1gitrepository-layout(5) 2======================= 3 4NAME 5---- 6gitrepository-layout - Git Repository Layout 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10$GIT_DIR/* 11 12DESCRIPTION 13----------- 14 15You may find these things in your git repository (`.git` 16directory for a repository associated with your working tree, or 17`<project>.git` directory for a public 'bare' repository. It is 18also possible to have a working tree where `.git` is a plain 19ASCII file containing `gitdir: <path>`, i.e. the path to the 20real git repository). 21 22objects:: 23 Object store associated with this repository. Usually 24 an object store is self sufficient (i.e. all the objects 25 that are referred to by an object found in it are also 26 found in it), but there are a few ways to violate it. 27+ 28. You could have an incomplete but locally usable repository 29by creating a shallow clone. See linkgit:git-clone[1]. 30. You could be using the `objects/info/alternates` or 31`$GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES` mechanisms to 'borrow' 32objects from other object stores. A repository with this kind 33of incomplete object store is not suitable to be published for 34use with dumb transports but otherwise is OK as long as 35`objects/info/alternates` points at the object stores it 36borrows from. 37 38objects/[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]:: 39 A newly created object is stored in its own file. 40 The objects are splayed over 256 subdirectories using 41 the first two characters of the sha1 object name to 42 keep the number of directory entries in `objects` 43 itself to a manageable number. Objects found 44 here are often called 'unpacked' (or 'loose') objects. 45 46objects/pack:: 47 Packs (files that store many object in compressed form, 48 along with index files to allow them to be randomly 49 accessed) are found in this directory. 50 51objects/info:: 52 Additional information about the object store is 53 recorded in this directory. 54 55objects/info/packs:: 56 This file is to help dumb transports discover what packs 57 are available in this object store. Whenever a pack is 58 added or removed, `git update-server-info` should be run 59 to keep this file up-to-date if the repository is 60 published for dumb transports. 'git repack' does this 61 by default. 62 63objects/info/alternates:: 64 This file records paths to alternate object stores that 65 this object store borrows objects from, one pathname per 66 line. Note that not only native Git tools use it locally, 67 but the HTTP fetcher also tries to use it remotely; this 68 will usually work if you have relative paths (relative 69 to the object database, not to the repository!) in your 70 alternates file, but it will not work if you use absolute 71 paths unless the absolute path in filesystem and web URL 72 is the same. See also 'objects/info/http-alternates'. 73 74objects/info/http-alternates:: 75 This file records URLs to alternate object stores that 76 this object store borrows objects from, to be used when 77 the repository is fetched over HTTP. 78 79refs:: 80 References are stored in subdirectories of this 81 directory. The 'git prune' command knows to preserve 82 objects reachable from refs found in this directory and 83 its subdirectories. 84 85refs/heads/`name`:: 86 records tip-of-the-tree commit objects of branch `name` 87 88refs/tags/`name`:: 89 records any object name (not necessarily a commit 90 object, or a tag object that points at a commit object). 91 92refs/remotes/`name`:: 93 records tip-of-the-tree commit objects of branches copied 94 from a remote repository. 95 96packed-refs:: 97 records the same information as refs/heads/, refs/tags/, 98 and friends record in a more efficient way. See 99 linkgit:git-pack-refs[1]. 100 101HEAD:: 102 A symref (see glossary) to the `refs/heads/` namespace 103 describing the currently active branch. It does not mean 104 much if the repository is not associated with any working tree 105 (i.e. a 'bare' repository), but a valid git repository 106 *must* have the HEAD file; some porcelains may use it to 107 guess the designated "default" branch of the repository 108 (usually 'master'). It is legal if the named branch 109 'name' does not (yet) exist. In some legacy setups, it is 110 a symbolic link instead of a symref that points at the current 111 branch. 112+ 113HEAD can also record a specific commit directly, instead of 114being a symref to point at the current branch. Such a state 115is often called 'detached HEAD.' See linkgit:git-checkout[1] 116for details. 117 118branches:: 119 A slightly deprecated way to store shorthands to be used 120 to specify a URL to 'git fetch', 'git pull' and 'git push'. 121 A file can be stored as `branches/<name>` and then 122 'name' can be given to these commands in place of 123 'repository' argument. See the REMOTES section in 124 linkgit:git-fetch[1] for details. This mechanism is legacy 125 and not likely to be found in modern repositories. 126 127hooks:: 128 Hooks are customization scripts used by various git 129 commands. A handful of sample hooks are installed when 130 'git init' is run, but all of them are disabled by 131 default. To enable, the `.sample` suffix has to be 132 removed from the filename by renaming. 133 Read linkgit:githooks[5] for more details about 134 each hook. 135 136index:: 137 The current index file for the repository. It is 138 usually not found in a bare repository. 139 140info:: 141 Additional information about the repository is recorded 142 in this directory. 143 144info/refs:: 145 This file helps dumb transports discover what refs are 146 available in this repository. If the repository is 147 published for dumb transports, this file should be 148 regenerated by 'git update-server-info' every time a tag 149 or branch is created or modified. This is normally done 150 from the `hooks/update` hook, which is run by the 151 'git-receive-pack' command when you 'git push' into the 152 repository. 153 154info/grafts:: 155 This file records fake commit ancestry information, to 156 pretend the set of parents a commit has is different 157 from how the commit was actually created. One record 158 per line describes a commit and its fake parents by 159 listing their 40-byte hexadecimal object names separated 160 by a space and terminated by a newline. 161 162info/exclude:: 163 This file, by convention among Porcelains, stores the 164 exclude pattern list. `.gitignore` is the per-directory 165 ignore file. 'git status', 'git add', 'git rm' and 166 'git clean' look at it but the core git commands do not look 167 at it. See also: linkgit:gitignore[5]. 168 169remotes:: 170 Stores shorthands for URL and default refnames for use 171 when interacting with remote repositories via 'git fetch', 172 'git pull' and 'git push' commands. See the REMOTES section 173 in linkgit:git-fetch[1] for details. This mechanism is legacy 174 and not likely to be found in modern repositories. 175 176logs:: 177 Records of changes made to refs are stored in this 178 directory. See linkgit:git-update-ref[1] 179 for more information. 180 181logs/refs/heads/`name`:: 182 Records all changes made to the branch tip named `name`. 183 184logs/refs/tags/`name`:: 185 Records all changes made to the tag named `name`. 186 187shallow:: 188 This is similar to `info/grafts` but is internally used 189 and maintained by shallow clone mechanism. See `--depth` 190 option to linkgit:git-clone[1] and linkgit:git-fetch[1]. 191 192SEE ALSO 193-------- 194linkgit:git-init[1], 195linkgit:git-clone[1], 196linkgit:git-fetch[1], 197linkgit:git-pack-refs[1], 198linkgit:git-gc[1], 199linkgit:git-checkout[1], 200linkgit:gitglossary[7], 201link:user-manual.html[The Git User's Manual] 202 203GIT 204--- 205Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite.