 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
 226
 227 GIT
 228 ---
 229 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite