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 -l::
  67         Pass the `--local` option to 'git pack-objects'. See
  68         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  69
  70 -f::
  71         Pass the `--no-reuse-delta` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
  72         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  73
  74 -F::
  75         Pass the `--no-reuse-object` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
  76         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  77
  78 -q::
  79         Pass the `-q` option to 'git pack-objects'. See
  80         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
  81
  82 -n::
  83         Do not update the server information with
  84         'git update-server-info'.  This option skips
  85         updating local catalog files needed to publish
  86         this repository (or a direct copy of it)
  87         over HTTP or FTP.  See linkgit:git-update-server-info[1].
  88
  89 --window=<n>::
  90 --depth=<n>::
  91         These two options affect how the objects contained in the pack are
  92         stored using delta compression. The objects are first internally
  93         sorted by type, size and optionally names and compared against the
  94         other objects within `--window` to see if using delta compression saves
  95         space. `--depth` limits the maximum delta depth; making it too deep
  96         affects the performance on the unpacker side, because delta data needs
  97         to be applied that many times to get to the necessary object.
  98 +
  99 The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50. The maximum
 100 depth is 4095.
 101
 102 --threads=<n>::
 103         This option is passed through to `git pack-objects`.
 104
 105 --window-memory=<n>::
 106         This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
 107         the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
 108         up more than '<n>' bytes in memory.  This is useful in
 109         repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
 110         out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
 111         advantage of the large window for the smaller objects.  The
 112         size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
 113         `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited.  The default
 114         is taken from the `pack.windowMemory` configuration variable.
 115         Note that the actual memory usage will be the limit multiplied
 116         by the number of threads used by linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
 117
 118 --max-pack-size=<n>::
 119         Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed with
 120         "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
 121         If specified, multiple packfiles may be created, which also
 122         prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
 123         The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
 124         `pack.packSizeLimit` is set. Note that this option may result in
 125         a larger and slower repository; see the discussion in
 126         `pack.packSizeLimit`.
 127
 128 -b::
 129 --write-bitmap-index::
 130         Write a reachability bitmap index as part of the repack. This
 131         only makes sense when used with `-a`, `-A` or `-m`, as the bitmaps
 132         must be able to refer to all reachable objects. This option
 133         overrides the setting of `repack.writeBitmaps`. This option
 134         has no effect if multiple packfiles are created, unless writing a
 135         MIDX (in which case a multi-pack bitmap is created).
 136
 137 --pack-kept-objects::
 138         Include objects in `.keep` files when repacking.  Note that we
 139         still do not delete `.keep` packs after `pack-objects` finishes.
 140         This means that we may duplicate objects, but this makes the
 141         option safe to use when there are concurrent pushes or fetches.
 142         This option is generally only useful if you are writing bitmaps
 143         with `-b` or `repack.writeBitmaps`, as it ensures that the
 144         bitmapped packfile has the necessary objects.
 145
 146 --keep-pack=<pack-name>::
 147         Exclude the given pack from repacking. This is the equivalent
 148         of having `.keep` file on the pack. `<pack-name>` is the
 149         pack file name without leading directory (e.g. `pack-123.pack`).
 150         The option could be specified multiple times to keep multiple
 151         packs.
 152
 153 --unpack-unreachable=<when>::
 154         When loosening unreachable objects, do not bother loosening any
 155         objects older than `<when>`. This can be used to optimize out
 156         the write of any objects that would be immediately pruned by
 157         a follow-up `git prune`.
 158
 159 -k::
 160 --keep-unreachable::
 161         When used with `-ad`, any unreachable objects from existing
 162         packs will be appended to the end of the packfile instead of
 163         being removed. In addition, any unreachable loose objects will
 164         be packed (and their loose counterparts removed).
 165
 166 -i::
 167 --delta-islands::
 168         Pass the `--delta-islands` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
 169         linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
 170
 171 -g=<factor>::
 172 --geometric=<factor>::
 173         Arrange resulting pack structure so that each successive pack
 174         contains at least `<factor>` times the number of objects as the
 175         next-largest pack.
 176 +
 177 `git repack` ensures this by determining a "cut" of packfiles that need
 178 to be repacked into one in order to ensure a geometric progression. It
 179 picks the smallest set of packfiles such that as many of the larger
 180 packfiles (by count of objects contained in that pack) may be left
 181 intact.
 182 +
 183 Unlike other repack modes, the set of objects to pack is determined
 184 uniquely by the set of packs being "rolled-up"; in other words, the
 185 packs determined to need to be combined in order to restore a geometric
 186 progression.
 187 +
 188 When `--unpacked` is specified, loose objects are implicitly included in
 189 this "roll-up", without respect to their reachability. This is subject
 190 to change in the future. This option (implying a drastically different
 191 repack mode) is not guaranteed to work with all other combinations of
 192 option to `git repack`.
 193 +
 194 When writing a multi-pack bitmap, `git repack` selects the largest resulting
 195 pack as the preferred pack for object selection by the MIDX (see
 196 linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1]).
 197
 198 -m::
 199 --write-midx::
 200         Write a multi-pack index (see linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1])
 201         containing the non-redundant packs.
 202
 203 CONFIGURATION
 204 -------------
 205
 206 Various configuration variables affect packing, see
 207 linkgit:git-config[1] (search for "pack" and "delta").
 208
 209 By default, the command passes `--delta-base-offset` option to
 210 'git pack-objects'; this typically results in slightly smaller packs,
 211 but the generated packs are incompatible with versions of Git older than
 212 version 1.4.4. If you need to share your repository with such ancient Git
 213 versions, either directly or via the dumb http protocol, then you
 214 need to set the configuration variable `repack.UseDeltaBaseOffset` to
 215 "false" and repack. Access from old Git versions over the native protocol
 216 is unaffected by this option as the conversion is performed on the fly
 217 as needed in that case.
 218
 219 Delta compression is not used on objects larger than the
 220 `core.bigFileThreshold` configuration variable and on files with the
 221 attribute `delta` set to false.
 222
 223 SEE ALSO
 224 --------
 225 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1]
 226 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
 227
 228 GIT
 229 ---
 230 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite