1git-clone(1) 2============ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git clone' [--template=<template_directory>] 13 [-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror] 14 [-o <name>] [-b <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>] 15 [--separate-git-dir <git dir>] 16 [--depth <depth>] [--[no-]single-branch] 17 [--recursive|--recurse-submodules] [--] <repository> 18 [<directory>] 19 20DESCRIPTION 21----------- 22 23Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates 24remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository 25(visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an 26initial branch that is forked from the cloned repository's 27currently active branch. 28 29After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update 30all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without 31arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the 32current master branch, if any. 33 34This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 35the remote branch heads under `refs/remotes/origin` and 36by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 37configuration variables. 38 39 40OPTIONS 41------- 42--local:: 43-l:: 44 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 45 this flag bypasses the normal "git aware" transport 46 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 47 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 48 The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked 49 to save space when possible. 50+ 51If the repository is specified as a local path (e.g., `/path/to/repo`), 52this is the default, and --local is essentially a no-op. If the 53repository is specified as a URL, then this flag is ignored (and we 54never use the local optimizations). Specifying `--no-local` will 55override the default when `/path/to/repo` is given, using the regular 56git transport instead. 57+ 58To force copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable if you 59are trying to make a back-up of your repository), but still avoid the 60usual "git aware" transport mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 61 62--no-hardlinks:: 63 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 64 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 65 directory. 66 67--shared:: 68-s:: 69 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 70 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 71 `.git/objects/info/alternates` to share the objects 72 with the source repository. The resulting repository 73 starts out without any object of its own. 74+ 75*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 76it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 77repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any 78other git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the 79source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). 80These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as `git commit`) 81which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].) 82If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, 83then the cloned repository will become corrupt. 84+ 85Note that running `git repack` without the `-l` option in a repository 86cloned with `-s` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack 87in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone -s`. 88It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `-l` option by 89default. 90+ 91If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `-s` on 92its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all 93objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository. 94 95--reference <repository>:: 96 If the reference repository is on the local machine, 97 automatically setup `.git/objects/info/alternates` to 98 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 99 an already existing repository as an alternate will 100 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 101 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 102+ 103*NOTE*: see the NOTE for the `--shared` option. 104 105--quiet:: 106-q:: 107 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard 108 error stream. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 109 command when given. 110 111--verbose:: 112-v:: 113 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status 114 to the standard error stream. 115 116--progress:: 117 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 118 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q 119 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the 120 standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. 121 122--no-checkout:: 123-n:: 124 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 125 126--bare:: 127 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 128 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 129 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 130 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 131 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 132 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 133 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 134 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 135 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 136 configuration variables are created. 137 138--mirror:: 139 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies `--bare`. 140 Compared to `--bare`, `--mirror` not only maps local branches of the 141 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including 142 remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such 143 that all these refs are overwritten by a `git remote update` in the 144 target repository. 145 146--origin <name>:: 147-o <name>:: 148 Instead of using the remote name `origin` to keep track 149 of the upstream repository, use `<name>`. 150 151--branch <name>:: 152-b <name>:: 153 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed 154 to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to `<name>` branch 155 instead. `--branch` can also take tags and treat them like 156 detached HEAD. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch 157 that will be checked out. 158 159--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 160-u <upload-pack>:: 161 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 162 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 163 run on the other end. 164 165--template=<template_directory>:: 166 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 167 (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of linkgit:git-init[1].) 168 169--config <key>=<value>:: 170-c <key>=<value>:: 171 Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; 172 this takes effect immediately after the repository is 173 initialized, but before the remote history is fetched or any 174 files checked out. The key is in the same format as expected by 175 linkgit:git-config[1] (e.g., `core.eol=true`). If multiple 176 values are given for the same key, each value will be written to 177 the config file. This makes it safe, for example, to add 178 additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote. 179 180--depth <depth>:: 181 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 182 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 183 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 184 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 185 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 186 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 187 as patches. 188 189--single-branch:: 190 Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch, 191 either specified by the `--branch` option or the primary 192 branch remote's `HEAD` points at. When creating a shallow 193 clone with the `--depth` option, this is the default, unless 194 `--no-single-branch` is given to fetch the histories near the 195 tips of all branches. 196 197--recursive:: 198--recurse-submodules:: 199 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 200 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 201 `git submodule update --init --recursive` immediately after 202 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 203 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 204 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 205 206--separate-git-dir=<git dir>:: 207 Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed 208 to be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, 209 then make a filesytem-agnostic git symbolic link to there. 210 The result is git repository can be separated from working 211 tree. 212 213 214<repository>:: 215 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 216 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 217 repositories. 218 219<directory>:: 220 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 221 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 222 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 223 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 224 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 225 226:git-clone: 1 227include::urls.txt[] 228 229Examples 230-------- 231 232* Clone from upstream: 233+ 234------------ 235$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 236$ cd my2.6 237$ make 238------------ 239 240 241* Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out: 242+ 243------------ 244$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 245$ cd ../copy 246$ git show-branch 247------------ 248 249 250* Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory: 251+ 252------------ 253$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 254 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 255 my2.7 256$ cd my2.7 257------------ 258 259 260* Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public: 261+ 262------------ 263$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 264------------ 265 266 267* Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus: 268+ 269------------ 270$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 271 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 272------------ 273 274GIT 275--- 276Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite