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 [--dissociate] [--separate-git-dir <git dir>] 16 [--depth <depth>] [--[no-]single-branch] [--no-tags] 17 [--recurse-submodules[=<pathspec>]] [--[no-]shallow-submodules] 18 [--jobs <n>] [--] <repository> [<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 (this is untrue when "--single-branch" 33is given; see below). 34 35This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 36the remote branch heads under `refs/remotes/origin` and 37by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 38configuration variables. 39 40 41OPTIONS 42------- 43--local:: 44-l:: 45 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 46 this flag bypasses the normal "Git aware" transport 47 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 48 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 49 The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked 50 to save space when possible. 51+ 52If the repository is specified as a local path (e.g., `/path/to/repo`), 53this is the default, and --local is essentially a no-op. If the 54repository is specified as a URL, then this flag is ignored (and we 55never use the local optimizations). Specifying `--no-local` will 56override the default when `/path/to/repo` is given, using the regular 57Git transport instead. 58 59--no-hardlinks:: 60 Force the cloning process from a repository on a local 61 filesystem to copy the files under the `.git/objects` 62 directory instead of using hardlinks. This may be desirable 63 if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository. 64 65--shared:: 66-s:: 67 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 68 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 69 `.git/objects/info/alternates` to share the objects 70 with the source repository. The resulting repository 71 starts out without any object of its own. 72+ 73*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 74it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 75repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any 76other Git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the 77source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). 78These objects may be removed by normal Git operations (such as `git commit`) 79which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].) 80If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, 81then the cloned repository will become corrupt. 82+ 83Note that running `git repack` without the `-l` option in a repository 84cloned with `-s` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack 85in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone -s`. 86It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `-l` option by 87default. 88+ 89If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `-s` on 90its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all 91objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository. 92 93--reference[-if-able] <repository>:: 94 If the reference repository is on the local machine, 95 automatically setup `.git/objects/info/alternates` to 96 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 97 an already existing repository as an alternate will 98 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 99 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 100 When using the `--reference-if-able`, a non existing 101 directory is skipped with a warning instead of aborting 102 the clone. 103+ 104*NOTE*: see the NOTE for the `--shared` option, and also the 105`--dissociate` option. 106 107--dissociate:: 108 Borrow the objects from reference repositories specified 109 with the `--reference` options only to reduce network 110 transfer, and stop borrowing from them after a clone is made 111 by making necessary local copies of borrowed objects. This 112 option can also be used when cloning locally from a 113 repository that already borrows objects from another 114 repository--the new repository will borrow objects from the 115 same repository, and this option can be used to stop the 116 borrowing. 117 118--quiet:: 119-q:: 120 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard 121 error stream. 122 123--verbose:: 124-v:: 125 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status 126 to the standard error stream. 127 128--progress:: 129 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 130 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q 131 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the 132 standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. 133 134--no-checkout:: 135-n:: 136 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 137 138--bare:: 139 Make a 'bare' Git repository. That is, instead of 140 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 141 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 142 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 143 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 144 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 145 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 146 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 147 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 148 configuration variables are created. 149 150--mirror:: 151 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies `--bare`. 152 Compared to `--bare`, `--mirror` not only maps local branches of the 153 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including 154 remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such 155 that all these refs are overwritten by a `git remote update` in the 156 target repository. 157 158--origin <name>:: 159-o <name>:: 160 Instead of using the remote name `origin` to keep track 161 of the upstream repository, use `<name>`. 162 163--branch <name>:: 164-b <name>:: 165 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed 166 to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to `<name>` branch 167 instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will 168 be checked out. 169 `--branch` can also take tags and detaches the HEAD at that commit 170 in the resulting repository. 171 172--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 173-u <upload-pack>:: 174 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 175 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 176 run on the other end. 177 178--template=<template_directory>:: 179 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 180 (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of linkgit:git-init[1].) 181 182--config <key>=<value>:: 183-c <key>=<value>:: 184 Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; 185 this takes effect immediately after the repository is 186 initialized, but before the remote history is fetched or any 187 files checked out. The key is in the same format as expected by 188 linkgit:git-config[1] (e.g., `core.eol=true`). If multiple 189 values are given for the same key, each value will be written to 190 the config file. This makes it safe, for example, to add 191 additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote. 192 193--depth <depth>:: 194 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 195 specified number of commits. Implies `--single-branch` unless 196 `--no-single-branch` is given to fetch the histories near the 197 tips of all branches. If you want to clone submodules shallowly, 198 also pass `--shallow-submodules`. 199 200--shallow-since=<date>:: 201 Create a shallow clone with a history after the specified time. 202 203--shallow-exclude=<revision>:: 204 Create a shallow clone with a history, excluding commits 205 reachable from a specified remote branch or tag. This option 206 can be specified multiple times. 207 208--[no-]single-branch:: 209 Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch, 210 either specified by the `--branch` option or the primary 211 branch remote's `HEAD` points at. 212 Further fetches into the resulting repository will only update the 213 remote-tracking branch for the branch this option was used for the 214 initial cloning. If the HEAD at the remote did not point at any 215 branch when `--single-branch` clone was made, no remote-tracking 216 branch is created. 217 218--no-tags:: 219 Don't clone any tags, and set 220 `remote.<remote>.tagOpt=--no-tags` in the config, ensuring 221 that future `git pull` and `git fetch` operations won't follow 222 any tags. Subsequent explicit tag fetches will still work, 223 (see linkgit:git-fetch[1]). 224+ 225Can be used in conjunction with `--single-branch` to clone and 226maintain a branch with no references other than a single cloned 227branch. This is useful e.g. to maintain minimal clones of the default 228branch of some repository for search indexing. 229 230--recurse-submodules[=<pathspec]:: 231 After the clone is created, initialize and clone submodules 232 within based on the provided pathspec. If no pathspec is 233 provided, all submodules are initialized and cloned. 234 This option can be given multiple times for pathspecs consisting 235 of multiple entries. The resulting clone has `submodule.active` set to 236 the provided pathspec, or "." (meaning all submodules) if no 237 pathspec is provided. 238+ 239Submodules are initialized and cloned using their default settings. This is 240equivalent to running 241`git submodule update --init --recursive <pathspec>` immediately after 242the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned repository does 243not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, 244or `--mirror` is given) 245 246--[no-]shallow-submodules:: 247 All submodules which are cloned will be shallow with a depth of 1. 248 249--separate-git-dir=<git dir>:: 250 Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed 251 to be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, 252 then make a filesystem-agnostic Git symbolic link to there. 253 The result is Git repository can be separated from working 254 tree. 255 256-j <n>:: 257--jobs <n>:: 258 The number of submodules fetched at the same time. 259 Defaults to the `submodule.fetchJobs` option. 260 261<repository>:: 262 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 263 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 264 repositories. 265 266<directory>:: 267 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 268 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 269 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 270 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 271 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 272 273:git-clone: 1 274include::urls.txt[] 275 276Examples 277-------- 278 279* Clone from upstream: 280+ 281------------ 282$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git my-linux 283$ cd my-linux 284$ make 285------------ 286 287 288* Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out: 289+ 290------------ 291$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 292$ cd ../copy 293$ git show-branch 294------------ 295 296 297* Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory: 298+ 299------------ 300$ git clone --reference /git/linux.git \ 301 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git \ 302 my-linux 303$ cd my-linux 304------------ 305 306 307* Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public: 308+ 309------------ 310$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 311------------ 312 313 314GIT 315--- 316Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite