summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/git-clone.txt
blob: 23418816146d0b65eeabdd7a3d67dcd7e8c760e1 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
git-clone(1)
============
 
NAME
----
git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory
 
 
SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git-clone' [--template=<template_directory>]
	  [-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare]
	  [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>]
	  [--depth <depth>] [--] <repository> [<directory>]
 
DESCRIPTION
-----------
 
Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates
remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository
(visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an initial
branch equal to 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 default configuration is achieved by creating references to
the remote branch heads under `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin` and
by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch`
configuration variables.
 
 
OPTIONS
-------
--local::
-l::
	When the repository to clone from is on a local machine,
	this flag bypasses 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.  This is now the default when
	the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo`
	syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option.  To force
	copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable
	if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository),
	but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport
	mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used.
 
--no-hardlinks::
	Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a
	local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects`
	directory.
 
--shared::
-s::
	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, then delete branches in the
	source repository and then run linkgit:git-gc[1] using the
	'--prune' option in the source repository, it may remove
	objects which are referenced by the cloned repository.
 
 
 
--reference <repository>::
	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.
 
--quiet::
-q::
	Operate quietly.  This flag is passed to "rsync" and
	"git-fetch-pack" commands when given.
 
--no-checkout::
-n::
	No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
 
--bare::
	Make a 'bare' GIT repository.  That is, instead of
	creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative
	files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>`
	itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n`
	because there is nowhere to check out the working tree.
	Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly
	to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping
	them to `refs/remotes/origin/`.  When this option is
	used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related
	configuration variables are created.
 
--origin <name>::
-o <name>::
	Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track
	of the upstream repository, use <name> instead.
 
--upload-pack <upload-pack>::
-u <upload-pack>::
	When given, and the repository to clone from is handled
	by 'git-fetch-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to
	the command to specify non-default path for the command
	run on the other end.
 
--template=<template_directory>::
	Specify the directory from which templates will be used;
	if unset the templates are taken from the installation
	defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`.
 
--depth <depth>::
	Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the
	specified number of revisions.  A shallow repository has a
	number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from
	it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you
	are only interested in the recent history of a large project
	with a long history, and would want to send in fixes
	as patches.
 
<repository>::
	The (possibly remote) repository to clone from.  See the
	<<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying
	repositories.
 
<directory>::
	The name of a new directory to clone into.  The "humanish"
	part of the source repository is used if no directory is
	explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo"
	for "host.xz:foo/.git").  Cloning into an existing directory
	is not allowed.
 
:git-clone: 1
include::urls.txt[]
 
Examples
--------
 
Clone from upstream::
+
------------
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
$ cd my2.6
$ make
------------
 
 
Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out::
+
------------
$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
$ cd ../copy
$ git show-branch
------------
 
 
Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory::
+
------------
$ git clone --reference my2.6 \
	git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \
	my2.7
$ cd my2.7
------------
 
 
Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public::
+
------------
$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git
------------
 
 
Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus::
+
------------
$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \
    /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git
------------
 
 
Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 
 
Documentation
--------------
Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 
 
GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite