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] 14 [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>] 15 [--depth <depth>] [--] <repository> [<directory>] 16 17DESCRIPTION 18----------- 19 20Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates 21remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository 22(visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an initial 23branch equal to the cloned repository's currently active branch. 24 25After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update 26all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without 27arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the 28current master branch, if any. 29 30This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 31the remote branch heads under `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin` and 32by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 33configuration variables. 34 35 36OPTIONS 37------- 38--local:: 39-l:: 40 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 41 this flag bypasses normal "git aware" transport 42 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 43 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 44 The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked 45 to save space when possible. This is now the default when 46 the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo` 47 syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option. To force 48 copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable 49 if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository), 50 but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport 51 mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 52 53--no-hardlinks:: 54 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 55 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 56 directory. 57 58--shared:: 59-s:: 60 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 61 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 62 .git/objects/info/alternates to share the objects 63 with the source repository. The resulting repository 64 starts out without any object of its own. 65+ 66*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 67it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 68repository using this option, then delete branches in the 69source repository and then run linkgit:git-gc[1] using the 70'--prune' option in the source repository, it may remove 71objects which are referenced by the cloned repository. 72 73 74 75--reference <repository>:: 76 If the reference repository is on the local machine 77 automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to 78 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 79 an already existing repository as an alternate will 80 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 81 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 82 83--quiet:: 84-q:: 85 Operate quietly. This flag is passed to "rsync" and 86 "git-fetch-pack" commands when given. 87 88--no-checkout:: 89-n:: 90 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 91 92--bare:: 93 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 94 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 95 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 96 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 97 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 98 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 99 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 100 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 101 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 102 configuration variables are created. 103 104--origin <name>:: 105-o <name>:: 106 Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track 107 of the upstream repository, use <name> instead. 108 109--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 110-u <upload-pack>:: 111 When given, and the repository to clone from is handled 112 by 'git-fetch-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to 113 the command to specify non-default path for the command 114 run on the other end. 115 116--template=<template_directory>:: 117 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 118 if unset the templates are taken from the installation 119 defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`. 120 121--depth <depth>:: 122 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 123 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 124 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 125 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 126 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 127 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 128 as patches. 129 130<repository>:: 131 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 132 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 133 repositories. 134 135<directory>:: 136 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 137 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 138 explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" 139 for "host.xz:foo/.git"). Cloning into an existing directory 140 is not allowed. 141 142:git-clone: 1 143include::urls.txt[] 144 145Examples 146-------- 147 148Clone from upstream:: 149+ 150------------ 151$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 152$ cd my2.6 153$ make 154------------ 155 156 157Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out:: 158+ 159------------ 160$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 161$ cd ../copy 162$ git show-branch 163------------ 164 165 166Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory:: 167+ 168------------ 169$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 170 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 171 my2.7 172$ cd my2.7 173------------ 174 175 176Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:: 177+ 178------------ 179$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 180------------ 181 182 183Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus:: 184+ 185------------ 186$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 187 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 188------------ 189 190 191Author 192------ 193Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 194 195 196Documentation 197-------------- 198Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 199 200 201GIT 202--- 203Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite