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|-L <git dir>] 16 [--depth <depth>] [--recursive|--recurse-submodules] [--] <repository> 17 [<directory>] 18 19DESCRIPTION 20----------- 21 22Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates 23remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository 24(visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an 25initial branch that is forked from the cloned repository's 26currently active branch. 27 28After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update 29all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without 30arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the 31current master branch, if any. 32 33This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 34the remote branch heads under `refs/remotes/origin` and 35by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 36configuration variables. 37 38 39OPTIONS 40------- 41--local:: 42-l:: 43 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 44 this flag bypasses the normal "git aware" transport 45 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 46 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 47 The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked 48 to save space when possible. This is now the default when 49 the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo` 50 syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option. To force 51 copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable 52 if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository), 53 but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport 54 mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 55 56--no-hardlinks:: 57 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 58 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 59 directory. 60 61--shared:: 62-s:: 63 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 64 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 65 `.git/objects/info/alternates` to share the objects 66 with the source repository. The resulting repository 67 starts out without any object of its own. 68+ 69*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 70it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 71repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any 72other git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the 73source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). 74These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as `git commit`) 75which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].) 76If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, 77then the cloned repository will become corrupt. 78+ 79Note that running `git repack` without the `-l` option in a repository 80cloned with `-s` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack 81in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone -s`. 82It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `-l` option by 83default. 84+ 85If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `-s` on 86its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all 87objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository. 88 89--reference <repository>:: 90 If the reference repository is on the local machine, 91 automatically setup `.git/objects/info/alternates` to 92 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 93 an already existing repository as an alternate will 94 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 95 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 96+ 97*NOTE*: see the NOTE for the `--shared` option. 98 99--quiet:: 100-q:: 101 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard 102 error stream. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 103 command when given. 104 105--verbose:: 106-v:: 107 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status 108 to the standard error stream. 109 110--progress:: 111 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 112 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q 113 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the 114 standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. 115 116--no-checkout:: 117-n:: 118 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 119 120--bare:: 121 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 122 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 123 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 124 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 125 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 126 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 127 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 128 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 129 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 130 configuration variables are created. 131 132--mirror:: 133 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies `--bare`. 134 Compared to `--bare`, `--mirror` not only maps local branches of the 135 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including 136 remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such 137 that all these refs are overwritten by a `git remote update` in the 138 target repository. 139 140--origin <name>:: 141-o <name>:: 142 Instead of using the remote name `origin` to keep track 143 of the upstream repository, use `<name>`. 144 145--branch <name>:: 146-b <name>:: 147 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed 148 to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to `<name>` branch 149 instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will 150 be checked out. 151 152--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 153-u <upload-pack>:: 154 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 155 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 156 run on the other end. 157 158--template=<template_directory>:: 159 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 160 (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of linkgit:git-init[1].) 161 162--depth <depth>:: 163 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 164 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 165 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 166 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 167 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 168 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 169 as patches. 170 171--recursive:: 172--recurse-submodules:: 173 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 174 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 175 `git submodule update --init --recursive` immediately after 176 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 177 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 178 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 179 180-L=<git dir>:: 181--separate-git-dir=<git dir>:: 182 Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed 183 to be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, 184 then make a filesytem-agnostic git symbolic link to there. 185 The result is git repository can be separated from working 186 tree. 187 188 189<repository>:: 190 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 191 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 192 repositories. 193 194<directory>:: 195 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 196 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 197 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 198 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 199 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 200 201:git-clone: 1 202include::urls.txt[] 203 204Examples 205-------- 206 207* Clone from upstream: 208+ 209------------ 210$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 211$ cd my2.6 212$ make 213------------ 214 215 216* Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out: 217+ 218------------ 219$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 220$ cd ../copy 221$ git show-branch 222------------ 223 224 225* Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory: 226+ 227------------ 228$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 229 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 230 my2.7 231$ cd my2.7 232------------ 233 234 235* Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public: 236+ 237------------ 238$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 239------------ 240 241 242* Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus: 243+ 244------------ 245$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 246 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 247------------ 248 249GIT 250--- 251Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite