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>] [-l [-s]] [-q] [-n] [--bare] 13 [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>] 14 [--depth <depth>] <repository> [<directory>] 15 16DESCRIPTION 17----------- 18 19Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates 20remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository 21(visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an initial 22branch equal to the cloned repository's currently active branch. 23 24After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update 25all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without 26arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the 27current master branch, if any. 28 29This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 30the remote branch heads under `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin` and 31by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 32configuration variables. 33 34 35OPTIONS 36------- 37--local:: 38-l:: 39 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 40 this flag bypasses normal "git aware" transport 41 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 42 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 43 The files under .git/objects/ directory are hardlinked 44 to save space when possible. 45 46--shared:: 47-s:: 48 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 49 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 50 .git/objects/info/alternates to share the objects 51 with the source repository. The resulting repository 52 starts out without any object of its own. 53 54--reference <repository>:: 55 If the reference repository is on the local machine 56 automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to 57 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 58 an already existing repository as an alternate will 59 require less objects to be copied from the repository 60 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 61 62--quiet:: 63-q:: 64 Operate quietly. This flag is passed to "rsync" and 65 "git-fetch-pack" commands when given. 66 67-n:: 68 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 69 70--bare:: 71 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 72 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 73 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 74 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 75 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 76 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 77 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 78 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 79 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 80 configuration variables are created. 81 82--origin <name>:: 83-o <name>:: 84 Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track 85 of the upstream repository, use <name> instead. 86 87--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 88-u <upload-pack>:: 89 When given, and the repository to clone from is handled 90 by 'git-fetch-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to 91 the command to specify non-default path for the command 92 run on the other end. 93 94--template=<template_directory>:: 95 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 96 if unset the templates are taken from the installation 97 defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`. 98 99--depth <depth>:: 100 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 101 specified number of revs. A shallow repository has 102 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 103 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 104 want to only look at near the tip of a large project 105 with a long history, and would want to send in a fixes 106 as patches. 107 108<repository>:: 109 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. It can 110 be any URL git-fetch supports. 111 112<directory>:: 113 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 114 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 115 explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" 116 for "host.xz:foo/.git"). Cloning into an existing directory 117 is not allowed. 118 119Examples 120-------- 121 122Clone from upstream:: 123+ 124------------ 125$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 126$ cd my2.6 127$ make 128------------ 129 130 131Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out:: 132+ 133------------ 134$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 135$ cd ../copy 136$ git show-branch 137------------ 138 139 140Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory:: 141+ 142------------ 143$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 144 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 145 my2.7 146$ cd my2.7 147------------ 148 149 150Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:: 151+ 152------------ 153$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 154------------ 155 156 157Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus:: 158+ 159------------ 160$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 161 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 162------------ 163 164 165Author 166------ 167Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 168 169 170Documentation 171-------------- 172Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 173 174 175GIT 176--- 177Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite