Documentation/git-repack.txt

   1 git-repack(1)
   2 =============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-repack - Pack unpacked objects in a repository
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git repack' [-a] [-A] [-d] [-f] [-F] [-l] [-n] [-q] [-b] [-m] [--window=<n>] [--depth=<n>] [--threads=<n>] [--keep-pack=<pack-name>] [--write-midx]
  13
  14 DESCRIPTION
  15 -----------
  16
  17 This command is used to combine all objects that do not currently
  18 reside in a "pack", into a pack.  It can also be used to re-organize
  19 existing packs into a single, more efficient pack.
  20
  21 A pack is a collection of objects, individually compressed, with
  22 delta compression applied, stored in a single file, with an
  23 associated index file.
  24
  25 Packs are used to reduce the load on mirror systems, backup
  26 engines, disk storage, etc.
  27
  28 OPTIONS
  29 -------
  30
  31 -a::
  32         Instead of incrementally packing the unpacked objects,
  33         pack everything referenced into a single pack.
  34         Especially useful when packing a repository that is used
  35         for private development. Use
  36         with `-d`.  This will clean up the objects that `git prune`
  37         leaves behind, but `git fsck --full --dangling` shows as
  38         dangling.
  39 +
  40 Note that users fetching over dumb protocols will have to fetch the
  41 whole new pack in order to get any contained object, no matter how many
  42 other objects in that pack they already have locally.
  43 +
  44 Promisor packfiles are repacked separately: if there are packfiles that
  45 have an associated ".promisor" file, these packfiles will be repacked
  46 into another separate pack, and an empty ".promisor" file corresponding
  47 to the new separate pack will be written.
  48
  49 -A::
  50         Same as `-a`, unless `-d` is used.  Then any unreachable
  51         objects in a previous pack become loose, unpacked objects,
  52         instead of being left in the old pack.  Unreachable objects
  53         are never intentionally added to a pack, even when repacking.
  54         This option prevents unreachable objects from being immediately
  55         deleted by way of being left in the old pack and then
  56         removed.  Instead, the loose unreachable objects
  57         will be pruned according to normal expiry rules
  58         with the next 'git gc' invocation. See linkgit:git-gc[1].
  59
  60 -d::
  61         After packing, if the newly created packs make some
  62         existing packs redundant, remove the redundant packs.
  63         Also run  'git prune-packed' to remove redundant
  64         loose object files.
  65
  66 --cruft::
  67         Same as `-a`, unless `-d` is used. Then any unreachable objects
  68         are packed into a separate cruft pack. Unreachable objects can
  69         be pruned using the normal expiry rules with the next `git gc`
  70         invocation (see linkgit:git-gc[1]). Incompatible with `-k`.
  71
  72 --cruft-expiration=<approxidate>::
  73         Expire unreachable objects older than `<approxidate>`
  74         immediately instead of waiting for the next `git gc` invocation.
  75         Only useful with `--cruft -d`.
  76
  77 -l::
  78         Pass the `--local` option to 'git pack-objects'. See
  79         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  80
  81 -f::
  82         Pass the `--no-reuse-delta` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
  83         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  84
  85 -F::
  86         Pass the `--no-reuse-object` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
  87         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  88
  89 -q::
  90 --quiet::
  91         Show no progress over the standard error stream and pass the `-q`
  92         option to 'git pack-objects'. See linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  93
  94 -n::
  95         Do not update the server information with
  96         'git update-server-info'.  This option skips
  97         updating local catalog files needed to publish
  98         this repository (or a direct copy of it)
  99         over HTTP or FTP.  See linkgit:git-update-server-info[1].
 100
 101 --window=<n>::
 102 --depth=<n>::
 103         These two options affect how the objects contained in the pack are
 104         stored using delta compression. The objects are first internally
 105         sorted by type, size and optionally names and compared against the
 106         other objects within `--window` to see if using delta compression saves
 107         space. `--depth` limits the maximum delta depth; making it too deep
 108         affects the performance on the unpacker side, because delta data needs
 109         to be applied that many times to get to the necessary object.
 110 +
 111 The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50. The maximum
 112 depth is 4095.
 113
 114 --threads=<n>::
 115         This option is passed through to `git pack-objects`.
 116
 117 --window-memory=<n>::
 118         This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
 119         the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
 120         up more than '<n>' bytes in memory.  This is useful in
 121         repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
 122         out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
 123         advantage of the large window for the smaller objects.  The
 124         size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
 125         `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited.  The default
 126         is taken from the `pack.windowMemory` configuration variable.
