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 <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. 102 103--quiet:: 104-q:: 105 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard 106 error stream. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 107 command when given. 108 109--verbose:: 110-v:: 111 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status 112 to the standard error stream. 113 114--progress:: 115 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 116 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q 117 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the 118 standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. 119 120--no-checkout:: 121-n:: 122 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 123 124--bare:: 125 Make a 'bare' Git repository. That is, instead of 126 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 127 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 128 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 129 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 130 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 131 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 132 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 133 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 134 configuration variables are created. 135 136--mirror:: 137 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies `--bare`. 138 Compared to `--bare`, `--mirror` not only maps local branches of the 139 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including 140 remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such 141 that all these refs are overwritten by a `git remote update` in the 142 target repository. 143 144--origin <name>:: 145-o <name>:: 146 Instead of using the remote name `origin` to keep track 147 of the upstream repository, use `<name>`. 148 149--branch <name>:: 150-b <name>:: 151 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed 152 to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to `<name>` branch 153 instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will 154 be checked out. 155 `--branch` can also take tags and detaches the HEAD at that commit 156 in the resulting repository. 157 158--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 159-u <upload-pack>:: 160 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 161 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 162 run on the other end. 163 164--template=<template_directory>:: 165 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 166 (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of linkgit:git-init[1].) 167 168--config <key>=<value>:: 169-c <key>=<value>:: 170 Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; 171 this takes effect immediately after the repository is 172 initialized, but before the remote history is fetched or any 173 files checked out. The key is in the same format as expected by 174 linkgit:git-config[1] (e.g., `core.eol=true`). If multiple 175 values are given for the same key, each value will be written to 176 the config file. This makes it safe, for example, to add 177 additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote. 178 179--depth <depth>:: 180 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 181 specified number of revisions. 182 183--[no-]single-branch:: 184 Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch, 185 either specified by the `--branch` option or the primary 186 branch remote's `HEAD` points at. When creating a shallow 187 clone with the `--depth` option, this is the default, unless 188 `--no-single-branch` is given to fetch the histories near the 189 tips of all branches. 190 Further fetches into the resulting repository will only update the 191 remote-tracking branch for the branch this option was used for the 192 initial cloning. If the HEAD at the remote did not point at any 193 branch when `--single-branch` clone was made, no remote-tracking 194 branch is created. 195 196--recursive:: 197--recurse-submodules:: 198 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 199 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 200 `git submodule update --init --recursive` immediately after 201 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 202 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 203 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 204 205--separate-git-dir=<git dir>:: 206 Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed 207 to be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, 208 then make a filesystem-agnostic Git symbolic link to there. 209 The result is Git repository can be separated from working 210 tree. 211 212 213<repository>:: 214 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 215 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 216 repositories. 217 218<directory>:: 219 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 220 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 221 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 222 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 223 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 224 225:git-clone: 1 226include::urls.txt[] 227 228Examples 229-------- 230 231* Clone from upstream: 232+ 233------------ 234$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git my-linux 235$ cd my-linux 236$ make 237------------ 238 239 240* Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out: 241+ 242------------ 243$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 244$ cd ../copy 245$ git show-branch 246------------ 247 248 249* Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory: 250+ 251------------ 252$ git clone --reference /git/linux.git \ 253 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git \ 254 my-linux 255$ cd my-linux 256------------ 257 258 259* Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public: 260+ 261------------ 262$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 263------------ 264 265 266GIT 267--- 268Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite