1git-gc(1) 2========= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-gc - Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11'git-gc' [--prune] [--aggressive] [--auto] [--quiet] 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 linkgit:git-add[1]. 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. Some git commands may automatically run 23`git-gc`; see the `--auto` flag below for details. 24 25OPTIONS 26------- 27 28--prune:: 29 Usually `git-gc` packs refs, expires old reflog entries, 30 packs loose objects, 31 and removes old 'rerere' records. Removal 32 of unreferenced loose objects is an unsafe operation 33 while other git operations are in progress, so it is not 34 done by default. Pass this option if you want it, and only 35 when you know nobody else is creating new objects in the 36 repository at the same time (e.g. never use this option 37 in a cron script). 38 39--aggressive:: 40 Usually 'git-gc' runs very quickly while providing good disk 41 space utilization and performance. This option will cause 42 git-gc to more aggressively optimize the repository at the expense 43 of taking much more time. The effects of this optimization are 44 persistent, so this option only needs to be used occasionally; every 45 few hundred changesets or so. 46 47--auto:: 48 With this option, `git gc` checks whether any housekeeping is 49 required; if not, it exits without performing any work. 50 Some git commands run `git gc --auto` after performing 51 operations that could create many loose objects. 52+ 53Housekeeping is required if there are too many loose objects or 54too many packs in the repository. If the number of loose objects 55exceeds the value of the `gc.auto` configuration variable, then 56all loose objects are combined into a single pack using 57`git-repack -d -l`. Setting the value of `gc.auto` to 0 58disables automatic packing of loose objects. 59+ 60If the number of packs exceeds the value of `gc.autopacklimit`, 61then existing packs (except those marked with a `.keep` file) 62are consolidated into a single pack by using the `-A` option of 63`git-repack`. Setting `gc.autopacklimit` to 0 disables 64automatic consolidation of packs. 65 66--quiet:: 67 Suppress all progress reports. 68 69Configuration 70------------- 71 72The optional configuration variable 'gc.reflogExpire' can be 73set to indicate how long historical entries within each branch's 74reflog should remain available in this repository. The setting is 75expressed as a length of time, for example '90 days' or '3 months'. 76It defaults to '90 days'. 77 78The optional configuration variable 'gc.reflogExpireUnreachable' 79can be set to indicate how long historical reflog entries which 80are not part of the current branch should remain available in 81this repository. These types of entries are generally created as 82a result of using `git commit \--amend` or `git rebase` and are the 83commits prior to the amend or rebase occurring. Since these changes 84are not part of the current project most users will want to expire 85them sooner. This option defaults to '30 days'. 86 87The optional configuration variable 'gc.rerereresolved' indicates 88how long records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are 89kept. This defaults to 60 days. 90 91The optional configuration variable 'gc.rerereunresolved' indicates 92how long records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are 93kept. This defaults to 15 days. 94 95The optional configuration variable 'gc.packrefs' determines if 96`git gc` runs `git-pack-refs`. This can be set to "nobare" to enable 97it within all non-bare repos or it can be set to a boolean value. 98This defaults to true. 99 100The optional configuration variable 'gc.aggressiveWindow' controls how 101much time is spent optimizing the delta compression of the objects in 102the repository when the --aggressive option is specified. The larger 103the value, the more time is spent optimizing the delta compression. See 104the documentation for the --window' option in linkgit:git-repack[1] for 105more details. This defaults to 10. 106 107See Also 108-------- 109linkgit:git-prune[1] 110linkgit:git-reflog[1] 111linkgit:git-repack[1] 112linkgit:git-rerere[1] 113 114Author 115------ 116Written by Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> 117 118GIT 119--- 120Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite