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] 14 [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>] 15 [--depth <depth>] <repository> [<directory>] 16 17DESCRIPTION 18----------- 19 20Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates 21remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository 22(visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an initial 23branch equal to the cloned repository's currently active branch. 24 25After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update 26all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without 27arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the 28current master branch, if any. 29 30This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 31the remote branch heads under `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin` and 32by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 33configuration variables. 34 35 36OPTIONS 37------- 38--local:: 39-l:: 40 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 41 this flag bypasses normal "git aware" transport 42 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 43 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 44 The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked 45 to save space when possible. This is now the default when 46 the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo` 47 syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option. To force 48 copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable 49 if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository), 50 but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport 51 mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 52 53--no-hardlinks:: 54 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 55 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 56 directory. 57 58--shared:: 59-s:: 60 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 61 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 62 .git/objects/info/alternates to share the objects 63 with the source repository. The resulting repository 64 starts out without any object of its own. 65 66--reference <repository>:: 67 If the reference repository is on the local machine 68 automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to 69 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 70 an already existing repository as an alternate will 71 require less objects to be copied from the repository 72 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 73 74--quiet:: 75-q:: 76 Operate quietly. This flag is passed to "rsync" and 77 "git-fetch-pack" commands when given. 78 79--no-checkout:: 80-n:: 81 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 82 83--bare:: 84 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 85 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 86 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 87 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 88 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 89 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 90 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 91 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 92 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 93 configuration variables are created. 94 95--origin <name>:: 96-o <name>:: 97 Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track 98 of the upstream repository, use <name> instead. 99 100--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 101-u <upload-pack>:: 102 When given, and the repository to clone from is handled 103 by 'git-fetch-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to 104 the command to specify non-default path for the command 105 run on the other end. 106 107--template=<template_directory>:: 108 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 109 if unset the templates are taken from the installation 110 defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`. 111 112--depth <depth>:: 113 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 114 specified number of revs. A shallow repository has 115 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 116 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 117 want to only look at near the tip of a large project 118 with a long history, and would want to send in a fixes 119 as patches. 120 121<repository>:: 122 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 123 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 124 repositories. 125 126<directory>:: 127 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 128 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 129 explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" 130 for "host.xz:foo/.git"). Cloning into an existing directory 131 is not allowed. 132 133include::urls.txt[] 134 135Examples 136-------- 137 138Clone from upstream:: 139+ 140------------ 141$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 142$ cd my2.6 143$ make 144------------ 145 146 147Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out:: 148+ 149------------ 150$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 151$ cd ../copy 152$ git show-branch 153------------ 154 155 156Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory:: 157+ 158------------ 159$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 160 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 161 my2.7 162$ cd my2.7 163------------ 164 165 166Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:: 167+ 168------------ 169$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 170------------ 171 172 173Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus:: 174+ 175------------ 176$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 177 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 178------------ 179 180 181Author 182------ 183Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 184 185 186Documentation 187-------------- 188Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 189 190 191GIT 192--- 193Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite