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] [--mirror] 14 [-o <name>] [-b <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>] 15 [--depth <depth>] [--recursive] [--] <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 23initial branch that is forked from the cloned repository's 24currently active branch. 25 26After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update 27all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without 28arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the 29current master branch, if any. 30 31This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 32the remote branch heads under `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin` and 33by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 34configuration variables. 35 36 37OPTIONS 38------- 39--local:: 40-l:: 41 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 42 this flag bypasses the normal "git aware" transport 43 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 44 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 45 The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked 46 to save space when possible. This is now the default when 47 the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo` 48 syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option. To force 49 copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable 50 if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository), 51 but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport 52 mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 53 54--no-hardlinks:: 55 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 56 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 57 directory. 58 59--shared:: 60-s:: 61 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 62 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 63 `.git/objects/info/alternates` to share the objects 64 with the source repository. The resulting repository 65 starts out without any object of its own. 66+ 67*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 68it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 69repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any 70other git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the 71source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). 72These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as `git commit`) 73which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].) 74If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, 75then the cloned repository will become corrupt. 76+ 77Note that running `git repack` without the `-l` option in a repository 78cloned with `-s` will copy objects from the source repository into a pack 79in the cloned repository, removing the disk space savings of `clone -s`. 80It is safe, however, to run `git gc`, which uses the `-l` option by 81default. 82+ 83If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with `-s` on 84its source repository, you can simply run `git repack -a` to copy all 85objects from the source repository into a pack in the cloned repository. 86 87--reference <repository>:: 88 If the reference repository is on the local machine, 89 automatically setup `.git/objects/info/alternates` to 90 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 91 an already existing repository as an alternate will 92 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 93 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 94+ 95*NOTE*: see the NOTE for the `--shared` option. 96 97--quiet:: 98-q:: 99 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard 100 error stream. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 101 command when given. 102 103--verbose:: 104-v:: 105 Run verbosely. 106 107--progress:: 108 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream 109 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q 110 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if the 111 standard error stream is not directed to a terminal. 112 113--no-checkout:: 114-n:: 115 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 116 117--bare:: 118 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 119 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 120 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 121 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 122 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 123 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 124 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 125 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 126 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 127 configuration variables are created. 128 129--mirror:: 130 Set up a mirror of the remote repository. This implies `--bare`. 131 132--origin <name>:: 133-o <name>:: 134 Instead of using the remote name `origin` to keep track 135 of the upstream repository, use `<name>`. 136 137--branch <name>:: 138-b <name>:: 139 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed 140 to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to `<name>` branch 141 instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will 142 be checked out. 143 144--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 145-u <upload-pack>:: 146 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 147 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 148 run on the other end. 149 150--template=<template_directory>:: 151 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 152 if unset the templates are taken from the installation 153 defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`. 154 155--depth <depth>:: 156 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 157 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 158 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 159 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 160 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 161 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 162 as patches. 163 164--recursive:: 165 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 166 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 167 `git submodule update --init --recursive` immediately after 168 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 169 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 170 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 171 172<repository>:: 173 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 174 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 175 repositories. 176 177<directory>:: 178 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 179 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 180 explicitly given (`repo` for `/path/to/repo.git` and `foo` 181 for `host.xz:foo/.git`). Cloning into an existing directory 182 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 183 184:git-clone: 1 185include::urls.txt[] 186 187Examples 188-------- 189 190Clone from upstream:: 191+ 192------------ 193$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 194$ cd my2.6 195$ make 196------------ 197 198 199Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out:: 200+ 201------------ 202$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 203$ cd ../copy 204$ git show-branch 205------------ 206 207 208Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory:: 209+ 210------------ 211$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 212 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 213 my2.7 214$ cd my2.7 215------------ 216 217 218Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:: 219+ 220------------ 221$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 222------------ 223 224 225Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus:: 226+ 227------------ 228$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 229 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 230------------ 231 232 233Author 234------ 235Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 236 237 238Documentation 239-------------- 240Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 241 242 243GIT 244--- 245Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite