Some workflows require that one or more branches of development on one
machine be replicated on another machine, but the two machines cannot
-be directly connected so the interactive git protocols (git, ssh,
-rsync, http) cannot be used. This command provides support for
-'git-fetch' and 'git-pull' to operate by packaging objects and references
+be directly connected, and therefore the interactive git protocols (git,
+ssh, rsync, http) cannot be used. This command provides support for
+'git fetch' and 'git pull' to operate by packaging objects and references
in an archive at the originating machine, then importing those into
-another repository using 'git-fetch' and 'git-pull'
-after moving the archive by some means (i.e., by sneakernet). As no
-direct connection between repositories exists, the user must specify a
+another repository using 'git fetch' and 'git pull'
+after moving the archive by some means (e.g., by sneakernet). As no
+direct connection between the repositories exists, the user must specify a
basis for the bundle that is held by the destination repository: the
bundle assumes that all objects in the basis are already in the
destination repository.
create <file>::
Used to create a bundle named 'file'. This requires the
- 'git-rev-list' arguments to define the bundle contents.
+ 'git rev-list' arguments to define the bundle contents.
verify <file>::
Used to check that a bundle file is valid and will apply
cleanly to the current repository. This includes checks on the
bundle format itself as well as checking that the prerequisite
commits exist and are fully linked in the current repository.
- 'git-bundle' prints a list of missing commits, if any, and exits
- with non-zero status.
+ 'git bundle' prints a list of missing commits, if any, and exits
+ with a non-zero status.
list-heads <file>::
Lists the references defined in the bundle. If followed by a
printed out.
unbundle <file>::
- Passes the objects in the bundle to 'git-index-pack'
+ Passes the objects in the bundle to 'git index-pack'
for storage in the repository, then prints the names of all
- defined references. If a reflist is given, only references
- matching those in the given list are printed. This command is
- really plumbing, intended to be called only by 'git-fetch'.
+ defined references. If a list of references is given, only
+ references matching those in the list are printed. This command is
+ really plumbing, intended to be called only by 'git fetch'.
[git-rev-list-args...]::
- A list of arguments, acceptable to 'git-rev-parse' and
- 'git-rev-list', that specify the specific objects and references
- to transport. For example, "master~10..master" causes the
+ A list of arguments, acceptable to 'git rev-parse' and
+ 'git rev-list', that specifies the specific objects and references
+ to transport. For example, `master\~10..master` causes the
current master reference to be packaged along with all objects
added since its 10th ancestor commit. There is no explicit
limit to the number of references and objects that may be
[refname...]::
A list of references used to limit the references reported as
- available. This is principally of use to 'git-fetch', which
+ available. This is principally of use to 'git fetch', which
expects to receive only those references asked for and not
- necessarily everything in the pack (in this case, 'git-bundle' is
- acting like 'git-fetch-pack').
+ necessarily everything in the pack (in this case, 'git bundle' acts
+ like 'git fetch-pack').
SPECIFYING REFERENCES
---------------------
-'git-bundle' will only package references that are shown by
-'git-show-ref': this includes heads, tags, and remote heads. References
-such as master~1 cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for
+'git bundle' will only package references that are shown by
+'git show-ref': this includes heads, tags, and remote heads. References
+such as `master\~1` cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for
defining the basis. More than one reference may be packaged, and more
than one basis can be specified. The objects packaged are those not
contained in the union of the given bases. Each basis can be
-specified explicitly (e.g., ^master~10), or implicitly (e.g.,
-master~10..master, master --since=10.days.ago).
+specified explicitly (e.g. `^master\~10`), or implicitly (e.g.
+`master\~10..master`, `--since=10.days.ago master`).
It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination.
-It is okay to err on the side of conservatism, causing the bundle file
-to contain objects already in the destination as these are ignored
+It is okay to err on the side of caution, causing the bundle file
+to contain objects already in the destination, as these are ignored
when unpacking at the destination.
EXAMPLE
-------
-Assume two repositories exist as R1 on machine A, and R2 on machine B.
+Assume you want to transfer the history from a repository R1 on machine A
+to another repository R2 on machine B.
