Documentation / git-bundle.txton commit Merge branch 'maint' of git://linux-nfs.org/~bfields/git into maint (cecb98a)
   1git-bundle(1)
   2=============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11'git-bundle' create <file> [git-rev-list args]
  12'git-bundle' verify <file>
  13'git-bundle' list-heads <file> [refname...]
  14'git-bundle' unbundle <file> [refname...]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18
  19Some workflows require that one or more branches of development on one
  20machine be replicated on another machine, but the two machines cannot
  21be directly connected so the interactive git protocols (git, ssh,
  22rsync, http) cannot be used.  This command provides support for
  23git-fetch and git-pull to operate by packaging objects and references
  24in an archive at the originating machine, then importing those into
  25another repository using gitlink:git-fetch[1] and gitlink:git-pull[1]
  26after moving the archive by some means (i.e., by sneakernet).  As no
  27direct connection between repositories exists, the user must specify a
  28basis for the bundle that is held by the destination repository: the
  29bundle assumes that all objects in the basis are already in the
  30destination repository.
  31
  32OPTIONS
  33-------
  34
  35create <file>::
  36       Used to create a bundle named 'file'.  This requires the
  37       git-rev-list arguments to define the bundle contents.
  38
  39verify <file>::
  40       Used to check that a bundle file is valid and will apply
  41       cleanly to the current repository.  This includes checks on the
  42       bundle format itself as well as checking that the prerequisite
  43       commits exist and are fully linked in the current repository.
  44       git-bundle prints a list of missing commits, if any, and exits
  45       with non-zero status.
  46
  47list-heads <file>::
  48       Lists the references defined in the bundle.  If followed by a
  49       list of references, only references matching those given are
  50       printed out.
  51
  52unbundle <file>::
  53       Passes the objects in the bundle to gitlink:git-index-pack[1]
  54       for storage in the repository, then prints the names of all
  55       defined references. If a reflist is given, only references
  56       matching those in the given list are printed. This command is
  57       really plumbing, intended to be called only by
  58       gitlink:git-fetch[1].
  59
  60[git-rev-list-args...]::
  61       A list of arguments, acceptable to git-rev-parse and
  62       git-rev-list, that specify the specific objects and references
  63       to transport.  For example, "master~10..master" causes the
  64       current master reference to be packaged along with all objects
  65       added since its 10th ancestor commit.  There is no explicit
  66       limit to the number of references and objects that may be
  67       packaged.
  68
  69
  70[refname...]::
  71       A list of references used to limit the references reported as
  72       available. This is principally of use to git-fetch, which
  73       expects to receive only those references asked for and not
  74       necessarily everything in the pack (in this case, git-bundle is
  75       acting like gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1]).
  76
  77SPECIFYING REFERENCES
  78---------------------
  79
  80git-bundle will only package references that are shown by
  81git-show-ref: this includes heads, tags, and remote heads.  References
  82such as master~1 cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for
  83defining the basis.  More than one reference may be packaged, and more
  84than one basis can be specified.  The objects packaged are those not
  85contained in the union of the given bases.  Each basis can be
  86specified explicitly (e.g., ^master~10), or implicitly (e.g.,
  87master~10..master, master --since=10.days.ago).
  88
  89It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination.
  90It is okay to err on the side of conservatism, causing the bundle file
  91to contain objects already in the destination as these are ignored
  92when unpacking at the destination.
  93
  94EXAMPLE
  95-------
  96
  97Assume two repositories exist as R1 on machine A, and R2 on machine B.
  98For whatever reason, direct connection between A and B is not allowed,
  99but we can move data from A to B via some mechanism (CD, email, etc).
 100We want to update R2 with developments made on branch master in R1.
 101We set a tag in R1 (lastR2bundle) after the previous such transport,
 102and move it afterwards to help build the bundle.
 103
 104in R1 on A:
 105$ git-bundle create mybundle master ^lastR2bundle
 106$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
 107
 108(move mybundle from A to B by some mechanism)
 109
 110in R2 on B:
 111$ git-bundle verify mybundle
 112$ git-fetch mybundle  refspec
 113
 114where refspec is refInBundle:localRef
 115
 116
 117Also, with something like this in your config:
 118
 119[remote "bundle"]
 120    url = /home/me/tmp/file.bdl
 121    fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
 122
 123You can first sneakernet the bundle file to ~/tmp/file.bdl and
 124then these commands:
 125
 126$ git ls-remote bundle
 127$ git fetch bundle
 128$ git pull bundle
 129
 130would treat it as if it is talking with a remote side over the
 131network.
 132
 133Author
 134------
 135Written by Mark Levedahl <mdl123@verizon.net>
 136
 137GIT
 138---
 139Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite