Documentation/git-bundle.txt

   1 git-bundle(1)
   2 =============
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git bundle' create [-q | --quiet | --progress | --all-progress] [--all-progress-implied] <file> <git-rev-list-args>
  13 'git bundle' verify [-q | --quiet] <file>
  14 'git bundle' list-heads <file> [<refname>...]
  15 'git bundle' unbundle <file> [<refname>...]
  16
  17 DESCRIPTION
  18 -----------
  19
  20 Some workflows require that one or more branches of development on one
  21 machine be replicated on another machine, but the two machines cannot
  22 be directly connected, and therefore the interactive Git protocols (git,
  23 ssh, http) cannot be used.
  24
  25 The 'git bundle' command packages objects and references in an archive
  26 at the originating machine, which can then be imported into another
  27 repository using 'git fetch', 'git pull', or 'git clone',
  28 after moving the archive by some means (e.g., by sneakernet).
  29
  30 As no
  31 direct connection between the repositories exists, the user must specify a
  32 basis for the bundle that is held by the destination repository: the
  33 bundle assumes that all objects in the basis are already in the
  34 destination repository.
  35
  36 OPTIONS
  37 -------
  38
  39 create [options] <file> <git-rev-list-args>::
  40         Used to create a bundle named 'file'.  This requires the
  41         '<git-rev-list-args>' arguments to define the bundle contents.
  42         'options' contains the options specific to the 'git bundle create'
  43         subcommand.
  44
  45 verify <file>::
  46         Used to check that a bundle file is valid and will apply
  47         cleanly to the current repository.  This includes checks on the
  48         bundle format itself as well as checking that the prerequisite
  49         commits exist and are fully linked in the current repository.
  50         'git bundle' prints a list of missing commits, if any, and exits
  51         with a non-zero status.
  52
  53 list-heads <file>::
  54         Lists the references defined in the bundle.  If followed by a
  55         list of references, only references matching those given are
  56         printed out.
  57
  58 unbundle <file>::
  59         Passes the objects in the bundle to 'git index-pack'
  60         for storage in the repository, then prints the names of all
  61         defined references. If a list of references is given, only
  62         references matching those in the list are printed. This command is
  63         really plumbing, intended to be called only by 'git fetch'.
  64
  65 <git-rev-list-args>::
  66         A list of arguments, acceptable to 'git rev-parse' and
  67         'git rev-list' (and containing a named ref, see SPECIFYING REFERENCES
  68         below), that specifies the specific objects and references
  69         to transport.  For example, `master~10..master` causes the
  70         current master reference to be packaged along with all objects
  71         added since its 10th ancestor commit.  There is no explicit
  72         limit to the number of references and objects that may be
  73         packaged.
  74
  75
  76 [<refname>...]::
  77         A list of references used to limit the references reported as
  78         available. This is principally of use to 'git fetch', which
  79         expects to receive only those references asked for and not
  80         necessarily everything in the pack (in this case, 'git bundle' acts
  81         like 'git fetch-pack').
  82
  83 --progress::
  84         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
  85         by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
  86         is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
  87         the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
  88
  89 --all-progress::
  90         When --stdout is specified then progress report is
  91         displayed during the object count and compression phases
  92         but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is
  93         that in some cases the output stream is directly linked
  94         to another command which may wish to display progress
  95         status of its own as it processes incoming pack data.
  96         This flag is like --progress except that it forces progress
  97         report for the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is
  98         used.
  99
 100 --all-progress-implied::
 101         This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display
 102         is activated.  Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn't actually
 103         force any progress display by itself.
 104
 105 -q::
 106 --quiet::
 107         This flag makes the command not to report its progress
 108         on the standard error stream.
 109
 110 SPECIFYING REFERENCES
 111 ---------------------
 112
 113 'git bundle' will only package references that are shown by
 114 'git show-ref': this includes heads, tags, and remote heads.  References
 115 such as `master~1` cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for
 116 defining the basis.  More than one reference may be packaged, and more
 117 than one basis can be specified.  The objects packaged are those not
 118 contained in the union of the given bases.  Each basis can be
 119 specified explicitly (e.g. `^master~10`), or implicitly (e.g.
