1git-gc(1) 2========= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-gc - Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11'git-gc' [--aggressive] [--auto] [--quiet] 12 13DESCRIPTION 14----------- 15Runs a number of housekeeping tasks within the current repository, 16such as compressing file revisions (to reduce disk space and increase 17performance) and removing unreachable objects which may have been 18created from prior invocations of linkgit:git-add[1]. 19 20Users are encouraged to run this task on a regular basis within 21each repository to maintain good disk space utilization and good 22operating performance. 23 24Some git commands may automatically run `git-gc`; see the `--auto` flag 25below for details. If you know what you're doing and all you want is to 26disable this behavior permanently without further considerations, just do: 27 28---------------------- 29$ git config --global gc.auto 0 30---------------------- 31 32OPTIONS 33------- 34 35--aggressive:: 36 Usually 'git-gc' runs very quickly while providing good disk 37 space utilization and performance. This option will cause 38 git-gc to more aggressively optimize the repository at the expense 39 of taking much more time. The effects of this optimization are 40 persistent, so this option only needs to be used occasionally; every 41 few hundred changesets or so. 42 43--auto:: 44 With this option, `git gc` checks whether any housekeeping is 45 required; if not, it exits without performing any work. 46 Some git commands run `git gc --auto` after performing 47 operations that could create many loose objects. 48+ 49Housekeeping is required if there are too many loose objects or 50too many packs in the repository. If the number of loose objects 51exceeds the value of the `gc.auto` configuration variable, then 52all loose objects are combined into a single pack using 53`git-repack -d -l`. Setting the value of `gc.auto` to 0 54disables automatic packing of loose objects. 55+ 56If the number of packs exceeds the value of `gc.autopacklimit`, 57then existing packs (except those marked with a `.keep` file) 58are consolidated into a single pack by using the `-A` option of 59`git-repack`. Setting `gc.autopacklimit` to 0 disables 60automatic consolidation of packs. 61 62--quiet:: 63 Suppress all progress reports. 64 65Configuration 66------------- 67 68The optional configuration variable 'gc.reflogExpire' can be 69set to indicate how long historical entries within each branch's 70reflog should remain available in this repository. The setting is 71expressed as a length of time, for example '90 days' or '3 months'. 72It defaults to '90 days'. 73 74The optional configuration variable 'gc.reflogExpireUnreachable' 75can be set to indicate how long historical reflog entries which 76are not part of the current branch should remain available in 77this repository. These types of entries are generally created as 78a result of using `git commit \--amend` or `git rebase` and are the 79commits prior to the amend or rebase occurring. Since these changes 80are not part of the current project most users will want to expire 81them sooner. This option defaults to '30 days'. 82 83The optional configuration variable 'gc.rerereresolved' indicates 84how long records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are 85kept. This defaults to 60 days. 86 87The optional configuration variable 'gc.rerereunresolved' indicates 88how long records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are 89kept. This defaults to 15 days. 90 91The optional configuration variable 'gc.packrefs' determines if 92`git gc` runs `git-pack-refs`. This can be set to "nobare" to enable 93it within all non-bare repos or it can be set to a boolean value. 94This defaults to true. 95 96The optional configuration variable 'gc.aggressiveWindow' controls how 97much time is spent optimizing the delta compression of the objects in 98the repository when the --aggressive option is specified. The larger 99the value, the more time is spent optimizing the delta compression. See 100the documentation for the --window' option in linkgit:git-repack[1] for 101more details. This defaults to 10. 102 103The optional configuration variable 'gc.pruneExpire' controls how old 104the unreferenced loose objects have to be before they are pruned. The 105default is "2 weeks ago". 106 107 108Notes 109----- 110 111git-gc tries very hard to be safe about the garbage it collects. In 112particular, it will keep not only objects referenced by your current set 113of branches and tags, but also objects referenced by the index, remote 114tracking branches, refs saved by linkgit:git-filter-branch[1] in 115refs/original/, or reflogs (which may references commits in branches 116that were later amended or rewound). 117 118If you are expecting some objects to be collected and they aren't, check 119all of those locations and decide whether it makes sense in your case to 120remove those references. 121 122SEE ALSO 123-------- 124linkgit:git-prune[1] 125linkgit:git-reflog[1] 126linkgit:git-repack[1] 127linkgit:git-rerere[1] 128 129Author 130------ 131Written by Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> 132 133GIT 134--- 135Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite