Documentation / git-clone.txton commit Fix git-branch documentation when using remote refs (33b1f3d)
   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>] [-l [-s]] [-q] [-n] [--bare]
  13          [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>]
  14          [--depth <depth>] <repository> [<directory>]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18
  19Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates
  20remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository
  21(visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an initial
  22branch equal to the cloned repository's currently active branch.
  23
  24After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update
  25all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without
  26arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the
  27current master branch, if any.
  28
  29This default configuration is achieved by creating references to
  30the remote branch heads under `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin` and
  31by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch`
  32configuration variables.
  33
  34
  35OPTIONS
  36-------
  37--local::
  38-l::
  39        When the repository to clone from is on a local machine,
  40        this flag bypasses normal "git aware" transport
  41        mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of
  42        HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories.
  43        The files under .git/objects/ directory are hardlinked
  44        to save space when possible.
  45
  46--shared::
  47-s::
  48        When the repository to clone is on the local machine,
  49        instead of using hard links, automatically setup
  50        .git/objects/info/alternates to share the objects
  51        with the source repository.  The resulting repository
  52        starts out without any object of its own.
  53
  54--reference <repository>::
  55        If the reference repository is on the local machine
  56        automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to
  57        obtain objects from the reference repository.  Using
  58        an already existing repository as an alternate will
  59        require less objects to be copied from the repository
  60        being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs.
  61
  62--quiet::
  63-q::
  64        Operate quietly.  This flag is passed to "rsync" and
  65        "git-fetch-pack" commands when given.
  66
  67--no-checkout::
  68-n::
  69        No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
  70
  71--bare::
  72        Make a 'bare' GIT repository.  That is, instead of
  73        creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative
  74        files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>`
  75        itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n`
  76        because there is nowhere to check out the working tree.
  77        Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly
  78        to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping
  79        them to `refs/remotes/origin/`.  When this option is
  80        used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related
  81        configuration variables are created.
  82
  83--origin <name>::
  84-o <name>::
  85        Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track
  86        of the upstream repository, use <name> instead.
  87
  88--upload-pack <upload-pack>::
  89-u <upload-pack>::
  90        When given, and the repository to clone from is handled
  91        by 'git-fetch-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to
  92        the command to specify non-default path for the command
  93        run on the other end.
  94
  95--template=<template_directory>::
  96        Specify the directory from which templates will be used;
  97        if unset the templates are taken from the installation
  98        defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`.
  99
 100--depth <depth>::
 101        Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the
 102        specified number of revs.  A shallow repository has
 103        number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from
 104        it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you
 105        want to only look at near the tip of a large project
 106        with a long history, and would want to send in a fixes
 107        as patches.
 108
 109<repository>::
 110        The (possibly remote) repository to clone from.  See the
 111        <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying
 112        repositories.
 113
 114<directory>::
 115        The name of a new directory to clone into.  The "humanish"
 116        part of the source repository is used if no directory is
 117        explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo"
 118        for "host.xz:foo/.git").  Cloning into an existing directory
 119        is not allowed.
 120
 121include::urls.txt[]
 122
 123Examples
 124--------
 125
 126Clone from upstream::
 127+
 128------------
 129$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
 130$ cd my2.6
 131$ make
 132------------
 133
 134
 135Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out::
 136+
 137------------
 138$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
 139$ cd ../copy
 140$ git show-branch
 141------------
 142
 143
 144Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory::
 145+
 146------------
 147$ git clone --reference my2.6 \
 148        git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \
 149        my2.7
 150$ cd my2.7
 151------------
 152
 153
 154Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public::
 155+
 156------------
 157$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git
 158------------
 159
 160
 161Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus::
 162+
 163------------
 164$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \
 165    /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git
 166------------
 167
 168
 169Author
 170------
 171Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 172
 173
 174Documentation
 175--------------
 176Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 177
 178
 179GIT
 180---
 181Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite