1git-gc(1) 2========= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-gc - Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11'git gc' [--aggressive] [--auto] [--quiet] [--prune=<date> | --no-prune] 12 13DESCRIPTION 14----------- 15Runs a number of housekeeping tasks within the current repository, 16such as compressing file revisions (to reduce disk space and increase 17performance) and removing unreachable objects which may have been 18created from prior invocations of 'git add'. 19 20Users are encouraged to run this task on a regular basis within 21each repository to maintain good disk space utilization and good 22operating performance. 23 24Some git commands may automatically run 'git gc'; see the `--auto` flag 25below for details. If you know what you're doing and all you want is to 26disable this behavior permanently without further considerations, just do: 27 28---------------------- 29$ git config --global gc.auto 0 30---------------------- 31 32OPTIONS 33------- 34 35--aggressive:: 36 Usually 'git gc' runs very quickly while providing good disk 37 space utilization and performance. This option will cause 38 'git gc' to more aggressively optimize the repository at the expense 39 of taking much more time. The effects of this optimization are 40 persistent, so this option only needs to be used occasionally; every 41 few hundred changesets or so. 42 43--auto:: 44 With this option, 'git gc' checks whether any housekeeping is 45 required; if not, it exits without performing any work. 46 Some git commands run `git gc --auto` after performing 47 operations that could create many loose objects. 48+ 49Housekeeping is required if there are too many loose objects or 50too many packs in the repository. If the number of loose objects 51exceeds the value of the `gc.auto` configuration variable, then 52all loose objects are combined into a single pack using 53`git repack -d -l`. Setting the value of `gc.auto` to 0 54disables automatic packing of loose objects. 55+ 56If the number of packs exceeds the value of `gc.autopacklimit`, 57then existing packs (except those marked with a `.keep` file) 58are consolidated into a single pack by using the `-A` option of 59'git repack'. Setting `gc.autopacklimit` to 0 disables 60automatic consolidation of packs. 61 62--prune=<date>:: 63 Prune loose objects older than date (default is 2 weeks ago, 64 overridable by the config variable `gc.pruneExpire`). This 65 option is on by default. 66 67--no-prune:: 68 Do not prune any loose objects. 69 70--quiet:: 71 Suppress all progress reports. 72 73Configuration 74------------- 75 76The optional configuration variable 'gc.reflogExpire' can be 77set to indicate how long historical entries within each branch's 78reflog should remain available in this repository. The setting is 79expressed as a length of time, for example '90 days' or '3 months'. 80It defaults to '90 days'. 81 82The optional configuration variable 'gc.reflogExpireUnreachable' 83can be set to indicate how long historical reflog entries which 84are not part of the current branch should remain available in 85this repository. These types of entries are generally created as 86a result of using `git commit \--amend` or `git rebase` and are the 87commits prior to the amend or rebase occurring. Since these changes 88are not part of the current project most users will want to expire 89them sooner. This option defaults to '30 days'. 90 91The above two configuration variables can be given to a pattern. For 92example, this sets non-default expiry values only to remote-tracking 93branches: 94 95------------ 96[gc "refs/remotes/*"] 97 reflogExpire = never 98 reflogexpireUnreachable = 3 days 99------------ 100 101The optional configuration variable 'gc.rerereresolved' indicates 102how long records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are 103kept. This defaults to 60 days. 104 105The optional configuration variable 'gc.rerereunresolved' indicates 106how long records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are 107kept. This defaults to 15 days. 108 109The optional configuration variable 'gc.packrefs' determines if 110'git gc' runs 'git pack-refs'. This can be set to "notbare" to enable 111it within all non-bare repos or it can be set to a boolean value. 112This defaults to true. 113 114The optional configuration variable 'gc.aggressiveWindow' controls how 115much time is spent optimizing the delta compression of the objects in 116the repository when the --aggressive option is specified. The larger 117the value, the more time is spent optimizing the delta compression. See 118the documentation for the --window' option in linkgit:git-repack[1] for 119more details. This defaults to 250. 120 121The optional configuration variable 'gc.pruneExpire' controls how old 122the unreferenced loose objects have to be before they are pruned. The 123default is "2 weeks ago". 124 125 126Notes 127----- 128 129'git gc' tries very hard to be safe about the garbage it collects. In 130particular, it will keep not only objects referenced by your current set 131of branches and tags, but also objects referenced by the index, 132remote-tracking branches, refs saved by 'git filter-branch' in 133refs/original/, or reflogs (which may reference commits in branches 134that were later amended or rewound). 135 136If you are expecting some objects to be collected and they aren't, check 137all of those locations and decide whether it makes sense in your case to 138remove those references. 139 140HOOKS 141----- 142 143The 'git gc --auto' command will run the 'pre-auto-gc' hook. See 144linkgit:githooks[5] for more information. 145 146 147SEE ALSO 148-------- 149linkgit:git-prune[1] 150linkgit:git-reflog[1] 151linkgit:git-repack[1] 152linkgit:git-rerere[1] 153 154Author 155------ 156Written by Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> 157 158GIT 159--- 160Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite