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>] [-b <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>] 15 [--separate-git-dir <git dir>] 16 [--depth <depth>] [--[no-]single-branch] 17 [--recursive|--recurse-submodules] [--] <repository> 18 [<directory>] 19 20DESCRIPTION 21----------- 22 23Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates 24remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository 25(visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an 26initial branch that is forked from the cloned repository's 27currently active branch. 28 29After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update 30all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without 31arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the 32current master branch, if any. 33 34This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 35the remote branch heads under `refs/remotes/origin` and 36by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 37configuration variables. 38 39 40OPTIONS 41------- 42--local:: 43-l:: 44 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 45 this flag bypasses the normal "git aware" transport 46 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 47 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 48 The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked 49 to save space when possible. This is now the default when 50 the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo` 51 syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option. To force 52 copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable 53 if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository), 54 but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport 55 mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 56 57--no-hardlinks:: 58 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 59 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 60 directory. 61 62--shared:: 63-s:: 64 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 65 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 66 `.git/objects/info/alternates` to share the objects 67 with the source repository. The resulting repository 68 starts out without any object of its own. 69+ 70*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 71it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 72repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any 73other git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the 74source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). 75These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as `git commit`) 76which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].) 77If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, 78then the cloned repository will become corrupt. 79+ 80Note that running `git repack` without the `-l` option in a repository 81cloned with `-s` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack 82in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone -s`. 83It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `-l` option by 84default. 85+ 86If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `-s` on 87its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all 88objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository. 89 90--reference <repository>:: 91 If the reference repository is on the local machine, 92 automatically setup `.git/objects/info/alternates` to 93 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 94 an already existing repository as an alternate will 95 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 96 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 97+ 98*NOTE*: see the NOTE for the `--shared` option. 99 100--quiet:: 101-q:: 102 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard 103 error stream. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 104 command when given. 105 106--verbose:: 107-v:: 108 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status 109 to the standard error stream. 110 111--progress:: 112 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 113 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q 114 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the 115 standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. 116 117--no-checkout:: 118-n:: 119 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 120 121--bare:: 122 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 123 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 124 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 125 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 126 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 127 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 128 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 129 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 130 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 131 configuration variables are created. 132 133--mirror:: 134 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies `--bare`. 135 Compared to `--bare`, `--mirror` not only maps local branches of the 136 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including 137 remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such 138 that all these refs are overwritten by a `git remote update` in the 139 target repository. 140 141--origin <name>:: 142-o <name>:: 143 Instead of using the remote name `origin` to keep track 144 of the upstream repository, use `<name>`. 145 146--branch <name>:: 147-b <name>:: 148 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed 149 to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to `<name>` branch 150 instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will 151 be checked out. 152 153--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 154-u <upload-pack>:: 155 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 156 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 157 run on the other end. 158 159--template=<template_directory>:: 160 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 161 (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of linkgit:git-init[1].) 162 163--config <key>=<value>:: 164-c <key>=<value>:: 165 Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; 166 this takes effect immediately after the repository is 167 initialized, but before the remote history is fetched or any 168 files checked out. The key is in the same format as expected by 169 linkgit:git-config[1] (e.g., `core.eol=true`). If multiple 170 values are given for the same key, each value will be written to 171 the config file. This makes it safe, for example, to add 172 additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote. 173 174--depth <depth>:: 175 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 176 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 177 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 178 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 179 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 180 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 181 as patches. 182 183--single-branch:: 184 Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch, 185 either specified by the `--branch` option or the primary 186 branch remote's `HEAD` points at. When creating a shallow 187 clone with the `--depth` option, this is the default, unless 188 `--no-single-branch` is given to fetch the histories near the 189 tips of all branches. 190 191--recursive:: 192--recurse-submodules:: 193 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 194 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 195 `git submodule update --init --recursive` immediately after 196 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 197 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 198 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 199 200--separate-git-dir=<git dir>:: 201 Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed 202 to be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, 203 then make a filesytem-agnostic git symbolic link to there. 204 The result is git repository can be separated from working 205 tree. 206 207 208<repository>:: 209 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 210 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 211 repositories. 212 213<directory>:: 214 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 215 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 216 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 217 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 218 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 219 220:git-clone: 1 221include::urls.txt[] 222 223Examples 224-------- 225 226* Clone from upstream: 227+ 228------------ 229$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 230$ cd my2.6 231$ make 232------------ 233 234 235* Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out: 236+ 237------------ 238$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 239$ cd ../copy 240$ git show-branch 241------------ 242 243 244* Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory: 245+ 246------------ 247$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 248 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 249 my2.7 250$ cd my2.7 251------------ 252 253 254* Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public: 255+ 256------------ 257$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 258------------ 259 260 261* Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus: 262+ 263------------ 264$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 265 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 266------------ 267 268GIT 269--- 270Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite