.git/objects/info/alternates to share the objects
with the source repository. The resulting repository
starts out without any object of its own.
- *NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use
- it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your
- repository using this option, then delete branches in the
- source repository and then run linkgit:git-gc[1] using the
- '--prune' option in the source repository, it may remove
- objects which are referenced by the cloned repository.
++
+*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use
+it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your
+repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any
+other git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the
+source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling).
+These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as git-commit[1])
+which automatically call git-gc[1]. If these objects are removed and
+were referenced by the cloned repository, then the cloned repository
+will become corrupt.
an already existing repository as an alternate will
require fewer objects to be copied from the repository
being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs.
++
+*NOTE*: see NOTE to --shared option.
--quiet::
-q::