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>] [-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 and then delete branches (or use any 69other git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the 70source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). 71These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as 'git-commit') 72which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].) 73If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, 74then the cloned repository will become corrupt. 75 76 77 78--reference <repository>:: 79 If the reference repository is on the local machine 80 automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to 81 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 82 an already existing repository as an alternate will 83 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 84 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 85+ 86*NOTE*: see NOTE to --shared option. 87 88--quiet:: 89-q:: 90 Operate quietly. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 91 command when given. 92 93--no-checkout:: 94-n:: 95 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 96 97--bare:: 98 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 99 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 100 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 101 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 102 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 103 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 104 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 105 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 106 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 107 configuration variables are created. 108 109--mirror:: 110 Set up a mirror of the remote repository. This implies --bare. 111 112--origin <name>:: 113-o <name>:: 114 Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track 115 of the upstream repository, use <name>. 116 117--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 118-u <upload-pack>:: 119 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 120 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 121 run on the other end. 122 123--template=<template_directory>:: 124 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 125 if unset the templates are taken from the installation 126 defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`. 127 128--depth <depth>:: 129 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 130 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 131 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 132 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 133 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 134 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 135 as patches. 136 137<repository>:: 138 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 139 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 140 repositories. 141 142<directory>:: 143 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 144 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 145 explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" 146 for "host.xz:foo/.git"). Cloning into an existing directory 147 is not allowed. 148 149:git-clone: 1 150include::urls.txt[] 151 152Examples 153-------- 154 155Clone from upstream:: 156+ 157------------ 158$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 159$ cd my2.6 160$ make 161------------ 162 163 164Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out:: 165+ 166------------ 167$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 168$ cd ../copy 169$ git show-branch 170------------ 171 172 173Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory:: 174+ 175------------ 176$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 177 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 178 my2.7 179$ cd my2.7 180------------ 181 182 183Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:: 184+ 185------------ 186$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 187------------ 188 189 190Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus:: 191+ 192------------ 193$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 194 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 195------------ 196 197 198Author 199------ 200Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 201 202 203Documentation 204-------------- 205Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 206 207 208GIT 209--- 210Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite