1gitrepository-layout(5) 2======================= 3 4NAME 5---- 6gitrepository-layout - Git Repository Layout 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10$GIT_DIR/* 11 12DESCRIPTION 13----------- 14 15You may find these things in your git repository (`.git` 16directory for a repository associated with your working tree, or 17`<project>.git` directory for a public 'bare' repository. It is 18also possible to have a working tree where `.git` is a plain 19ASCII file containing `gitdir: <path>`, i.e. the path to the 20real git repository). 21 22objects:: 23 Object store associated with this repository. Usually 24 an object store is self sufficient (i.e. all the objects 25 that are referred to by an object found in it are also 26 found in it), but there are a few ways to violate it. 27+ 28. You could have an incomplete but locally usable repository 29by creating a shallow clone. See linkgit:git-clone[1]. 30. You could be using the `objects/info/alternates` or 31`$GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES` mechanisms to 'borrow' 32objects from other object stores. A repository with this kind 33of incomplete object store is not suitable to be published for 34use with dumb transports but otherwise is OK as long as 35`objects/info/alternates` points at the object stores it 36borrows from. 37 38objects/[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]:: 39 A newly created object is stored in its own file. 40 The objects are splayed over 256 subdirectories using 41 the first two characters of the sha1 object name to 42 keep the number of directory entries in `objects` 43 itself to a manageable number. Objects found 44 here are often called 'unpacked' (or 'loose') objects. 45 46objects/pack:: 47 Packs (files that store many object in compressed form, 48 along with index files to allow them to be randomly 49 accessed) are found in this directory. 50 51objects/info:: 52 Additional information about the object store is 53 recorded in this directory. 54 55objects/info/packs:: 56 This file is to help dumb transports discover what packs 57 are available in this object store. Whenever a pack is 58 added or removed, `git update-server-info` should be run 59 to keep this file up-to-date if the repository is 60 published for dumb transports. 'git repack' does this 61 by default. 62 63objects/info/alternates:: 64 This file records paths to alternate object stores that 65 this object store borrows objects from, one pathname per 66 line. Note that not only native Git tools use it locally, 67 but the HTTP fetcher also tries to use it remotely; this 68 will usually work if you have relative paths (relative 69 to the object database, not to the repository!) in your 70 alternates file, but it will not work if you use absolute 71 paths unless the absolute path in filesystem and web URL 72 is the same. See also 'objects/info/http-alternates'. 73 74objects/info/http-alternates:: 75 This file records URLs to alternate object stores that 76 this object store borrows objects from, to be used when 77 the repository is fetched over HTTP. 78 79refs:: 80 References are stored in subdirectories of this 81 directory. The 'git prune' command knows to preserve 82 objects reachable from refs found in this directory and 83 its subdirectories. 84 85refs/heads/`name`:: 86 records tip-of-the-tree commit objects of branch `name` 87 88refs/tags/`name`:: 89 records any object name (not necessarily a commit 90 object, or a tag object that points at a commit object). 91 92refs/remotes/`name`:: 93 records tip-of-the-tree commit objects of branches copied 94 from a remote repository. 95 96refs/replace/`<obj-sha1>`:: 97 records the SHA1 of the object that replaces `<obj-sha1>`. 98 This is similar to info/grafts and is internally used and 99 maintained by linkgit:git-replace[1]. Such refs can be exchanged 100 between repositories while grafts are not. 101 102packed-refs:: 103 records the same information as refs/heads/, refs/tags/, 104 and friends record in a more efficient way. See 105 linkgit:git-pack-refs[1]. 106 107HEAD:: 108 A symref (see glossary) to the `refs/heads/` namespace 109 describing the currently active branch. It does not mean 110 much if the repository is not associated with any working tree 111 (i.e. a 'bare' repository), but a valid git repository 112 *must* have the HEAD file; some porcelains may use it to 113 guess the designated "default" branch of the repository 114 (usually 'master'). It is legal if the named branch 115 'name' does not (yet) exist. In some legacy setups, it is 116 a symbolic link instead of a symref that points at the current 117 branch. 118+ 119HEAD can also record a specific commit directly, instead of 120being a symref to point at the current branch. Such a state 121is often called 'detached HEAD.' See linkgit:git-checkout[1] 122for details. 123 124branches:: 125 A slightly deprecated way to store shorthands to be used 126 to specify a URL to 'git fetch', 'git pull' and 'git push'. 127 A file can be stored as `branches/<name>` and then 128 'name' can be given to these commands in place of 129 'repository' argument. See the REMOTES section in 130 linkgit:git-fetch[1] for details. This mechanism is legacy 131 and not likely to be found in modern repositories. 132 133hooks:: 134 Hooks are customization scripts used by various git 135 commands. A handful of sample hooks are installed when 136 'git init' is run, but all of them are disabled by 137 default. To enable, the `.sample` suffix has to be 138 removed from the filename by renaming. 139 Read linkgit:githooks[5] for more details about 140 each hook. 141 142index:: 143 The current index file for the repository. It is 144 usually not found in a bare repository. 145 146info:: 147 Additional information about the repository is recorded 148 in this directory. 149 150info/refs:: 151 This file helps dumb transports discover what refs are 152 available in this repository. If the repository is 153 published for dumb transports, this file should be 154 regenerated by 'git update-server-info' every time a tag 155 or branch is created or modified. This is normally done 156 from the `hooks/update` hook, which is run by the 157 'git-receive-pack' command when you 'git push' into the 158 repository. 159 160info/grafts:: 161 This file records fake commit ancestry information, to 162 pretend the set of parents a commit has is different 163 from how the commit was actually created. One record 164 per line describes a commit and its fake parents by 165 listing their 40-byte hexadecimal object names separated 166 by a space and terminated by a newline. 167 168info/exclude:: 169 This file, by convention among Porcelains, stores the 170 exclude pattern list. `.gitignore` is the per-directory 171 ignore file. 'git status', 'git add', 'git rm' and 172 'git clean' look at it but the core git commands do not look 173 at it. See also: linkgit:gitignore[5]. 174 175remotes:: 176 Stores shorthands for URL and default refnames for use 177 when interacting with remote repositories via 'git fetch', 178 'git pull' and 'git push' commands. See the REMOTES section 179 in linkgit:git-fetch[1] for details. This mechanism is legacy 180 and not likely to be found in modern repositories. 181 182logs:: 183 Records of changes made to refs are stored in this 184 directory. See linkgit:git-update-ref[1] 185 for more information. 186 187logs/refs/heads/`name`:: 188 Records all changes made to the branch tip named `name`. 189 190logs/refs/tags/`name`:: 191 Records all changes made to the tag named `name`. 192 193shallow:: 194 This is similar to `info/grafts` but is internally used 195 and maintained by shallow clone mechanism. See `--depth` 196 option to linkgit:git-clone[1] and linkgit:git-fetch[1]. 197 198SEE ALSO 199-------- 200linkgit:git-init[1], 201linkgit:git-clone[1], 202linkgit:git-fetch[1], 203linkgit:git-pack-refs[1], 204linkgit:git-gc[1], 205linkgit:git-checkout[1], 206linkgit:gitglossary[7], 207link:user-manual.html[The Git User's Manual] 208 209GIT 210--- 211Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite.