Runs a number of housekeeping tasks within the current repository,
such as compressing file revisions (to reduce disk space and increase
performance) and removing unreachable objects which may have been
-created from prior invocations of `git-add`.
+created from prior invocations of 'git-add'.
Users are encouraged to run this task on a regular basis within
each repository to maintain good disk space utilization and good
operating performance.
-Some git commands may automatically run `git-gc`; see the `--auto` flag
+Some git commands may automatically run 'git-gc'; see the `--auto` flag
below for details. If you know what you're doing and all you want is to
disable this behavior permanently without further considerations, just do:
-------
--aggressive::
- Usually `git-gc` runs very quickly while providing good disk
+ Usually 'git-gc' runs very quickly while providing good disk
space utilization and performance. This option will cause
- `git-gc` to more aggressively optimize the repository at the expense
+ 'git-gc' to more aggressively optimize the repository at the expense
of taking much more time. The effects of this optimization are
persistent, so this option only needs to be used occasionally; every
few hundred changesets or so.
--auto::
- With this option, `git-gc` checks whether any housekeeping is
+ With this option, 'git-gc' checks whether any housekeeping is
required; if not, it exits without performing any work.
Some git commands run `git gc --auto` after performing
operations that could create many loose objects.
too many packs in the repository. If the number of loose objects
exceeds the value of the `gc.auto` configuration variable, then
all loose objects are combined into a single pack using
-`git-repack -d -l`. Setting the value of `gc.auto` to 0
+'git-repack -d -l'. Setting the value of `gc.auto` to 0
disables automatic packing of loose objects.
+
If the number of packs exceeds the value of `gc.autopacklimit`,
then existing packs (except those marked with a `.keep` file)
are consolidated into a single pack by using the `-A` option of
-`git-repack`. Setting `gc.autopacklimit` to 0 disables
+'git-repack'. Setting `gc.autopacklimit` to 0 disables
automatic consolidation of packs.
--quiet::
kept. This defaults to 15 days.
The optional configuration variable 'gc.packrefs' determines if
-`git-gc` runs `git-pack-refs`. This can be set to "nobare" to enable
+'git-gc' runs 'git-pack-refs'. This can be set to "nobare" to enable
it within all non-bare repos or it can be set to a boolean value.
This defaults to true.
Notes
-----
-`git-gc` tries very hard to be safe about the garbage it collects. In
+'git-gc' tries very hard to be safe about the garbage it collects. In
particular, it will keep not only objects referenced by your current set
of branches and tags, but also objects referenced by the index, remote
-tracking branches, refs saved by `git-filter-branch` in
+tracking branches, refs saved by 'git-filter-branch' in
refs/original/, or reflogs (which may references commits in branches
that were later amended or rewound).