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