 127         Note that the actual memory usage will be the limit multiplied
 128         by the number of threads used by linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
 129
 130 --max-pack-size=<n>::
 131         Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed with
 132         "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
 133         If specified, multiple packfiles may be created, which also
 134         prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
 135         The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
 136         `pack.packSizeLimit` is set. Note that this option may result in
 137         a larger and slower repository; see the discussion in
 138         `pack.packSizeLimit`.
 139
 140 -b::
 141 --write-bitmap-index::
 142         Write a reachability bitmap index as part of the repack. This
 143         only makes sense when used with `-a`, `-A` or `-m`, as the bitmaps
 144         must be able to refer to all reachable objects. This option
 145         overrides the setting of `repack.writeBitmaps`. This option
 146         has no effect if multiple packfiles are created, unless writing a
 147         MIDX (in which case a multi-pack bitmap is created).
 148
 149 --pack-kept-objects::
 150         Include objects in `.keep` files when repacking.  Note that we
 151         still do not delete `.keep` packs after `pack-objects` finishes.
 152         This means that we may duplicate objects, but this makes the
 153         option safe to use when there are concurrent pushes or fetches.
 154         This option is generally only useful if you are writing bitmaps
 155         with `-b` or `repack.writeBitmaps`, as it ensures that the
 156         bitmapped packfile has the necessary objects.
 157
 158 --keep-pack=<pack-name>::
 159         Exclude the given pack from repacking. This is the equivalent
 160         of having `.keep` file on the pack. `<pack-name>` is the
 161         pack file name without leading directory (e.g. `pack-123.pack`).
 162         The option could be specified multiple times to keep multiple
 163         packs.
 164
 165 --unpack-unreachable=<when>::
 166         When loosening unreachable objects, do not bother loosening any
 167         objects older than `<when>`. This can be used to optimize out
 168         the write of any objects that would be immediately pruned by
 169         a follow-up `git prune`.
 170
 171 -k::
 172 --keep-unreachable::
 173         When used with `-ad`, any unreachable objects from existing
 174         packs will be appended to the end of the packfile instead of
 175         being removed. In addition, any unreachable loose objects will
 176         be packed (and their loose counterparts removed).
 177
 178 -i::
 179 --delta-islands::
 180         Pass the `--delta-islands` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
 181         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
 182
 183 -g=<factor>::
 184 --geometric=<factor>::
 185         Arrange resulting pack structure so that each successive pack
 186         contains at least `<factor>` times the number of objects as the
 187         next-largest pack.
 188 +
 189 `git repack` ensures this by determining a "cut" of packfiles that need
 190 to be repacked into one in order to ensure a geometric progression. It
 191 picks the smallest set of packfiles such that as many of the larger
 192 packfiles (by count of objects contained in that pack) may be left
 193 intact.
 194 +
 195 Unlike other repack modes, the set of objects to pack is determined
 196 uniquely by the set of packs being "rolled-up"; in other words, the
 197 packs determined to need to be combined in order to restore a geometric
 198 progression.
 199 +
 200 When `--unpacked` is specified, loose objects are implicitly included in
 201 this "roll-up", without respect to their reachability. This is subject
 202 to change in the future. This option (implying a drastically different
 203 repack mode) is not guaranteed to work with all other combinations of
 204 option to `git repack`.
 205 +
 206 When writing a multi-pack bitmap, `git repack` selects the largest resulting
 207 pack as the preferred pack for object selection by the MIDX (see
 208 linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1]).
 209
 210 -m::
 211 --write-midx::
 212         Write a multi-pack index (see linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1])
 213         containing the non-redundant packs.
 214
 215 CONFIGURATION
 216 -------------
 217
 218 Various configuration variables affect packing, see
 219 linkgit:git-config[1] (search for "pack" and "delta").
 220
 221 By default, the command passes `--delta-base-offset` option to
 222 'git pack-objects'; this typically results in slightly smaller packs,
 223 but the generated packs are incompatible with versions of Git older than
 224 version 1.4.4. If you need to share your repository with such ancient Git
 225 versions, either directly or via the dumb http protocol, then you
 226 need to set the configuration variable `repack.UseDeltaBaseOffset` to
 227 "false" and repack. Access from old Git versions over the native protocol
 228 is unaffected by this option as the conversion is performed on the fly
 229 as needed in that case.
 230
 231 Delta compression is not used on objects larger than the
 232 `core.bigFileThreshold` configuration variable and on files with the
 233 attribute `delta` set to false.
 234
 235 SEE ALSO
 236 --------
 237 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1]
 238 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
 239
 240 GIT
 241 ---
 242 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite