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. 33 34This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 35the remote branch heads under `refs/remotes/origin` and 36by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 37configuration variables. 38 39 40OPTIONS 41------- 42--local:: 43-l:: 44 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 45 this flag bypasses the normal "git aware" transport 46 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 47 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 48 The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked 49 to save space when possible. 50+ 51If the repository is specified as a local path (e.g., `/path/to/repo`), 52this is the default, and --local is essentially a no-op. If the 53repository is specified as a URL, then this flag is ignored (and we 54never use the local optimizations). 55+ 56To force copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable if you 57are trying to make a back-up of your repository), but still avoid the 58usual "git aware" transport mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 59 60--no-hardlinks:: 61 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 62 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 63 directory. 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. `--branch` can also take tags and treat them like 154 detached HEAD. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch 155 that will be checked out. 156 157--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 158-u <upload-pack>:: 159 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 160 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 161 run on the other end. 162 163--template=<template_directory>:: 164 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 165 (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of linkgit:git-init[1].) 166 167--config <key>=<value>:: 168-c <key>=<value>:: 169 Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; 170 this takes effect immediately after the repository is 171 initialized, but before the remote history is fetched or any 172 files checked out. The key is in the same format as expected by 173 linkgit:git-config[1] (e.g., `core.eol=true`). If multiple 174 values are given for the same key, each value will be written to 175 the config file. This makes it safe, for example, to add 176 additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote. 177 178--depth <depth>:: 179 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 180 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 181 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 182 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 183 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 184 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 185 as patches. 186 187--single-branch:: 188 Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch, 189 either specified by the `--branch` option or the primary 190 branch remote's `HEAD` points at. When creating a shallow 191 clone with the `--depth` option, this is the default, unless 192 `--no-single-branch` is given to fetch the histories near the 193 tips of all branches. 194 195--recursive:: 196--recurse-submodules:: 197 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 198 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 199 `git submodule update --init --recursive` immediately after 200 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 201 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 202 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 203 204--separate-git-dir=<git dir>:: 205 Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed 206 to be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, 207 then make a filesytem-agnostic git symbolic link to there. 208 The result is git repository can be separated from working 209 tree. 210 211 212<repository>:: 213 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 214 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 215 repositories. 216 217<directory>:: 218 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 219 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 220 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 221 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 222 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 223 224:git-clone: 1 225include::urls.txt[] 226 227Examples 228-------- 229 230* Clone from upstream: 231+ 232------------ 233$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 234$ cd my2.6 235$ make 236------------ 237 238 239* Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out: 240+ 241------------ 242$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 243$ cd ../copy 244$ git show-branch 245------------ 246 247 248* Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory: 249+ 250------------ 251$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 252 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 253 my2.7 254$ cd my2.7 255------------ 256 257 258* Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public: 259+ 260------------ 261$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 262------------ 263 264 265* Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus: 266+ 267------------ 268$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 269 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 270------------ 271 272GIT 273--- 274Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite