Documentation / git-clone.txton commit Merge branch 'lt/diffgen' into next (b9aa1f9)
   1git-clone(1)
   2============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-clone - Clones a repository
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git-clone' [-l [-s]] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>]
  13          <repository> [<directory>]
  14
  15DESCRIPTION
  16-----------
  17Clones a repository into a newly created directory.  All remote
  18branch heads are copied under `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/`, except
  19that the remote `master` is also copied to `origin` branch.
  20
  21In addition, `$GIT_DIR/remotes/origin` file is set up to have
  22this line:
  23
  24        Pull: master:origin
  25
  26This is to help the typical workflow of working off of the
  27remote `master` branch.  Every time `git pull` without argument
  28is run, the progress on the remote `master` branch is tracked by
  29copying it into the local `origin` branch, and merged into the
  30branch you are currently working on.  Remote branches other than
  31`master` are also added there to be tracked.
  32
  33
  34OPTIONS
  35-------
  36--local::
  37-l::
  38        When the repository to clone from is on a local machine,
  39        this flag bypasses normal "git aware" transport
  40        mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of
  41        HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories.
  42        The files under .git/objects/ directory are hardlinked
  43        to save space when possible.
  44
  45--shared::
  46-s::
  47        When the repository to clone is on the local machine,
  48        instead of using hard links, automatically setup
  49        .git/objects/info/alternatives to share the objects
  50        with the source repository.  The resulting repository
  51        starts out without any object of its own.
  52
  53--quiet::
  54-q::
  55        Operate quietly.  This flag is passed to "rsync" and
  56        "git-clone-pack" commands when given.
  57
  58-n::
  59        No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
  60
  61--bare::
  62        Make a 'bare' GIT repository.  That is, instead of
  63        creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative
  64        files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>`
  65        itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This implies `-n` option.  When
  66        this option is used, neither the `origin` branch nor the
  67        default `remotes/origin` file is created.
  68
  69-o <name>::
  70        Instead of using the branch name 'origin' to keep track
  71        of the upstream repository, use <name> instead.  Note
  72        that the shorthand name stored in `remotes/origin` is
  73        not affected, but the local branch name to pull the
  74        remote `master` branch into is.
  75
  76--upload-pack <upload-pack>::
  77-u <upload-pack>::
  78        When given, and the repository to clone from is handled
  79        by 'git-clone-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to
  80        the command to specify non-default path for the command
  81        run on the other end.
  82
  83<repository>::
  84        The (possibly remote) repository to clone from.  It can
  85        be any URL git-fetch supports.
  86
  87<directory>::
  88        The name of a new directory to clone into.  The "humanish"
  89        part of the source repository is used if no directory is
  90        explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo"
  91        for "host.xz:foo/.git").  Cloning into an existing directory
  92        is not allowed.
  93
  94Examples
  95~~~~~~~~
  96
  97Clone from upstream::
  98+
  99------------
 100$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
 101$ cd my2.6
 102$ make
 103------------
 104
 105
 106Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out::
 107+
 108------------
 109$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
 110$ cd copy
 111$ git show-branch
 112------------
 113
 114
 115Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public::
 116+
 117------------
 118$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git
 119------------
 120
 121
 122Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus::
 123+
 124------------
 125$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \
 126    /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git
 127------------
 128
 129
 130Author
 131------
 132Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 133
 134
 135Documentation
 136--------------
 137Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 138
 139
 140GIT
 141---
 142Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 143