1gitrepository-layout(5) 2======================= 3 4NAME 5---- 6gitrepository-layout - Git Repository Layout 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10$GIT_DIR/* 11 12DESCRIPTION 13----------- 14 15A Git repository comes in two different flavours: 16 17 * a `.git` directory at the root of the working tree; 18 19 * a `<project>.git` directory that is a 'bare' repository 20 (i.e. without its own working tree), that is typically used for 21 exchanging histories with others by pushing into it and fetching 22 from it. 23 24*Note*: Also you can have a plain text file `.git` at the root of 25your working tree, containing `gitdir: <path>` to point at the real 26directory that has the repository. This mechanism is often used for 27a working tree of a submodule checkout, to allow you in the 28containing superproject to `git checkout` a branch that does not 29have the submodule. The `checkout` has to remove the entire 30submodule working tree, without losing the submodule repository. 31 32These things may exist in a Git repository. 33 34objects:: 35 Object store associated with this repository. Usually 36 an object store is self sufficient (i.e. all the objects 37 that are referred to by an object found in it are also 38 found in it), but there are a few ways to violate it. 39+ 40. You could have an incomplete but locally usable repository 41by creating a shallow clone. See linkgit:git-clone[1]. 42. You could be using the `objects/info/alternates` or 43`$GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES` mechanisms to 'borrow' 44objects from other object stores. A repository with this kind 45of incomplete object store is not suitable to be published for 46use with dumb transports but otherwise is OK as long as 47`objects/info/alternates` points at the object stores it 48borrows from. 49 50objects/[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]:: 51 A newly created object is stored in its own file. 52 The objects are splayed over 256 subdirectories using 53 the first two characters of the sha1 object name to 54 keep the number of directory entries in `objects` 55 itself to a manageable number. Objects found 56 here are often called 'unpacked' (or 'loose') objects. 57 58objects/pack:: 59 Packs (files that store many object in compressed form, 60 along with index files to allow them to be randomly 61 accessed) are found in this directory. 62 63objects/info:: 64 Additional information about the object store is 65 recorded in this directory. 66 67objects/info/packs:: 68 This file is to help dumb transports discover what packs 69 are available in this object store. Whenever a pack is 70 added or removed, `git update-server-info` should be run 71 to keep this file up-to-date if the repository is 72 published for dumb transports. 'git repack' does this 73 by default. 74 75objects/info/alternates:: 76 This file records paths to alternate object stores that 77 this object store borrows objects from, one pathname per 78 line. Note that not only native Git tools use it locally, 79 but the HTTP fetcher also tries to use it remotely; this 80 will usually work if you have relative paths (relative 81 to the object database, not to the repository!) in your 82 alternates file, but it will not work if you use absolute 83 paths unless the absolute path in filesystem and web URL 84 is the same. See also 'objects/info/http-alternates'. 85 86objects/info/http-alternates:: 87 This file records URLs to alternate object stores that 88 this object store borrows objects from, to be used when 89 the repository is fetched over HTTP. 90 91refs:: 92 References are stored in subdirectories of this 93 directory. The 'git prune' command knows to preserve 94 objects reachable from refs found in this directory and 95 its subdirectories. 96 97refs/heads/`name`:: 98 records tip-of-the-tree commit objects of branch `name` 99 100refs/tags/`name`:: 101 records any object name (not necessarily a commit 102 object, or a tag object that points at a commit object). 103 104refs/remotes/`name`:: 105 records tip-of-the-tree commit objects of branches copied 106 from a remote repository. 107 108refs/replace/`<obj-sha1>`:: 109 records the SHA-1 of the object that replaces `<obj-sha1>`. 