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>] [--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 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+ 76Note that running `git repack` without the `-l` option in a repository 77cloned with `-s` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack 78in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone -s`. 79It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `-l` option by 80default. 81+ 82If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `-s` on 83its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all 84objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository. 85 86--reference <repository>:: 87 If the reference repository is on the local machine 88 automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to 89 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 90 an already existing repository as an alternate will 91 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 92 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 93+ 94*NOTE*: see NOTE to --shared option. 95 96--quiet:: 97-q:: 98 Operate quietly. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 99 command when given. 100 101--verbose:: 102-v:: 103 Display the progressbar, even in case the standard output is not 104 a terminal. 105 106--no-checkout:: 107-n:: 108 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 109 110--bare:: 111 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 112 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 113 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 114 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 115 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 116 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 117 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 118 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 119 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 120 configuration variables are created. 121 122--mirror:: 123 Set up a mirror of the remote repository. This implies --bare. 124 125--origin <name>:: 126-o <name>:: 127 Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track 128 of the upstream repository, use <name>. 129 130--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 131-u <upload-pack>:: 132 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 133 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 134 run on the other end. 135 136--template=<template_directory>:: 137 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 138 if unset the templates are taken from the installation 139 defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`. 140 141--depth <depth>:: 142 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 143 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 144 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 145 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 146 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 147 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 148 as patches. 149 150--recursive:: 151 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 152 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 153 'git submodule update --init --recursive' immediately after 154 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 155 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 156 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 157 158<repository>:: 159 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 160 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 161 repositories. 162 163<directory>:: 164 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 165 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 166 explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" 167 for "host.xz:foo/.git"). Cloning into an existing directory 168 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 169 170:git-clone: 1 171include::urls.txt[] 172 173Examples 174-------- 175 176Clone from upstream:: 177+ 178------------ 179$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 180$ cd my2.6 181$ make 182------------ 183 184 185Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out:: 186+ 187------------ 188$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 189$ cd ../copy 190$ git show-branch 191------------ 192 193 194Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory:: 195+ 196------------ 197$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 198 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 199 my2.7 200$ cd my2.7 201------------ 202 203 204Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:: 205+ 206------------ 207$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 208------------ 209 210 211Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus:: 212+ 213------------ 214$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 215 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 216------------ 217 218 219Author 220------ 221Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 222 223 224Documentation 225-------------- 226Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 227 228 229GIT 230--- 231Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite