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 `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. Progress is not reported to the standard 100 error stream. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 101 command when given. 102 103--verbose:: 104-v:: 105 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status 106 to the standard error stream. 107 108--progress:: 109 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 110 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q 111 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the 112 standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. 113 114--no-checkout:: 115-n:: 116 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 117 118--bare:: 119 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 120 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 121 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 122 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 123 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 124 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 125 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 126 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 127 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 128 configuration variables are created. 129 130--mirror:: 131 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies `--bare`. 132 Compared to `--bare`, `--mirror` not only maps local branches of the 133 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including 134 remote branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such 135 that all these refs are overwritten by a `git remote update` in the 136 target repository. 137 138--origin <name>:: 139-o <name>:: 140 Instead of using the remote name `origin` to keep track 141 of the upstream repository, use `<name>`. 142 143--branch <name>:: 144-b <name>:: 145 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed 146 to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to `<name>` branch 147 instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will 148 be checked out. 149 150--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 151-u <upload-pack>:: 152 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 153 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 154 run on the other end. 155 156--template=<template_directory>:: 157 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 158 (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of linkgit:git-init[1].) 159 160--depth <depth>:: 161 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 162 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 163 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 164 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 165 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 166 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 167 as patches. 168 169--recursive:: 170 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 171 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 172 `git submodule update --init --recursive` immediately after 173 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 174 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 175 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 176 177<repository>:: 178 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 179 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 180 repositories. 181 182<directory>:: 183 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 184 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 185 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 186 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 187 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 188 189:git-clone: 1 190include::urls.txt[] 191 192Examples 193-------- 194 195* Clone from upstream: 196+ 197------------ 198$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 199$ cd my2.6 200$ make 201------------ 202 203 204* Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out: 205+ 206------------ 207$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 208$ cd ../copy 209$ git show-branch 210------------ 211 212 213* Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory: 214+ 215------------ 216$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 217 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 218 my2.7 219$ cd my2.7 220------------ 221 222 223* Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public: 224+ 225------------ 226$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 227------------ 228 229 230* Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus: 231+ 232------------ 233$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 234 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 235------------ 236 237 238Author 239------ 240Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 241 242 243Documentation 244-------------- 245Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 246 247 248GIT 249--- 250Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite