git-clone(1) ============ NAME ---- git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory SYNOPSIS -------- [verse] 'git clone' [--template=] [-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror] [-o ] [-b ] [-u ] [--reference ] [--dissociate] [--separate-git-dir ] [--depth ] [--[no-]single-branch] [--no-tags] [--recurse-submodules[=]] [--[no-]shallow-submodules] [--[no-]remote-submodules] [--jobs ] [--sparse] [--[no-]reject-shallow] [--filter=] [--] [] DESCRIPTION ----------- Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository (visible using `git branch --remotes`), and creates and checks out an initial branch that is forked from the cloned repository's currently active branch. After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the current master branch, if any (this is untrue when "--single-branch" is given; see below). This default configuration is achieved by creating references to the remote branch heads under `refs/remotes/origin` and by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` configuration variables. OPTIONS ------- -l:: --local:: When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, this flag bypasses the normal "Git aware" transport mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked to save space when possible. + If the repository is specified as a local path (e.g., `/path/to/repo`), this is the default, and --local is essentially a no-op. If the repository is specified as a URL, then this flag is ignored (and we never use the local optimizations). Specifying `--no-local` will override the default when `/path/to/repo` is given, using the regular Git transport instead. + *NOTE*: this operation can race with concurrent modification to the source repository, similar to running `cp -r src dst` while modifying `src`. --no-hardlinks:: Force the cloning process from a repository on a local filesystem to copy the files under the `.git/objects` directory instead of using hardlinks. This may be desirable if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository. -s:: --shared:: When the repository to clone is on the local machine, instead of using hard links, automatically setup `.git/objects/info/alternates` to share the objects with the source repository. The resulting repository starts out without any object of its own. + *NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any other Git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). These objects may be removed by normal Git operations (such as `git commit`) which automatically call `git maintenance run --auto`. (See linkgit:git-maintenance[1].) If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, then the cloned repository will become corrupt. + Note that running `git repack` without the `--local` option in a repository cloned with `--shared` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone --shared`. It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `--local` option by default. + If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `--shared` on its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository. --reference[-if-able] :: If the reference repository is on the local machine, automatically setup `.git/objects/info/alternates` to obtain objects from the reference repository. Using an already existing repository as an alternate will require fewer objects to be copied from the repository being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. When using the `--reference-if-able`, a non existing directory is skipped with a warning instead of aborting the clone. + *NOTE*: see the NOTE for the `--shared` option, and also the `--dissociate` option. --dissociate:: Borrow the objects from reference repositories specified with the `--reference` options only to reduce network transfer, and stop borrowing from them after a clone is made by making necessary local copies of borrowed objects. This option can also be used when cloning locally from a repository that already borrows objects from another repository--the new repository will borrow objects from the same repository, and this option can be used to stop the borrowing. -q:: --quiet:: Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard error stream. -v:: --verbose:: Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status to the standard error stream. --progress:: Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless `--quiet` is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. --server-option=