Documentation / git-send-pack.txton commit cherry-pick: fix docs describing handling of empty commits (f907282)
   1git-send-pack(1)
   2================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-send-pack - Push objects over Git protocol to another repository
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git send-pack' [--all] [--dry-run] [--force] [--receive-pack=<git-receive-pack>] [--verbose] [--thin] [<host>:]<directory> [<ref>...]
  13
  14DESCRIPTION
  15-----------
  16Usually you would want to use 'git push', which is a
  17higher-level wrapper of this command, instead. See linkgit:git-push[1].
  18
  19Invokes 'git-receive-pack' on a possibly remote repository, and
  20updates it from the current repository, sending named refs.
  21
  22
  23OPTIONS
  24-------
  25--receive-pack=<git-receive-pack>::
  26        Path to the 'git-receive-pack' program on the remote
  27        end.  Sometimes useful when pushing to a remote
  28        repository over ssh, and you do not have the program in
  29        a directory on the default $PATH.
  30
  31--exec=<git-receive-pack>::
  32        Same as \--receive-pack=<git-receive-pack>.
  33
  34--all::
  35        Instead of explicitly specifying which refs to update,
  36        update all heads that locally exist.
  37
  38--dry-run::
  39        Do everything except actually send the updates.
  40
  41--force::
  42        Usually, the command refuses to update a remote ref that
  43        is not an ancestor of the local ref used to overwrite it.
  44        This flag disables the check.  What this means is that
  45        the remote repository can lose commits; use it with
  46        care.
  47
  48--verbose::
  49        Run verbosely.
  50
  51--thin::
  52        Send a "thin" pack, which records objects in deltified form based
  53        on objects not included in the pack to reduce network traffic.
  54
  55<host>::
  56        A remote host to house the repository.  When this
  57        part is specified, 'git-receive-pack' is invoked via
  58        ssh.
  59
  60<directory>::
  61        The repository to update.
  62
  63<ref>...::
  64        The remote refs to update.
  65
  66
  67Specifying the Refs
  68-------------------
  69
  70There are three ways to specify which refs to update on the
  71remote end.
  72
  73With '--all' flag, all refs that exist locally are transferred to
  74the remote side.  You cannot specify any '<ref>' if you use
  75this flag.
  76
  77Without '--all' and without any '<ref>', the heads that exist
  78both on the local side and on the remote side are updated.
  79
  80When one or more '<ref>' are specified explicitly, it can be either a
  81single pattern, or a pair of such pattern separated by a colon
  82":" (this means that a ref name cannot have a colon in it).  A
  83single pattern '<name>' is just a shorthand for '<name>:<name>'.
  84
  85Each pattern pair consists of the source side (before the colon)
  86and the destination side (after the colon).  The ref to be
  87pushed is determined by finding a match that matches the source
  88side, and where it is pushed is determined by using the
  89destination side. The rules used to match a ref are the same
  90rules used by 'git rev-parse' to resolve a symbolic ref
  91name. See linkgit:git-rev-parse[1].
  92
  93 - It is an error if <src> does not match exactly one of the
  94   local refs.
  95
  96 - It is an error if <dst> matches more than one remote refs.
  97
  98 - If <dst> does not match any remote ref, either
  99
 100   * it has to start with "refs/"; <dst> is used as the
 101     destination literally in this case.
 102
 103   * <src> == <dst> and the ref that matched the <src> must not
 104     exist in the set of remote refs; the ref matched <src>
 105     locally is used as the name of the destination.
 106
 107Without '--force', the <src> ref is stored at the remote only if
 108<dst> does not exist, or <dst> is a proper subset (i.e. an
 109ancestor) of <src>.  This check, known as "fast-forward check",
 110is performed in order to avoid accidentally overwriting the
 111remote ref and lose other peoples' commits from there.
 112
 113With '--force', the fast-forward check is disabled for all refs.
 114
 115Optionally, a <ref> parameter can be prefixed with a plus '+' sign
 116to disable the fast-forward check only on that ref.
 117
 118GIT
 119---
 120Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite