GIT-CLONE(1) Git Manual GIT-CLONE(1)NAMEgit-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory
SYNOPSISgit-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 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[1]) which automatically call git-gc[1]. If
these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned
repository, then the cloned repository will become corrupt.
--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.
NOTE: see NOTE to --shared option.
--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
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 URLS
One of the following notations can be used to name the remote
repository:
· rsync://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· http://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· https://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· git://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· git://host.xz/~user/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz/~user/path/to/repo.git/
· ssh://[user@]host.xz/~/path/to/repo.git
SSH is the default transport protocol over the network. You can
optionally specify which user to log-in as, and an alternate,
scp-like syntax is also supported. Both syntaxes support username
expansion, as does the native git protocol, but only the former
supports port specification. The following three are identical to
the last three above, respectively:
· [user@]host.xz:/path/to/repo.git/
· [user@]host.xz:~user/path/to/repo.git/
· [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git
To sync with a local directory, you can use:
· /path/to/repo.git/
· file:///path/to/repo.git/
They are equivalent, except the former implies --local option.
If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories
and you want to use a different format for them (such that the URLs
you use will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can create a
configuration section of the form:
[url "<actual url base>"]
insteadOf = <other url base>
For example, with this:
[url "git://git.host.xz/"]
insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
insteadOf = work:
a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will
be rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
"git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
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 git(7) suite
Git 1.5.5.2 10/21/2008 GIT-CLONE(1)
