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         [--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>-<SHA1>.{pack,idx} files.  <SHA1> is a hash
  54         of the sorted object names to make the resulting filename
  55         based on the pack content, and written to the standard
  56         output of the command.
  57
  58 --stdout::
  59         Write the pack contents (what would have been written to
  60         .pack file) out to the standard output.
  61
  62 --revs::
  63         Read the revision arguments from the standard input, instead of
  64         individual object names.  The revision arguments are processed
  65         the same way as 'git rev-list' with the `--objects` flag
  66         uses its `commit` arguments to build the list of objects it
  67         outputs.  The objects on the resulting list are packed.
  68
  69 --unpacked::
  70         This implies `--revs`.  When processing the list of
  71         revision arguments read from the standard input, limit
  72         the objects packed to those that are not already packed.
  73
  74 --all::
  75         This implies `--revs`.  In addition to the list of
  76         revision arguments read from the standard input, pretend
  77         as if all refs under `refs/` are specified to be
  78         included.
  79
  80 --include-tag::
  81         Include unasked-for annotated tags if the object they
  82         reference was included in the resulting packfile.  This
  83         can be useful to send new tags to native git clients.
  84
  85 --window=<n>::
  86 --depth=<n>::
  87         These two options affect how the objects contained in
  88         the pack are stored using delta compression.  The
  89         objects are first internally sorted by type, size and
  90         optionally names and compared against the other objects
  91         within --window to see if using delta compression saves
  92         space.  --depth limits the maximum delta depth; making
  93         it too deep affects the performance on the unpacker
  94         side, because delta data needs to be applied that many
  95         times to get to the necessary object.
  96         The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50.
  97
  98 --window-memory=<n>::
  99         This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
 100         the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
 101         up more than '<n>' bytes in memory.  This is useful in
 102         repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
 103         out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
 104         advantage of the large window for the smaller objects.  The
 105         size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
 106         `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited, which is the
 107         default.
 108
 109 --max-pack-size=<n>::
 110         Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed with
 111         "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
 112         If specified,  multiple packfiles may be created.
 113         The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
 114         `pack.packSizeLimit` is set.
 115
 116 --honor-pack-keep::
 117         This flag causes an object already in a local pack that
 118         has a .keep file to be ignored, even if it it would have
 119         otherwise been packed.
 120
 121 --incremental::
 122         This flag causes an object already in a pack to be ignored
 123         even if it would have otherwise been packed.
 124
 125 --local::
 126         This flag causes an object that is borrowed from an alternate
 127         object store to be ignored even if it would have otherwise been
 128         packed.
 129
 130 --non-empty::
 131         Only create a packed archive if it would contain at
 132         least one object.
 133
 134 --progress::
 135         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
 136         by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
 137         is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
 138         the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
 139
 140 --all-progress::
 141         When --stdout is specified then progress report is
 142         displayed during the object count and compression phases
 143         but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is
 144         that in some cases the output stream is directly linked
 145         to another command which may wish to display progress
 146         status of its own as it processes incoming pack data.
 147         This flag is like --progress except that it forces progress
 148         report for the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is
 149         used.
 150
 151 --all-progress-implied::
 152         This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display
 153         is activated.  Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn't actually
 154         force any progress display by itself.
 155
 156 -q::
 157         This flag makes the command not to report its progress
 158         on the standard error stream.
 159
 160 --no-reuse-delta::
 161         When creating a packed archive in a repository that
 162         has existing packs, the command reuses existing deltas.
 163         This sometimes results in a slightly suboptimal pack.
 164         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing deltas
 165         but compute them from scratch.
 166
 167 --no-reuse-object::
 168         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing object data at all,
 169         including non deltified object, forcing recompression of everything.
 170         This implies --no-reuse-delta. Useful only in the obscure case where
 171         wholesale enforcement of a different compression level on the
 172         packed data is desired.
 173
 174 --compression=<n>::
 175         Specifies compression level for newly-compressed data in the
 176         generated pack.  If not specified,  pack compression level is
 177         determined first by pack.compression,  then by core.compression,
 178         and defaults to -1,  the zlib default,  if neither is set.
 179         Add --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression
 180         level on all data no matter the source.
 181
 182 --thin::
 183         Create a "thin" pack by omitting the common objects between a
 184         sender and a receiver in order to reduce network transfer. This
 185         option only makes sense in conjunction with --stdout.
 186 +
 187 Note: A thin pack violates the packed archive format by omitting
 188 required objects and is thus unusable by git without making it
 189 self-contained. Use `git index-pack --fix-thin`
 190 (see linkgit:git-index-pack[1]) to restore the self-contained property.
 191
 192 --delta-base-offset::
 193         A packed archive can express the base object of a delta as
 194         either a 20-byte object name or as an offset in the
 195         stream, but ancient versions of git don't understand the
 196         latter.  By default, 'git pack-objects' only uses the
 197         former format for better compatibility.  This option
 198         allows the command to use the latter format for
 199         compactness.  Depending on the average delta chain
 200         length, this option typically shrinks the resulting
 201         packfile by 3-5 per-cent.
 202 +
 203 Note: Porcelain commands such as `git gc` (see linkgit:git-gc[1]),
 204 `git repack` (see linkgit:git-repack[1]) pass this option by default
 205 in modern git when they put objects in your repository into pack files.
 206 So does `git bundle` (see linkgit:git-bundle[1]) when it creates a bundle.
 207
 208 --threads=<n>::
 209         Specifies the number of threads to spawn when searching for best
 210         delta matches.  This requires that pack-objects be compiled with
 211         pthreads otherwise this option is ignored with a warning.
 212         This is meant to reduce packing time on multiprocessor machines.
 213         The required amount of memory for the delta search window is
 214         however multiplied by the number of threads.
 215         Specifying 0 will cause git to auto-detect the number of CPU's
 216         and set the number of threads accordingly.
 217
 218 --index-version=<version>[,<offset>]::
 219         This is intended to be used by the test suite only. It allows
 220         to force the version for the generated pack index, and to force
 221         64-bit index entries on objects located above the given offset.
 222
 223 --keep-true-parents::
 224         With this option, parents that are hidden by grafts are packed
 225         nevertheless.
 226
 227 SEE ALSO
 228 --------
 229 linkgit:git-rev-list[1]
 230 linkgit:git-repack[1]
 231 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
 232
 233 GIT
 234 ---
 235 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite