Documentation / git-clone.txton commit Add --keep option to keep downloaded packs to git-fetch. (0f76f52)
   1git-clone(1)
   2============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-clone - Clones a repository.
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git-clone' [-l [-s]] [-q] [-n] [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>]
  13          <repository> [<directory>]
  14
  15DESCRIPTION
  16-----------
  17Clones a repository into a newly created directory.  All remote
  18branch heads are copied under `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/`, except
  19that the remote `master` is also copied to `origin` branch.
  20
  21In addition, `$GIT_DIR/remotes/origin` file is set up to have
  22this line:
  23
  24        Pull: master:origin
  25
  26This is to help the typical workflow of working off of the
  27remote `master` branch.  Every time `git pull` without argument
  28is run, the progress on the remote `master` branch is tracked by
  29copying it into the local `origin` branch, and merged into the
  30branch you are currently working on.  Remote branches other than
  31`master` are also added there to be tracked.
  32
  33
  34OPTIONS
  35-------
  36--local::
  37-l::
  38        When the repository to clone from is on a local machine,
  39        this flag bypasses normal "git aware" transport
  40        mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of
  41        HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories.
  42        The files under .git/objects/ directory are hardlinked
  43        to save space when possible.
  44
  45--shared::
  46-s::
  47        When the repository to clone is on the local machine,
  48        instead of using hard links, automatically setup
  49        .git/objects/info/alternatives to share the objects
  50        with the source repository.  The resulting repository
  51        starts out without any object of its own.
  52
  53--quiet::
  54-q::
  55        Operate quietly.  This flag is passed to "rsync" and
  56        "git-clone-pack" commands when given.
  57
  58-n::
  59        No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
  60
  61-o <name>::
  62        Instead of using the branch name 'origin' to keep track
  63        of the upstream repository, use <name> instead.  Note
  64        that the shorthand name stored in `remotes/origin` is
  65        not affected, but the local branch name to pull the
  66        remote `master` branch into is.
  67
  68--upload-pack <upload-pack>::
  69-u <upload-pack>::
  70        When given, and the repository to clone from is handled
  71        by 'git-clone-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to
  72        the command to specify non-default path for the command
  73        run on the other end.
  74
  75<repository>::
  76        The (possibly remote) repository to clone from.  It can
  77        be any URL git-fetch supports.
  78
  79<directory>::
  80        The name of a new directory to clone into.  The "humanish"
  81        part of the source repository is used if no directory is
  82        explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo"
  83        for "host.xz:foo/.git").  Cloning into an existing directory
  84        is not allowed.
  85
  86Examples
  87~~~~~~~~
  88
  89Clone from upstream::
  90+
  91------------
  92$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
  93$ cd my2.6
  94$ make
  95------------
  96
  97
  98Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out::
  99+
 100------------
 101$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
 102$ cd copy
 103$ git show-branch
 104------------
 105
 106Author
 107------
 108Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 109
 110
 111Documentation
 112--------------
 113Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 114
 115
 116GIT
 117---
 118Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 119