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]] [--keep-pack=<pack-name>]
  16         [--stdout [--filter=<filter-spec>] | base-name]
  17         [--shallow] [--keep-true-parents] < object-list
  18
  19
  20 DESCRIPTION
  21 -----------
  22 Reads list of objects from the standard input, and writes either one or
  23 more packed archives with the specified base-name to disk, or a packed
  24 archive to the standard output.
  25
  26 A packed archive is an efficient way to transfer a set of objects
  27 between two repositories as well as an access efficient archival
  28 format.  In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a
  29 compressed whole or as a difference from some other object.
  30 The latter is often called a delta.
  31
  32 The packed archive format (.pack) is designed to be self-contained
  33 so that it can be unpacked without any further information. Therefore,
  34 each object that a delta depends upon must be present within the pack.
  35
  36 A pack index file (.idx) is generated for fast, random access to the
  37 objects in the pack. Placing both the index file (.idx) and the packed
  38 archive (.pack) in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
  39 any of the directories on $GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES)
  40 enables Git to read from the pack archive.
  41
  42 The 'git unpack-objects' command can read the packed archive and
  43 expand the objects contained in the pack into "one-file
  44 one-object" format; this is typically done by the smart-pull
  45 commands when a pack is created on-the-fly for efficient network
  46 transport by their peers.
  47
  48
  49 OPTIONS
  50 -------
  51 base-name::
  52         Write into pairs of files (.pack and .idx), using
  53         <base-name> to determine the name of the created file.
  54         When this option is used, the two files in a pair are written in
  55         <base-name>-<SHA-1>.{pack,idx} files.  <SHA-1> is a hash
  56         based on the pack content and is written to the standard
  57         output of the command.
  58
  59 --stdout::
  60         Write the pack contents (what would have been written to
  61         .pack file) out to the standard output.
  62
  63 --revs::
  64         Read the revision arguments from the standard input, instead of
  65         individual object names.  The revision arguments are processed
  66         the same way as 'git rev-list' with the `--objects` flag
  67         uses its `commit` arguments to build the list of objects it
  68         outputs.  The objects on the resulting list are packed.
  69         Besides revisions, `--not` or `--shallow <SHA-1>` lines are
  70         also accepted.
  71
  72 --unpacked::
  73         This implies `--revs`.  When processing the list of
  74         revision arguments read from the standard input, limit
  75         the objects packed to those that are not already packed.
  76
  77 --all::
  78         This implies `--revs`.  In addition to the list of
  79         revision arguments read from the standard input, pretend
  80         as if all refs under `refs/` are specified to be
  81         included.
  82
  83 --include-tag::
  84         Include unasked-for annotated tags if the object they
  85         reference was included in the resulting packfile.  This
  86         can be useful to send new tags to native Git clients.
  87
  88 --window=<n>::
  89 --depth=<n>::
  90         These two options affect how the objects contained in
  91         the pack are stored using delta compression.  The
  92         objects are first internally sorted by type, size and
  93         optionally names and compared against the other objects
  94         within --window to see if using delta compression saves
  95         space.  --depth limits the maximum delta depth; making
  96         it too deep affects the performance on the unpacker
  97         side, because delta data needs to be applied that many
  98         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 --window-memory=<n>::
 104         This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
 105         the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
 106         up more than '<n>' bytes in memory.  This is useful in
 107         repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
 108         out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
 109         advantage of the large window for the smaller objects.  The
 110         size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
 111         `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited.  The default
 112         is taken from the `pack.windowMemory` configuration variable.
 113
 114 --max-pack-size=<n>::
 115         In unusual scenarios, you may not be able to create files
 116         larger than a certain size on your filesystem, and this option
 117         can be used to tell the command to split the output packfile
 118         into multiple independent packfiles, each not larger than the
 119         given size. The size can be suffixed with
 120         "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
 121         This option
 122         prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
 123         The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
 124         `pack.packSizeLimit` is set.
 125
 126 --honor-pack-keep::
 127         This flag causes an object already in a local pack that
 128         has a .keep file to be ignored, even if it would have
 129         otherwise been packed.
 130
 131 --keep-pack=<pack-name>::
 132         This flag causes an object already in the given pack to be
 133         ignored, even if it would have otherwise been
 134         packed. `<pack-name>` is the the pack file name without
 135         leading directory (e.g. `pack-123.pack`). The option could be
 136         specified multiple times to keep multiple packs.
 137
 138 --incremental::
 139         This flag causes an object already in a pack to be ignored
 140         even if it would have otherwise been packed.
 141
 142 --local::
 143         This flag causes an object that is borrowed from an alternate
 144         object store to be ignored even if it would have otherwise been
 145         packed.
 146
 147 --non-empty::
 148         Only create a packed archive if it would contain at
 149         least one object.
 150
 151 --progress::
 152         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
 153         by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
 154         is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
 155         the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
 156
 157 --all-progress::
 158         When --stdout is specified then progress report is
 159         displayed during the object count and compression phases
 160         but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is
 161         that in some cases the output stream is directly linked
 162         to another command which may wish to display progress
 163         status of its own as it processes incoming pack data.
 164         This flag is like --progress except that it forces progress
 165         report for the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is
 166         used.
