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] 14 [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>] 15 [--depth <depth>] [--] <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 *NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 66 it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 67 repository using this option, then delete branches in the 68 source repository and then run linkgit:git-gc[1] using the 69 '--prune' option in the source repository, it may remove 70 objects which are referenced by the cloned repository. 71 72 73 74--reference <repository>:: 75 If the reference repository is on the local machine 76 automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to 77 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 78 an already existing repository as an alternate will 79 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 80 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 81 82--quiet:: 83-q:: 84 Operate quietly. This flag is passed to "rsync" and 85 "git-fetch-pack" commands when given. 86 87--no-checkout:: 88-n:: 89 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 90 91--bare:: 92 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 93 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 94 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 95 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 96 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 97 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 98 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 99 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 100 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 101 configuration variables are created. 102 103--origin <name>:: 104-o <name>:: 105 Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track 106 of the upstream repository, use <name> instead. 107 108--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 109-u <upload-pack>:: 110 When given, and the repository to clone from is handled 111 by 'git-fetch-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to 112 the command to specify non-default path for the command 113 run on the other end. 114 115--template=<template_directory>:: 116 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 117 if unset the templates are taken from the installation 118 defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`. 119 120--depth <depth>:: 121 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 122 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 123 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 124 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 125 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 126 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 127 as patches. 128 129<repository>:: 130 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 131 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 132 repositories. 133 134<directory>:: 135 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 136 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 137 explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" 138 for "host.xz:foo/.git"). Cloning into an existing directory 139 is not allowed. 140 141:git-clone: 1 142include::urls.txt[] 143 144Examples 145-------- 146 147Clone from upstream:: 148+ 149------------ 150$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 151$ cd my2.6 152$ make 153------------ 154 155 156Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out:: 157+ 158------------ 159$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 160$ cd ../copy 161$ git show-branch 162------------ 163 164 165Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory:: 166+ 167------------ 168$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 169 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 170 my2.7 171$ cd my2.7 172------------ 173 174 175Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:: 176+ 177------------ 178$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 179------------ 180 181 182Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus:: 183+ 184------------ 185$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 186 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 187------------ 188 189 190Author 191------ 192Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 193 194 195Documentation 196-------------- 197Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 198 199 200GIT 201--- 202Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite