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         [--shallow] [--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 a set of objects
  25 between two repositories as well as an access efficient archival
  26 format.  In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a
  27 compressed whole or as a difference from some other object.
  28 The latter is often called a delta.
  29
  30 The packed archive format (.pack) is designed to be self-contained
  31 so that it can be unpacked without any further information. Therefore,
  32 each object that a delta depends upon must be present within the pack.
  33
  34 A pack index file (.idx) is generated for fast, random access to the
  35 objects in the pack. Placing both the index file (.idx) and the packed
  36 archive (.pack) in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
  37 any of the directories on $GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES)
  38 enables Git to read from the pack archive.
  39
  40 The 'git unpack-objects' command can read the packed archive and
  41 expand the objects contained in the pack into "one-file
  42 one-object" format; this is typically done by the smart-pull
  43 commands when a pack is created on-the-fly for efficient network
  44 transport by their peers.
  45
  46
  47 OPTIONS
  48 -------
  49 base-name::
  50         Write into a pair of files (.pack and .idx), using
  51         <base-name> to determine the name of the created file.
  52         When this option is used, the two files are written in
  53         <base-name>-<SHA-1>.{pack,idx} files.  <SHA-1> is a hash
  54         based on the pack content and is 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         Besides revisions, `--not` or `--shallow <SHA-1>` lines are
  68         also accepted.
  69
  70 --unpacked::
  71         This implies `--revs`.  When processing the list of
  72         revision arguments read from the standard input, limit
  73         the objects packed to those that are not already packed.
  74
  75 --all::
  76         This implies `--revs`.  In addition to the list of
  77         revision arguments read from the standard input, pretend
  78         as if all refs under `refs/` are specified to be
  79         included.
  80
  81 --include-tag::
  82         Include unasked-for annotated tags if the object they
  83         reference was included in the resulting packfile.  This
  84         can be useful to send new tags to native Git clients.
  85
  86 --window=<n>::
  87 --depth=<n>::
  88         These two options affect how the objects contained in
  89         the pack are stored using delta compression.  The
  90         objects are first internally sorted by type, size and
  91         optionally names and compared against the other objects
  92         within --window to see if using delta compression saves
  93         space.  --depth limits the maximum delta depth; making
  94         it too deep affects the performance on the unpacker
  95         side, because delta data needs to be applied that many
  96         times to get to the necessary object.
  97         The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50.
  98
  99 --window-memory=<n>::
 100         This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
 101         the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
 102         up more than '<n>' bytes in memory.  This is useful in
 103         repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
 104         out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
 105         advantage of the large window for the smaller objects.  The
 106         size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
 107         `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited.  The default
 108         is taken from the `pack.windowMemory` configuration variable.
 109
 110 --max-pack-size=<n>::
 111         Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed with
 112         "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
 113         If specified, multiple packfiles may be created, which also
 114         prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
 115         The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
 116         `pack.packSizeLimit` is set.
 117
 118 --honor-pack-keep::
 119         This flag causes an object already in a local pack that
 120         has a .keep file to be ignored, even if it would have
 121         otherwise been packed.
 122
 123 --incremental::
 124         This flag causes an object already in a pack to be ignored
 125         even if it would have otherwise been packed.
 126
 127 --local::
 128         This flag causes an object that is borrowed from an alternate
 129         object store to be ignored even if it would have otherwise been
 130         packed.
 131
 132 --non-empty::
 133         Only create a packed archive if it would contain at
 134         least one object.
 135
 136 --progress::
 137         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
 138         by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
 139         is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
 140         the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
 141
 142 --all-progress::
 143         When --stdout is specified then progress report is
 144         displayed during the object count and compression phases
 145         but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is
 146         that in some cases the output stream is directly linked
 147         to another command which may wish to display progress
 148         status of its own as it processes incoming pack data.
 149         This flag is like --progress except that it forces progress
 150         report for the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is
 151         used.
 152
 153 --all-progress-implied::
 154         This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display
 155         is activated.  Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn't actually
 156         force any progress display by itself.
 157
 158 -q::
 159         This flag makes the command not to report its progress
 160         on the standard error stream.
 161
 162 --no-reuse-delta::
 163         When creating a packed archive in a repository that
 164         has existing packs, the command reuses existing deltas.
 165         This sometimes results in a slightly suboptimal pack.
 166         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing deltas
 167         but compute them from scratch.
 168
 169 --no-reuse-object::
 170         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing object data at all,
 171         including non deltified object, forcing recompression of everything.
 172         This implies --no-reuse-delta. Useful only in the obscure case where
 173         wholesale enforcement of a different compression level on the
 174         packed data is desired.
 175
 176 --compression=<n>::
 177         Specifies compression level for newly-compressed data in the
 178         generated pack.  If not specified,  pack compression level is
 179         determined first by pack.compression,  then by core.compression,
 180         and defaults to -1,  the zlib default,  if neither is set.
 181         Add --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression
 182         level on all data no matter the source.
 183
 184 --thin::
 185         Create a "thin" pack by omitting the common objects between a
 186         sender and a receiver in order to reduce network transfer. This
 187         option only makes sense in conjunction with --stdout.
 188 +
 189 Note: A thin pack violates the packed archive format by omitting
 190 required objects and is thus unusable by Git without making it
 191 self-contained. Use `git index-pack --fix-thin`
 192 (see linkgit:git-index-pack[1]) to restore the self-contained property.
 193
 194 --shallow::
 195         Optimize a pack that will be provided to a client with a shallow
 196         repository.  This option, combined with --thin, can result in a
 197         smaller pack at the cost of speed.
 198
 199 --delta-base-offset::
 200         A packed archive can express the base object of a delta as
 201         either a 20-byte object name or as an offset in the
 202         stream, but ancient versions of Git don't understand the
 203         latter.  By default, 'git pack-objects' only uses the
 204         former format for better compatibility.  This option
 205         allows the command to use the latter format for
 206         compactness.  Depending on the average delta chain
 207         length, this option typically shrinks the resulting
 208         packfile by 3-5 per-cent.
 209 +
 210 Note: Porcelain commands such as `git gc` (see linkgit:git-gc[1]),
 211 `git repack` (see linkgit:git-repack[1]) pass this option by default
 212 in modern Git when they put objects in your repository into pack files.
 213 So does `git bundle` (see linkgit:git-bundle[1]) when it creates a bundle.
 214
 215 --threads=<n>::
 216         Specifies the number of threads to spawn when searching for best
 217         delta matches.  This requires that pack-objects be compiled with
 218         pthreads otherwise this option is ignored with a warning.
 219         This is meant to reduce packing time on multiprocessor machines.
 220         The required amount of memory for the delta search window is
 221         however multiplied by the number of threads.
 222         Specifying 0 will cause Git to auto-detect the number of CPU's
 223         and set the number of threads accordingly.
 224
 225 --index-version=<version>[,<offset>]::
 226         This is intended to be used by the test suite only. It allows
 227         to force the version for the generated pack index, and to force
 228         64-bit index entries on objects located above the given offset.
 229
 230 --keep-true-parents::
 231         With this option, parents that are hidden by grafts are packed
 232         nevertheless.
 233
 234 SEE ALSO
 235 --------
 236 linkgit:git-rev-list[1]
 237 linkgit:git-repack[1]
 238 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
 239
 240 GIT
 241 ---
 242 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite