1git repository layout 2===================== 3 4You may find these things in your git repository (`.git` 5directory for a repository associated with your working tree, or 6`'project'.git` directory for a public 'bare' repository). 7 8objects:: 9 Object store associated with this repository. Usually 10 an object store is self sufficient (i.e. all the objects 11 that are referred to by an object found in it are also 12 found in it), but there are couple of ways to violate 13 it. 14+ 15. You could populate the repository by running a commit walker 16without `-a` option. Depending on which options are given, you 17could have only commit objects without associated blobs and 18trees this way, for example. A repository with this kind of 19incomplete object store is not suitable to be published to the 20outside world but sometimes useful for private repository. 21. You can be using `objects/info/alternates` mechanism, or 22`$GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES` mechanism to 'borrow' 23objects from other object stores. A repository with this kind 24of incomplete object store is not suitable to be published for 25use with dumb transports but otherwise is OK as long as 26`objects/info/alternates` points at the right object stores 27it borrows from. 28 29objects/[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]:: 30 Traditionally, each object is stored in its own file. 31 They are split into 256 subdirectories using the first 32 two letters from its object name to keep the number of 33 directory entries `objects` directory itself needs to 34 hold. Objects found here are often called 'unpacked' 35 objects. 36 37objects/pack:: 38 Packs (files that store many object in compressed form, 39 along with index files to allow them to be randomly 40 accessed) are found in this directory. 41 42objects/info:: 43 Additional information about the object store is 44 recorded in this directory. 45 46objects/info/packs:: 47 This file is to help dumb transports discover what packs 48 are available in this object store. Whenever a pack is 49 added or removed, `git update-server-info` should be run 50 to keep this file up-to-date if the repository is 51 published for dumb transports. `git repack` does this 52 by default. 53 54objects/info/alternates:: 55 This file records paths to alternate object stores that 56 this object store borrows objects from, one pathname per 57 line. Note that not only native Git tools use it locally, 58 but the HTTP fetcher also tries to use it remotely; this 59 will usually work if you have relative paths (relative 60 to the object database, not to the repository!) in your 61 alternates file, but it will not work if you use absolute 62 paths unless the absolute path in filesystem and web URL 63 is the same. See also 'objects/info/http-alternates'. 64 65objects/info/http-alternates:: 66 This file records URLs to alternate object stores that 67 this object store borrows objects from, to be used when 68 the repository is fetched over HTTP. 69 70refs:: 71 References are stored in subdirectories of this 72 directory. The `git prune` command knows to keep 73 objects reachable from refs found in this directory and 74 its subdirectories. 75 76refs/heads/`name`:: 77 records tip-of-the-tree commit objects of branch `name` 78 79refs/tags/`name`:: 80 records any object name (not necessarily a commit 81 object, or a tag object that points at a commit object). 82 83HEAD:: 84 A symref (see glossary) to the `refs/heads/` namespace 85 describing the currently active branch. It does not mean 86 much if the repository is not associated with any working tree 87 (i.e. a 'bare' repository), but a valid git repository 88 *must* have the HEAD file; some porcelains may use it to 89 guess the designated "default" branch of the repository 90 (usually 'master'). It is legal if the named branch 91 'name' does not (yet) exist. In some legacy setups, it is 92 a symbolic link instead of a symref that points at the current 93 branch. 94 95branches:: 96 A slightly deprecated way to store shorthands to be used 97 to specify URL to `git fetch`, `git pull` and `git push` 98 commands is to store a file in `branches/'name'` and 99 give 'name' to these commands in place of 'repository' 100 argument. 101 102hooks:: 103 Hooks are customization scripts used by various git 104 commands. A handful of sample hooks are installed when 105 `git init` is run, but all of them are disabled by 106 default. To enable, they need to be made executable. 107 Read link:hooks.html[hooks] for more details about 108 each hook. 109 110index:: 111 The current index file for the repository. It is 112 usually not found in a bare repository. 113 114info:: 115 Additional information about the repository is recorded 116 in this directory. 117 118info/refs:: 119 This file is to help dumb transports to discover what 120 refs are available in this repository. Whenever you 121 create/delete a new branch or a new tag, `git 122 update-server-info` should be run to keep this file 123 up-to-date if the repository is published for dumb 124 transports. The `git-receive-pack` command, which is 125 run on a remote repository when you `git push` into it, 126 runs `hooks/update` hook to help you achieve this. 127 128info/grafts:: 129 This file records fake commit ancestry information, to 130 pretend the set of parents a commit has is different 131 from how the commit was actually created. One record 132 per line describes a commit and its fake parents by 133 listing their 40-byte hexadecimal object names separated 134 by a space and terminated by a newline. 135 136info/exclude:: 137 This file, by convention among Porcelains, stores the 138 exclude pattern list. `.gitignore` is the per-directory 139 ignore file. `git status`, `git add`, `git rm` and `git 140 clean` look at it but the core git commands do not look 141 at it. See also: gitlink:git-ls-files[1] `--exclude-from` 142 and `--exclude-per-directory`. 143 144remotes:: 145 Stores shorthands to be used to give URL and default 146 refnames to interact with remote repository to `git 147 fetch`, `git pull` and `git push` commands. 148 149logs:: 150 Records of changes made to refs are stored in this 151 directory. See the documentation on git-update-ref 152 for more information. 153 154logs/refs/heads/`name`:: 155 Records all changes made to the branch tip named `name`. 156 157logs/refs/tags/`name`:: 158 Records all changes made to the tag named `name`.