 167
 168 --all-progress-implied::
 169         This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display
 170         is activated.  Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn't actually
 171         force any progress display by itself.
 172
 173 -q::
 174         This flag makes the command not to report its progress
 175         on the standard error stream.
 176
 177 --no-reuse-delta::
 178         When creating a packed archive in a repository that
 179         has existing packs, the command reuses existing deltas.
 180         This sometimes results in a slightly suboptimal pack.
 181         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing deltas
 182         but compute them from scratch.
 183
 184 --no-reuse-object::
 185         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing object data at all,
 186         including non deltified object, forcing recompression of everything.
 187         This implies --no-reuse-delta. Useful only in the obscure case where
 188         wholesale enforcement of a different compression level on the
 189         packed data is desired.
 190
 191 --compression=<n>::
 192         Specifies compression level for newly-compressed data in the
 193         generated pack.  If not specified,  pack compression level is
 194         determined first by pack.compression,  then by core.compression,
 195         and defaults to -1,  the zlib default,  if neither is set.
 196         Add --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression
 197         level on all data no matter the source.
 198
 199 --thin::
 200         Create a "thin" pack by omitting the common objects between a
 201         sender and a receiver in order to reduce network transfer. This
 202         option only makes sense in conjunction with --stdout.
 203 +
 204 Note: A thin pack violates the packed archive format by omitting
 205 required objects and is thus unusable by Git without making it
 206 self-contained. Use `git index-pack --fix-thin`
 207 (see linkgit:git-index-pack[1]) to restore the self-contained property.
 208
 209 --shallow::
 210         Optimize a pack that will be provided to a client with a shallow
 211         repository.  This option, combined with --thin, can result in a
 212         smaller pack at the cost of speed.
 213
 214 --delta-base-offset::
 215         A packed archive can express the base object of a delta as
 216         either a 20-byte object name or as an offset in the
 217         stream, but ancient versions of Git don't understand the
 218         latter.  By default, 'git pack-objects' only uses the
 219         former format for better compatibility.  This option
 220         allows the command to use the latter format for
 221         compactness.  Depending on the average delta chain
 222         length, this option typically shrinks the resulting
 223         packfile by 3-5 per-cent.
 224 +
 225 Note: Porcelain commands such as `git gc` (see linkgit:git-gc[1]),
 226 `git repack` (see linkgit:git-repack[1]) pass this option by default
 227 in modern Git when they put objects in your repository into pack files.
 228 So does `git bundle` (see linkgit:git-bundle[1]) when it creates a bundle.
 229
 230 --threads=<n>::
 231         Specifies the number of threads to spawn when searching for best
 232         delta matches.  This requires that pack-objects be compiled with
 233         pthreads otherwise this option is ignored with a warning.
 234         This is meant to reduce packing time on multiprocessor machines.
 235         The required amount of memory for the delta search window is
 236         however multiplied by the number of threads.
 237         Specifying 0 will cause Git to auto-detect the number of CPU's
 238         and set the number of threads accordingly.
 239
 240 --index-version=<version>[,<offset>]::
 241         This is intended to be used by the test suite only. It allows
 242         to force the version for the generated pack index, and to force
 243         64-bit index entries on objects located above the given offset.
 244
 245 --keep-true-parents::
 246         With this option, parents that are hidden by grafts are packed
 247         nevertheless.
 248
 249 --filter=<filter-spec>::
 250         Requires `--stdout`.  Omits certain objects (usually blobs) from
 251         the resulting packfile.  See linkgit:git-rev-list[1] for valid
 252         `<filter-spec>` forms.
 253
 254 --no-filter::
 255         Turns off any previous `--filter=` argument.
 256
 257 --missing=<missing-action>::
 258         A debug option to help with future "partial clone" development.
 259         This option specifies how missing objects are handled.
 260 +
 261 The form '--missing=error' requests that pack-objects stop with an error if
 262 a missing object is encountered.  This is the default action.
 263 +
 264 The form '--missing=allow-any' will allow object traversal to continue
 265 if a missing object is encountered.  Missing objects will silently be
 266 omitted from the results.
 267 +
 268 The form '--missing=allow-promisor' is like 'allow-any', but will only
 269 allow object traversal to continue for EXPECTED promisor missing objects.
 270 Unexpected missing object will raise an error.
 271
 272 --exclude-promisor-objects::
 273         Omit objects that are known to be in the promisor remote.  (This
 274         option has the purpose of operating only on locally created objects,
 275         so that when we repack, we still maintain a distinction between
 276         locally created objects [without .promisor] and objects from the
 277         promisor remote [with .promisor].)  This is used with partial clone.
 278
 279 --keep-unreachable::
 280         Objects unreachable from the refs in packs named with
 281         --unpacked= option are added to the resulting pack, in
 282         addition to the reachable objects that are not in packs marked
 283         with *.keep files. This implies `--revs`.
 284
 285 --pack-loose-unreachable::
 286         Pack unreachable loose objects (and their loose counterparts
 287         removed). This implies `--revs`.
 288
 289 --unpack-unreachable::
 290         Keep unreachable objects in loose form. This implies `--revs`.
 291
 292 SEE ALSO
 293 --------
 294 linkgit:git-rev-list[1]
 295 linkgit:git-repack[1]
 296 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
 297
 298 GIT
 299 ---
 300 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite