1git-bundle(1) 2============= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git bundle' create <file> <git-rev-list-args> 13'git bundle' verify <file> 14'git bundle' list-heads <file> [<refname>...] 15'git bundle' unbundle <file> [<refname>...] 16 17DESCRIPTION 18----------- 19 20Some workflows require that one or more branches of development on one 21machine be replicated on another machine, but the two machines cannot 22be directly connected, and therefore the interactive Git protocols (git, 23ssh, rsync, http) cannot be used. This command provides support for 24'git fetch' and 'git pull' to operate by packaging objects and references 25in an archive at the originating machine, then importing those into 26another repository using 'git fetch' and 'git pull' 27after moving the archive by some means (e.g., by sneakernet). As no 28direct connection between the repositories exists, the user must specify a 29basis for the bundle that is held by the destination repository: the 30bundle assumes that all objects in the basis are already in the 31destination repository. 32 33OPTIONS 34------- 35 36create <file>:: 37 Used to create a bundle named 'file'. This requires the 38 'git-rev-list-args' arguments to define the bundle contents. 39 40verify <file>:: 41 Used to check that a bundle file is valid and will apply 42 cleanly to the current repository. This includes checks on the 43 bundle format itself as well as checking that the prerequisite 44 commits exist and are fully linked in the current repository. 45 'git bundle' prints a list of missing commits, if any, and exits 46 with a non-zero status. 47 48list-heads <file>:: 49 Lists the references defined in the bundle. If followed by a 50 list of references, only references matching those given are 51 printed out. 52 53unbundle <file>:: 54 Passes the objects in the bundle to 'git index-pack' 55 for storage in the repository, then prints the names of all 56 defined references. If a list of references is given, only 57 references matching those in the list are printed. This command is 58 really plumbing, intended to be called only by 'git fetch'. 59 60<git-rev-list-args>:: 61 A list of arguments, acceptable to 'git rev-parse' and 62 'git rev-list' (and containing a named ref, see SPECIFYING REFERENCES 63 below), that specifies the specific objects and references 64 to transport. For example, `master~10..master` causes the 65 current master reference to be packaged along with all objects 66 added since its 10th ancestor commit. There is no explicit 67 limit to the number of references and objects that may be 68 packaged. 69 70 71[<refname>...]:: 72 A list of references used to limit the references reported as 73 available. This is principally of use to 'git fetch', which 74 expects to receive only those references asked for and not 75 necessarily everything in the pack (in this case, 'git bundle' acts 76 like 'git fetch-pack'). 77 78SPECIFYING REFERENCES 79--------------------- 80 81'git bundle' will only package references that are shown by 82'git show-ref': this includes heads, tags, and remote heads. References 83such as `master~1` cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for 84defining the basis. More than one reference may be packaged, and more 85than one basis can be specified. The objects packaged are those not 86contained in the union of the given bases. Each basis can be 87specified explicitly (e.g. `^master~10`), or implicitly (e.g. 88`master~10..master`, `--since=10.days.ago master`). 89 90It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination. 91It is okay to err on the side of caution, causing the bundle file 92to contain objects already in the destination, as these are ignored 93when unpacking at the destination. 94 95EXAMPLE 96------- 97 98Assume you want to transfer the history from a repository R1 on machine A 99to another repository R2 on machine B. 100For whatever reason, direct connection between A and B is not allowed, 101but we can move data from A to B via some mechanism (CD, email, etc.). 102We want to update R2 with development made on the branch master in R1. 103 104To bootstrap the process, you can first create a bundle that does not have 105any basis. You can use a tag to remember up to what commit you last 106processed, in order to make it easy to later update the other repository 107with an incremental bundle: 108 109---------------- 110machineA$ cd R1 111machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle master 112machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master 113---------------- 114 115Then you transfer file.bundle to the target machine B. Because this 116bundle does not require any existing object to be extracted, you can 117create a new repository on machine B by cloning from it: 118 119---------------- 120machineB$ git clone -b master /home/me/tmp/file.bundle R2 121---------------- 122 123This will define a remote called "origin" in the resulting repository that 124lets you fetch and pull from the bundle. The $GIT_DIR/config file in R2 will 125have an entry like this: 126 127------------------------ 128[remote "origin"] 129 url = /home/me/tmp/file.bundle 130 fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* 131------------------------ 132 133To update the resulting mine.git repository, you can fetch or pull after 134replacing the bundle stored at /home/me/tmp/file.bundle with incremental 135updates. 136 137After working some more in the original repository, you can create an 138incremental bundle to update the other repository: 139 140---------------- 141machineA$ cd R1 142machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle lastR2bundle..master 143machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master 144---------------- 145 146You then transfer the bundle to the other machine to replace 147/home/me/tmp/file.bundle, and pull from it. 148 149---------------- 150machineB$ cd R2 151machineB$ git pull 152---------------- 153 154If you know up to what commit the intended recipient repository should 155have the necessary objects, you can use that knowledge to specify the 156basis, giving a cut-off point to limit the revisions and objects that go 157in the resulting bundle. The previous example used the lastR2bundle tag 158for this purpose, but you can use any other options that you would give to 159the linkgit:git-log[1] command. Here are more examples: 160 161You can use a tag that is present in both: 162 163---------------- 164$ git bundle create mybundle v1.0.0..master 165---------------- 166 167You can use a basis based on time: 168 169---------------- 170$ git bundle create mybundle --since=10.days master 171---------------- 172 173You can use the number of commits: 174 175---------------- 176$ git bundle create mybundle -10 master 177---------------- 178 179You can run `git-bundle verify` to see if you can extract from a bundle 180that was created with a basis: 181 182---------------- 183$ git bundle verify mybundle 184---------------- 185 186This will list what commits you must have in order to extract from the 187bundle and will error out if you do not have them. 188 189A bundle from a recipient repository's point of view is just like a 190regular repository which it fetches or pulls from. You can, for example, map 191references when fetching: 192 193---------------- 194$ git fetch mybundle master:localRef 195---------------- 196 197You can also see what references it offers: 198 199---------------- 200$ git ls-remote mybundle 201---------------- 202 203GIT 204--- 205Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite