1git-gc(1) 2========= 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-gc - Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git gc' [--aggressive] [--auto] [--quiet] [--prune=<date> | --no-prune] [--force] 13 14DESCRIPTION 15----------- 16Runs a number of housekeeping tasks within the current repository, 17such as compressing file revisions (to reduce disk space and increase 18performance) and removing unreachable objects which may have been 19created from prior invocations of 'git add'. 20 21Users are encouraged to run this task on a regular basis within 22each repository to maintain good disk space utilization and good 23operating performance. 24 25Some git commands may automatically run 'git gc'; see the `--auto` flag 26below for details. If you know what you're doing and all you want is to 27disable this behavior permanently without further considerations, just do: 28 29---------------------- 30$ git config --global gc.auto 0 31---------------------- 32 33OPTIONS 34------- 35 36--aggressive:: 37 Usually 'git gc' runs very quickly while providing good disk 38 space utilization and performance. This option will cause 39 'git gc' to more aggressively optimize the repository at the expense 40 of taking much more time. The effects of this optimization are 41 persistent, so this option only needs to be used occasionally; every 42 few hundred changesets or so. 43 44--auto:: 45 With this option, 'git gc' checks whether any housekeeping is 46 required; if not, it exits without performing any work. 47 Some git commands run `git gc --auto` after performing 48 operations that could create many loose objects. 49+ 50Housekeeping is required if there are too many loose objects or 51too many packs in the repository. If the number of loose objects 52exceeds the value of the `gc.auto` configuration variable, then 53all loose objects are combined into a single pack using 54`git repack -d -l`. Setting the value of `gc.auto` to 0 55disables automatic packing of loose objects. 56+ 57If the number of packs exceeds the value of `gc.autoPackLimit`, 58then existing packs (except those marked with a `.keep` file) 59are consolidated into a single pack by using the `-A` option of 60'git repack'. Setting `gc.autoPackLimit` to 0 disables 61automatic consolidation of packs. 62 63--prune=<date>:: 64 Prune loose objects older than date (default is 2 weeks ago, 65 overridable by the config variable `gc.pruneExpire`). 66 --prune=all prunes loose objects regardless of their age (do 67 not use --prune=all unless you know exactly what you are doing. 68 Unless the repository is quiescent, you will lose newly created 69 objects that haven't been anchored with the refs and end up 70 corrupting your repository). --prune is on by default. 71 72--no-prune:: 73 Do not prune any loose objects. 74 75--quiet:: 76 Suppress all progress reports. 77 78--force:: 79 Force `git gc` to run even if there may be another `git gc` 80 instance running on this repository. 81 82Configuration 83------------- 84 85The optional configuration variable `gc.reflogExpire` can be 86set to indicate how long historical entries within each branch's 87reflog should remain available in this repository. The setting is 88expressed as a length of time, for example '90 days' or '3 months'. 89It defaults to '90 days'. 90 91The optional configuration variable `gc.reflogExpireUnreachable` 92can be set to indicate how long historical reflog entries which 93are not part of the current branch should remain available in 94this repository. These types of entries are generally created as 95a result of using `git commit --amend` or `git rebase` and are the 96commits prior to the amend or rebase occurring. Since these changes 97are not part of the current project most users will want to expire 98them sooner. This option defaults to '30 days'. 99 100The above two configuration variables can be given to a pattern. For 101example, this sets non-default expiry values only to remote-tracking 102branches: 103 104------------ 105[gc "refs/remotes/*"] 106 reflogExpire = never 107 reflogExpireUnreachable = 3 days 108------------ 109 110The optional configuration variable `gc.rerereResolved` indicates 111how long records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are 112kept. This defaults to 60 days. 113 114The optional configuration variable `gc.rerereUnresolved` indicates 115how long records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are 116kept. This defaults to 15 days. 117 118The optional configuration variable `gc.packRefs` determines if 119'git gc' runs 'git pack-refs'. This can be set to "notbare" to enable 120it within all non-bare repos or it can be set to a boolean value. 121This defaults to true. 122 123The optional configuration variable `gc.aggressiveWindow` controls how 124much time is spent optimizing the delta compression of the objects in 125the repository when the --aggressive option is specified. The larger 126the value, the more time is spent optimizing the delta compression. See 127the documentation for the --window' option in linkgit:git-repack[1] for 128more details. This defaults to 250. 129 130Similarly, the optional configuration variable `gc.aggressiveDepth` 131controls --depth option in linkgit:git-repack[1]. This defaults to 250. 132 133The optional configuration variable `gc.pruneExpire` controls how old 134the unreferenced loose objects have to be before they are pruned. The 135default is "2 weeks ago". 136 137 138Notes 139----- 140 141'git gc' tries very hard to be safe about the garbage it collects. In 142particular, it will keep not only objects referenced by your current set 143of branches and tags, but also objects referenced by the index, 144remote-tracking branches, refs saved by 'git filter-branch' in 145refs/original/, or reflogs (which may reference commits in branches 146that were later amended or rewound). 147 148If you are expecting some objects to be collected and they aren't, check 149all of those locations and decide whether it makes sense in your case to 150remove those references. 151 152HOOKS 153----- 154 155The 'git gc --auto' command will run the 'pre-auto-gc' hook. See 156linkgit:githooks[5] for more information. 157 158 159SEE ALSO 160-------- 161linkgit:git-prune[1] 162linkgit:git-reflog[1] 163linkgit:git-repack[1] 164linkgit:git-rerere[1] 165 166GIT 167--- 168Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite