1git repository layout 2===================== 3 4You may find these things in your git repository (`.git` 5directory for a repository associated with your working tree, or 6`'project'.git` directory for a public 'bare' repository). 7 8objects:: 9 Object store associated with this repository. Usually 10 an object store is self sufficient (i.e. all the objects 11 that are referred to by an object found in it are also 12 found in it), but there are couple of ways to violate 13 it. 14+ 15. You could populate the repository by running a commit walker 16without `-a` option. Depending on which options are given, you 17could have only commit objects without associated blobs and 18trees this way, for example. A repository with this kind of 19incomplete object store is not suitable to be published to the 20outside world but sometimes useful for private repository. 21. You can be using `objects/info/alternates` mechanism, or 22`$GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES` mechanism to 'borrow' 23objects from other object stores. A repository with this kind 24of incomplete object store is not suitable to be published for 25use with dumb transports but otherwise is OK as long as 26`objects/info/alternates` points at the right object stores 27it borrows from. 28 29objects/[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]:: 30 Traditionally, each object is stored in its own file. 31 They are split into 256 subdirectories using the first 32 two letters from its object name to keep the number of 33 directory entries `objects` directory itself needs to 34 hold. Objects found here are often called 'unpacked' 35 objects. 36 37objects/pack:: 38 Packs (files that store many object in compressed form, 39 along with index files to allow them to be randomly 40 accessed) are found in this directory. 41 42objects/info:: 43 Additional information about the object store is 44 recorded in this directory. 45 46objects/info/packs:: 47 This file is to help dumb transports discover what packs 48 are available in this object store. Whenever a pack is 49 added or removed, `git update-server-info` should be run 50 to keep this file up-to-date if the repository is 51 published for dumb transports. `git repack` does this 52 by default. 53 54objects/info/alternates:: 55 This file records absolute filesystem paths of alternate 56 object stores that this object store borrows objects 57 from, one pathname per line. 58 59refs:: 60 References are stored in subdirectories of this 61 directory. The `git prune` command knows to keep 62 objects reachable from refs found in this directory and 63 its subdirectories. 64 65refs/heads/`name`:: 66 records tip-of-the-tree commit objects of branch `name` 67 68refs/tags/`name`:: 69 records any object name (not necessarily a commit 70 object, or a tag object that points at a commit object). 71 72HEAD:: 73 A symref (see glossary) to the `refs/heads/` namespace 74 describing the currently active branch. It does not mean 75 much if the repository is not associated with any working tree 76 (i.e. a 'bare' repository), but a valid git repository 77 *must* have the HEAD file; some porcelains may use it to 78 guess the designated "default" branch of the repository 79 (usually 'master'). It is legal if the named branch 80 'name' does not (yet) exist. In some legacy setups, it is 81 a symbolic link instead of a symref that points at the current 82 branch. 83 84branches:: 85 A slightly deprecated way to store shorthands to be used 86 to specify URL to `git fetch`, `git pull` and `git push` 87 commands is to store a file in `branches/'name'` and 88 give 'name' to these commands in place of 'repository' 89 argument. 90 91hooks:: 92 Hooks are customization scripts used by various git 93 commands. A handful of sample hooks are installed when 94 `git init-db` is run, but all of them are disabled by 95 default. To enable, they need to be made executable. 96 Read link:hooks.html[hooks] for more details about 97 each hook. 98 99index:: 100 The current index file for the repository. It is 101 usually not found in a bare repository. 102 103info:: 104 Additional information about the repository is recorded 105 in this directory. 106 107info/refs:: 108 This file is to help dumb transports to discover what 109 refs are available in this repository. Whenever you 110 create/delete a new branch or a new tag, `git 111 update-server-info` should be run to keep this file 112 up-to-date if the repository is published for dumb 113 transports. The `git-receive-pack` command, which is 114 run on a remote repository when you `git push` into it, 115 runs `hooks/update` hook to help you achieve this. 116 117info/grafts:: 118 This file records fake commit ancestry information, to 119 pretend the set of parents a commit has is different 120 from how the commit was actually created. One record 121 per line describes a commit and its fake parents by 122 listing their 40-byte hexadecimal object names separated 123 by a space and terminated by a newline. 124 125info/exclude:: 126 This file, by convention among Porcelains, stores the 127 exclude pattern list. `.gitignore` is the per-directory 128 ignore file. `git status`, `git add`, `git rm` and `git 129 clean` look at it but the core git commands do not look 130 at it. See also: gitlink:git-ls-files[1] `--exclude-from` 131 and `--exclude-per-directory`. 132 133remotes:: 134 Stores shorthands to be used to give URL and default 135 refnames to interact with remote repository to `git 136 fetch`, `git pull` and `git push` commands. 137 138logs:: 139 Records of changes made to refs are stored in this 140 directory. See the documentation on git-update-ref 141 for more information. 142 143logs/refs/heads/`name`:: 144 Records all changes made to the branch tip named `name`. 145 146logs/refs/tags/`name`:: 147 Records all changes made to the tag named `name`.