For whatever reason, direct connection between A and B is not allowed,
-but we can move data from A to B via some mechanism (CD, email, etc).
-We want to update R2 with developments made on branch master in R1.
+but we can move data from A to B via some mechanism (CD, email, etc.).
+We want to update R2 with development made on the branch master in R1.
-To create the bundle you have to specify the basis. You have some options:
+To bootstrap the process, you can first create a bundle that does not have
+any basis. You can use a tag to remember up to what commit you last
+processed, in order to make it easy to later update the other repository
+with an incremental bundle:
-- Without basis.
-+
-This is useful when sending the whole history.
+----------------
+machineA$ cd R1
+machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle master
+machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
+----------------
-------------
-$ git bundle create mybundle master
-------------
+Then you transfer file.bundle to the target machine B. If you are creating
+the repository on machine B, then you can clone from the bundle as if it
+were a remote repository instead of creating an empty repository and then
+pulling or fetching objects from the bundle:
-- Using temporally tags.
-+
-We set a tag in R1 (lastR2bundle) after the previous such transport,
-and move it afterwards to help build the bundle.
+----------------
+machineB$ git clone /home/me/tmp/file.bundle R2
+----------------
-------------
-$ git bundle create mybundle master ^lastR2bundle
-$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
-------------
+This will define a remote called "origin" in the resulting repository that
+lets you fetch and pull from the bundle. The $GIT_DIR/config file in R2 will
+have an entry like this:
-- Using a tag present in both repositories
+------------------------
+[remote "origin"]
+ url = /home/me/tmp/file.bundle
+ fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
+------------------------
+
+To update the resulting mine.git repository, you can fetch or pull after
+replacing the bundle stored at /home/me/tmp/file.bundle with incremental
+updates.
+
+After working some more in the original repository, you can create an
+incremental bundle to update the other repository:
+
+----------------
+machineA$ cd R1
+machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle lastR2bundle..master
+machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
+----------------
+
+You then transfer the bundle to the other machine to replace
+/home/me/tmp/file.bundle, and pull from it.
+
+----------------
+machineB$ cd R2
+machineB$ git pull
+----------------
-------------
-$ git bundle create mybundle master ^v1.0.0
-------------
+If you know up to what commit the intended recipient repository should
+have the necessary objects, you can use that knowledge to specify the
+basis, giving a cut-off point to limit the revisions and objects that go
+in the resulting bundle. The previous example used lastR2bundle tag
+for this purpose, but you can use any other options that you would give to
+the linkgit:git-log[1] command. Here are more examples:
-- A basis based on time.
+You can use a tag that is present in both:
-------------
-$ git bundle create mybundle master --since=10.days.ago
-------------
+----------------
+$ git bundle create mybundle v1.0.0..master
+----------------
-- With a limit on the number of commits
+You can use a basis based on time:
-------------
-$ git bundle create mybundle master -n 10
-------------
+----------------
+$ git bundle create mybundle --since=10.days master
+----------------
-Then you move mybundle from A to B, and in R2 on B:
+You can use the number of commits:
-------------
+----------------
+$ git bundle create mybundle -10 master
+----------------
+
+You can run `git-bundle verify` to see if you can extract from a bundle
+that was created with a basis:
+
+----------------
$ git bundle verify mybundle
-$ git fetch mybundle master:localRef
-------------
+----------------
-With something like this in the config in R2:
+This will list what commits you must have in order to extract from the
+bundle and will error out if you do not have them.
-------------------------
-[remote "bundle"]
- url = /home/me/tmp/file.bdl
- fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
-------------------------
+A bundle from a recipient repository's point of view is just like a
+regular repository which it fetches or pulls from. You can, for example, map
+references when fetching:
-You can first sneakernet the bundle file to ~/tmp/file.bdl and
-then these commands on machine B:
+----------------
+$ git fetch mybundle master:localRef
+----------------
-------------
-$ git ls-remote bundle
-$ git fetch bundle
-$ git pull bundle
-------------
+You can also see what references it offers.
-would treat it as if it is talking with a remote side over the
-network.
+----------------
+$ git ls-remote mybundle
+----------------
Author
------