110 This is similar to info/grafts and is internally used and 111 maintained by linkgit:git-replace[1]. Such refs can be exchanged 112 between repositories while grafts are not. 113 114packed-refs:: 115 records the same information as refs/heads/, refs/tags/, 116 and friends record in a more efficient way. See 117 linkgit:git-pack-refs[1]. 118 119HEAD:: 120 A symref (see glossary) to the `refs/heads/` namespace 121 describing the currently active branch. It does not mean 122 much if the repository is not associated with any working tree 123 (i.e. a 'bare' repository), but a valid Git repository 124 *must* have the HEAD file; some porcelains may use it to 125 guess the designated "default" branch of the repository 126 (usually 'master'). It is legal if the named branch 127 'name' does not (yet) exist. In some legacy setups, it is 128 a symbolic link instead of a symref that points at the current 129 branch. 130+ 131HEAD can also record a specific commit directly, instead of 132being a symref to point at the current branch. Such a state 133is often called 'detached HEAD.' See linkgit:git-checkout[1] 134for details. 135 136branches:: 137 A slightly deprecated way to store shorthands to be used 138 to specify a URL to 'git fetch', 'git pull' and 'git push'. 139 A file can be stored as `branches/<name>` and then 140 'name' can be given to these commands in place of 141 'repository' argument. See the REMOTES section in 142 linkgit:git-fetch[1] for details. This mechanism is legacy 143 and not likely to be found in modern repositories. 144 145hooks:: 146 Hooks are customization scripts used by various Git 147 commands. A handful of sample hooks are installed when 148 'git init' is run, but all of them are disabled by 149 default. To enable, the `.sample` suffix has to be 150 removed from the filename by renaming. 151 Read linkgit:githooks[5] for more details about 152 each hook. 153 154index:: 155 The current index file for the repository. It is 156 usually not found in a bare repository. 157 158info:: 159 Additional information about the repository is recorded 160 in this directory. 161 162info/refs:: 163 This file helps dumb transports discover what refs are 164 available in this repository. If the repository is 165 published for dumb transports, this file should be 166 regenerated by 'git update-server-info' every time a tag 167 or branch is created or modified. This is normally done 168 from the `hooks/update` hook, which is run by the 169 'git-receive-pack' command when you 'git push' into the 170 repository. 171 172info/grafts:: 173 This file records fake commit ancestry information, to 174 pretend the set of parents a commit has is different 175 from how the commit was actually created. One record 176 per line describes a commit and its fake parents by 177 listing their 40-byte hexadecimal object names separated 178 by a space and terminated by a newline. 179 180info/exclude:: 181 This file, by convention among Porcelains, stores the 182 exclude pattern list. `.gitignore` is the per-directory 183 ignore file. 'git status', 'git add', 'git rm' and 184 'git clean' look at it but the core Git commands do not look 185 at it. See also: linkgit:gitignore[5]. 186 187remotes:: 188 Stores shorthands for URL and default refnames for use 189 when interacting with remote repositories via 'git fetch', 190 'git pull' and 'git push' commands. See the REMOTES section 191 in linkgit:git-fetch[1] for details. This mechanism is legacy 192 and not likely to be found in modern repositories. 193 194logs:: 195 Records of changes made to refs are stored in this 196 directory. See linkgit:git-update-ref[1] 197 for more information. 198 199logs/refs/heads/`name`:: 200 Records all changes made to the branch tip named `name`. 201 202logs/refs/tags/`name`:: 203 Records all changes made to the tag named `name`. 204 205shallow:: 206 This is similar to `info/grafts` but is internally used 207 and maintained by shallow clone mechanism. See `--depth` 208 option to linkgit:git-clone[1] and linkgit:git-fetch[1]. 209 210SEE ALSO 211-------- 212linkgit:git-init[1], 213linkgit:git-clone[1], 214linkgit:git-fetch[1], 215linkgit:git-pack-refs[1], 216linkgit:git-gc[1], 217linkgit:git-checkout[1], 218linkgit:gitglossary[7], 219link:user-manual.html[The Git User's Manual] 220 221GIT 222--- 223Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite.