Documentation / git-clone.txton commit Update howto using-topic-branches (f37d0cc)
   1git-clone(1)
   2============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-clone - Clones a repository.
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11'git-clone' [-l [-s]] [-q] [-n] [-u <upload-pack>] <repository> <directory>
  12
  13DESCRIPTION
  14-----------
  15Clones a repository into a newly created directory.  All remote
  16branch heads are copied under `$GIT_DIR/refs/heads/`, except
  17that the remote `master` is also copied to `origin` branch.
  18
  19In addition, `$GIT_DIR/remotes/origin` file is set up to have
  20this line:
  21
  22        Pull: master:origin
  23
  24This is to help the typical workflow of working off of the
  25remote `master` branch.  Every time `git pull` without argument
  26is run, the progress on the remote `master` branch is tracked by
  27copying it into the local `origin` branch, and merged into the
  28branch you are currently working on.  Remote branches other than
  29`master` are also added there to be tracked.
  30
  31
  32OPTIONS
  33-------
  34--local::
  35-l::
  36        When the repository to clone from is on a local machine,
  37        this flag bypasses normal "git aware" transport
  38        mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of
  39        HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories.
  40        The files under .git/objects/ directory are hardlinked
  41        to save space when possible.
  42
  43--shared::
  44-s::
  45        When the repository to clone is on the local machine,
  46        instead of using hard links, automatically setup
  47        .git/objects/info/alternatives to share the objects
  48        with the source repository.  The resulting repository
  49        starts out without any object of its own.
  50
  51--quiet::
  52-q::
  53        Operate quietly.  This flag is passed to "rsync" and
  54        "git-clone-pack" commands when given.
  55
  56-n::
  57        No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
  58
  59--upload-pack <upload-pack>::
  60-u <upload-pack>::
  61        When given, and the repository to clone from is handled
  62        by 'git-clone-pack', '--exec=<upload-pack>' is passed to
  63        the command to specify non-default path for the command
  64        run on the other end.
  65
  66<repository>::
  67        The (possibly remote) repository to clone from.  It can
  68        be any URL git-fetch supports.
  69
  70<directory>::
  71        The name of a new directory to be cloned into.  It is an
  72        error to specify an existing directory.
  73
  74
  75Author
  76------
  77Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
  78
  79Documentation
  80--------------
  81Documentation by Junio C Hamano.
  82
  83
  84GIT
  85---
  86Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
  87