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