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+ 59To force copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable if you 60are trying to make a back-up of your repository), but still avoid the 61usual "Git aware" transport mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 62 63--no-hardlinks:: 64 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 65 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 66 directory. 67 68--shared:: 69-s:: 70 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 71 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 72 `.git/objects/info/alternates` to share the objects 73 with the source repository. The resulting repository 74 starts out without any object of its own. 75+ 76*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 77it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 78repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any 79other Git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the 80source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). 81These objects may be removed by normal Git operations (such as `git commit`) 82which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].) 83If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, 84then the cloned repository will become corrupt. 85+ 86Note that running `git repack` without the `-l` option in a repository 87cloned with `-s` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack 88in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone -s`. 89It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `-l` option by 90default. 91+ 92If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `-s` on 93its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all 94objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository. 95 96--reference <repository>:: 97 If the reference repository is on the local machine, 98 automatically setup `.git/objects/info/alternates` to 99 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 100 an already existing repository as an alternate will 101 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 102 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 103+ 104*NOTE*: see the NOTE for the `--shared` option. 105 106--quiet:: 107-q:: 108 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard 109 error stream. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 110 command when given. 111 112--verbose:: 113-v:: 114 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status 115 to the standard error stream. 116 117--progress:: 118 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 119 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q 120 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the 121 standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. 122 123--no-checkout:: 124-n:: 125 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 126 127--bare:: 128 Make a 'bare' Git repository. That is, instead of 129 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 130 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 131 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 132 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 133 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 134 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 135 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 136 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 137 configuration variables are created. 138 139--mirror:: 140 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies `--bare`. 141 Compared to `--bare`, `--mirror` not only maps local branches of the 142 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including 143 remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such 144 that all these refs are overwritten by a `git remote update` in the 145 target repository. 146 147--origin <name>:: 148-o <name>:: 149 Instead of using the remote name `origin` to keep track 150 of the upstream repository, use `<name>`. 151 152--branch <name>:: 153-b <name>:: 154 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed 155 to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to `<name>` branch 156 instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will 157 be checked out. 158 `--branch` can also take tags and detaches the HEAD at that commit 159 in the resulting repository. 160 161--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 162-u <upload-pack>:: 163 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 164 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 165 run on the other end. 166 167--template=<template_directory>:: 168 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 169 (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of linkgit:git-init[1].) 170 171--config <key>=<value>:: 172-c <key>=<value>:: 173 Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; 174 this takes effect immediately after the repository is 175 initialized, but before the remote history is fetched or any 176 files checked out. The key is in the same format as expected by 177 linkgit:git-config[1] (e.g., `core.eol=true`). If multiple 178 values are given for the same key, each value will be written to 179 the config file. This makes it safe, for example, to add 180 additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote. 181 182--depth <depth>:: 183 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 184 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 185 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 186 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 187 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 188 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 189 as patches. 190 191--single-branch:: 192 Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch, 193 either specified by the `--branch` option or the primary 194 branch remote's `HEAD` points at. When creating a shallow 195 clone with the `--depth` option, this is the default, unless 196 `--no-single-branch` is given to fetch the histories near the 197 tips of all branches. 198 Further fetches into the resulting repository will only update the 199 remote-tracking branch for the branch this option was used for the 200 initial cloning. If the HEAD at the remote did not point at any 201 branch when `--single-branch` clone was made, no remote-tracking 202 branch is created. 203 204--recursive:: 205--recurse-submodules:: 206 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 207 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 208 `git submodule update --init --recursive` immediately after 209 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 210 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 211 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 212 213--separate-git-dir=<git dir>:: 214 Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed 215 to be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, 216 then make a filesytem-agnostic Git symbolic link to there. 217 The result is Git repository can be separated from working 218 tree. 219 220 221<repository>:: 222 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 223 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 224 repositories. 225 226<directory>:: 227 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 228 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 229 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 230 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 231 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 232 233:git-clone: 1 234include::urls.txt[] 235 236Examples 237-------- 238 239* Clone from upstream: 240+ 241------------ 242$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 243$ cd my2.6 244$ make 245------------ 246 247 248* Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out: 249+ 250------------ 251$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 252$ cd ../copy 253$ git show-branch 254------------ 255 256 257* Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory: 258+ 259------------ 260$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 261 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 262 my2.7 263$ cd my2.7 264------------ 265 266 267* Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public: 268+ 269------------ 270$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 271------------ 272 273 274* Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus: 275+ 276------------ 277$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 278 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 279------------ 280 281GIT 282--- 283Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite