mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of
HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories.
The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked
- to save space when possible. This is now the default when
- the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo`
- syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option. To force
- copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable
- if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository),
- but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport
- mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used.
+ to save space when possible.
++
+If the repository is specified as a local path (e.g., `/path/to/repo`),
+this is the default, and --local is essentially a no-op. If the
+repository is specified as a URL, then this flag is ignored (and we
+never use the local optimizations). Specifying `--no-local` will
+override the default when `/path/to/repo` is given, using the regular
+git transport instead.
++
+To force copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable if you
+are trying to make a back-up of your repository), but still avoid the
+usual "git aware" transport mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used.
--no-hardlinks::
Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a
`--no-single-branch` is given to fetch the histories near the
tips of all branches.
Further fetches into the resulting repository will only update the
- remote tracking branch for the branch this option was used for the
+ remote-tracking branch for the branch this option was used for the
initial cloning. If the HEAD at the remote did not point at any
- branch when `--single-branch` clone was made, no remote tracking
+ branch when `--single-branch` clone was made, no remote-tracking
branch is created.
--recursive::