 120 `master~10..master`, `--since=10.days.ago master`).
 121
 122 It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination.
 123 It is okay to err on the side of caution, causing the bundle file
 124 to contain objects already in the destination, as these are ignored
 125 when unpacking at the destination.
 126
 127 `git clone` can use any bundle created without negative refspecs
 128 (e.g., `new`, but not `old..new`).
 129 If you want to match `git clone --mirror`, which would include your
 130 refs such as `refs/remotes/*`, use `--all`.
 131 If you want to provide the same set of refs that a clone directly
 132 from the source repository would get, use `--branches --tags` for
 133 the `<git-rev-list-args>`.
 134
 135 EXAMPLES
 136 --------
 137
 138 Assume you want to transfer the history from a repository R1 on machine A
 139 to another repository R2 on machine B.
 140 For whatever reason, direct connection between A and B is not allowed,
 141 but we can move data from A to B via some mechanism (CD, email, etc.).
 142 We want to update R2 with development made on the branch master in R1.
 143
 144 To bootstrap the process, you can first create a bundle that does not have
 145 any basis. You can use a tag to remember up to what commit you last
 146 processed, in order to make it easy to later update the other repository
 147 with an incremental bundle:
 148
 149 ----------------
 150 machineA$ cd R1
 151 machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle master
 152 machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
 153 ----------------
 154
 155 Then you transfer file.bundle to the target machine B. Because this
 156 bundle does not require any existing object to be extracted, you can
 157 create a new repository on machine B by cloning from it:
 158
 159 ----------------
 160 machineB$ git clone -b master /home/me/tmp/file.bundle R2
 161 ----------------
 162
 163 This will define a remote called "origin" in the resulting repository that
 164 lets you fetch and pull from the bundle. The $GIT_DIR/config file in R2 will
 165 have an entry like this:
 166
 167 ------------------------
 168 [remote "origin"]
 169     url = /home/me/tmp/file.bundle
 170     fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
 171 ------------------------
 172
 173 To update the resulting mine.git repository, you can fetch or pull after
 174 replacing the bundle stored at /home/me/tmp/file.bundle with incremental
 175 updates.
 176
 177 After working some more in the original repository, you can create an
 178 incremental bundle to update the other repository:
 179
 180 ----------------
 181 machineA$ cd R1
 182 machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle lastR2bundle..master
 183 machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
 184 ----------------
 185
 186 You then transfer the bundle to the other machine to replace
 187 /home/me/tmp/file.bundle, and pull from it.
 188
 189 ----------------
 190 machineB$ cd R2
 191 machineB$ git pull
 192 ----------------
 193
 194 If you know up to what commit the intended recipient repository should
 195 have the necessary objects, you can use that knowledge to specify the
 196 basis, giving a cut-off point to limit the revisions and objects that go
 197 in the resulting bundle. The previous example used the lastR2bundle tag
 198 for this purpose, but you can use any other options that you would give to
 199 the linkgit:git-log[1] command. Here are more examples:
 200
 201 You can use a tag that is present in both:
 202
 203 ----------------
 204 $ git bundle create mybundle v1.0.0..master
 205 ----------------
 206
 207 You can use a basis based on time:
 208
 209 ----------------
 210 $ git bundle create mybundle --since=10.days master
 211 ----------------
 212
 213 You can use the number of commits:
 214
 215 ----------------
 216 $ git bundle create mybundle -10 master
 217 ----------------
 218
 219 You can run `git-bundle verify` to see if you can extract from a bundle
 220 that was created with a basis:
 221
 222 ----------------
 223 $ git bundle verify mybundle
 224 ----------------
 225
 226 This will list what commits you must have in order to extract from the
 227 bundle and will error out if you do not have them.
 228
 229 A bundle from a recipient repository's point of view is just like a
 230 regular repository which it fetches or pulls from. You can, for example, map
 231 references when fetching:
 232
 233 ----------------
 234 $ git fetch mybundle master:localRef
 235 ----------------
 236
 237 You can also see what references it offers:
 238
 239 ----------------
 240 $ git ls-remote mybundle
 241 ----------------
 242
 243 GIT
 244 ---
 245 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite