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. This is now the default when 51 the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo` 52 syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option. To force 53 copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable 54 if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository), 55 but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport 56 mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 57 58--no-hardlinks:: 59 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 60 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 61 directory. 62 63--shared:: 64-s:: 65 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 66 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 67 `.git/objects/info/alternates` to share the objects 68 with the source repository. The resulting repository 69 starts out without any object of its own. 70+ 71*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 72it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 73repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any 74other git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the 75source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). 76These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as `git commit`) 77which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].) 78If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, 79then the cloned repository will become corrupt. 80+ 81Note that running `git repack` without the `-l` option in a repository 82cloned with `-s` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack 83in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone -s`. 84It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `-l` option by 85default. 86+ 87If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `-s` on 88its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all 89objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository. 90 91--reference <repository>:: 92 If the reference repository is on the local machine, 93 automatically setup `.git/objects/info/alternates` to 94 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 95 an already existing repository as an alternate will 96 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 97 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 98+ 99*NOTE*: see the NOTE for the `--shared` option. 100 101--quiet:: 102-q:: 103 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard 104 error stream. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 105 command when given. 106 107--verbose:: 108-v:: 109 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status 110 to the standard error stream. 111 112--progress:: 113 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 114 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q 115 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the 116 standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. 117 118--no-checkout:: 119-n:: 120 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 121 122--bare:: 123 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 124 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 125 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 126 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 127 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 128 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 129 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 130 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 131 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 132 configuration variables are created. 133 134--mirror:: 135 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies `--bare`. 136 Compared to `--bare`, `--mirror` not only maps local branches of the 137 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including 138 remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such 139 that all these refs are overwritten by a `git remote update` in the 140 target repository. 141 142--origin <name>:: 143-o <name>:: 144 Instead of using the remote name `origin` to keep track 145 of the upstream repository, use `<name>`. 146 147--branch <name>:: 148-b <name>:: 149 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed 150 to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to `<name>` branch 151 instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will 152 be checked out. 153 `--branch` can also take tags and detaches the HEAD at that commit 154 in the resulting repository. 155 156--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 157-u <upload-pack>:: 158 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 159 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 160 run on the other end. 161 162--template=<template_directory>:: 163 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 164 (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of linkgit:git-init[1].) 165 166--config <key>=<value>:: 167-c <key>=<value>:: 168 Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; 169 this takes effect immediately after the repository is 170 initialized, but before the remote history is fetched or any 171 files checked out. The key is in the same format as expected by 172 linkgit:git-config[1] (e.g., `core.eol=true`). If multiple 173 values are given for the same key, each value will be written to 174 the config file. This makes it safe, for example, to add 175 additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote. 176 177--depth <depth>:: 178 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 179 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 180 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 181 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 182 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 183 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 184 as patches. 185 186--single-branch:: 187 Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch, 188 either specified by the `--branch` option or the primary 189 branch remote's `HEAD` points at. When creating a shallow 190 clone with the `--depth` option, this is the default, unless 191 `--no-single-branch` is given to fetch the histories near the 192 tips of all branches. 193 Further fetches into the resulting repository will only update the 194 remote tracking branch for the branch this option was used for the 195 initial cloning. If the HEAD at the remote did not point at any 196 branch when `--single-branch` clone was made, no remote tracking 197 branch is created. 198 199--recursive:: 200--recurse-submodules:: 201 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 202 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 203 `git submodule update --init --recursive` immediately after 204 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 205 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 206 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 207 208--separate-git-dir=<git dir>:: 209 Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed 210 to be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, 211 then make a filesytem-agnostic git symbolic link to there. 212 The result is git repository can be separated from working 213 tree. 214 215 216<repository>:: 217 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 218 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 219 repositories. 220 221<directory>:: 222 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 223 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 224 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 225 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 226 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 227 228:git-clone: 1 229include::urls.txt[] 230 231Examples 232-------- 233 234* Clone from upstream: 235+ 236------------ 237$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 238$ cd my2.6 239$ make 240------------ 241 242 243* Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out: 244+ 245------------ 246$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 247$ cd ../copy 248$ git show-branch 249------------ 250 251 252* Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory: 253+ 254------------ 255$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 256 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 257 my2.7 258$ cd my2.7 259------------ 260 261 262* Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public: 263+ 264------------ 265$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 266------------ 267 268 269* Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus: 270+ 271------------ 272$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 273 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 274------------ 275 276GIT 277--- 278Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite