git-clone
(1)
Name
git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory
Synopsis
git clone [--template=<template_directory>]
[-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror]
[-o <name>] [-b <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>]
[--separate-git-dir <git dir>]
[--depth <depth>] [--recursive|--recurse-submodules] [--] <repository>
[<directory>]
Description
Git Manual GIT-CLONE(1)
NAME
git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory
SYNOPSIS
git clone [--template=<template_directory>]
[-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror]
[-o <name>] [-b <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>]
[--separate-git-dir <git dir>]
[--depth <depth>] [--recursive|--recurse-submodules] [--] <repository>
[<directory>]
DESCRIPTION
Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates
remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned
repository (visible using git branch -r), and creates and
checks out an initial branch that is forked from the cloned
repository's currently active branch.
After the clone, a plain git fetch without arguments will
update all the remote-tracking branches, and a git pull
without arguments will in addition merge the remote master
branch into the current master branch, if any.
This default configuration is achieved by creating
references to the remote branch heads under
refs/remotes/origin and by initializing remote.origin.url
and remote.origin.fetch configuration variables.
OPTIONS
--local, -l
When the repository to clone from is on a local machine,
this flag bypasses the normal "git aware" transport
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.
--no-hardlinks
Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a
local filesystem by copying files under .git/objects
directory.
--shared, -s
When the repository to clone is on the local machine,
instead of using hard links, automatically setup
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 1
Git Manual GIT-CLONE(1)
.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 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) which automatically call git gc --auto. (See
git-gc(1).) If these objects are removed and were
referenced by the cloned repository, then the cloned
repository will become corrupt.
Note that running git repack without the -l option in a
repository cloned with -s will copy objects from the
source repository into a pack in the cloned repository,
removing the disk space savings of clone -s. It is safe,
however, to run git gc, which uses the -l option by
default.
If you want to break the dependency of a repository
cloned with -s on its source repository, you can simply
run git repack -a to copy all objects from the source
repository into a pack in the cloned repository.
--reference <repository>
If the reference repository is on the local machine,
automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to
obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 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 the NOTE for the --shared option.
--quiet, -q
Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the
standard error stream. This flag is also passed to the
`rsync' command when given.
--verbose, -v
Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress
status to the standard error stream.
--progress
Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 2
Git Manual GIT-CLONE(1)
--no-checkout, -n
No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is
complete.
--bare
Make a bare GIT repository. That is, instead of creating
<directory> and placing the administrative files in
<directory>/.git, make the <directory> itself the
$GIT_DIR. This obviously implies the -n because there is
nowhere to check out the working tree. Also the branch
heads at the remote are copied directly to corresponding
local branch heads, without mapping them to
refs/remotes/origin/. When this option is used, neither
remote-tracking branches nor the related configuration
variables are created.
--mirror
Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies
--bare. Compared to --bare, --mirror not only maps local
branches of the source to local branches of the target,
it maps all refs (including remote-tracking branches,
notes etc.) and sets up a refspec configuration such
that all these refs are overwritten by a git remote
update in the target repository.
--origin <name>, -o <name>
Instead of using the remote name origin to keep track of
the upstream repository, use <name>.
--branch <name>, -b <name>
Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch
pointed to by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to
<name> branch instead. In a non-bare repository, this is
the branch that will be checked out.
--upload-pack <upload-pack>, -u <upload-pack>
When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed
via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the
command run on the other end.
--template=<template_directory>
Specify the directory from which templates will be used;
(See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of git-init(1).)
--config <key>=<value>, -c <key>=<value>
Set a configuration variable in the newly-created
repository; this takes effect immediately after the
repository is initialized, but before the remote history
is fetched or any files checked out. The key is in the
same format as expected by git-config(1) (e.g.,
core.eol=true). If multiple values are given for the
same key, each value will be written to the config file.
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 3
Git Manual GIT-CLONE(1)
This makes it safe, for example, to add additional fetch
refspecs to the origin remote.
--depth <depth>
Create a shallow clone with a history truncated to the
specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has
a number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from
it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you
are only interested in the recent history of a large
project with a long history, and would want to send in
fixes as patches.
--recursive, --recurse-submodules
After the clone is created, initialize all submodules
within, using their default settings. This is equivalent
to running git submodule update --init --recursive
immediately after the clone is finished. This option is
ignored if the cloned repository does not have a
worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of --no-checkout/-n,
--bare, or --mirror is given)
--separate-git-dir=<git dir>
Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is
supposed to be, place the cloned repository at the
specified directory, then make a filesytem-agnostic git
symbolic link to there. The result is git repository can
be separated from working tree.
<repository>
The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the
URLS section below for more information on specifying
repositories.
<directory>
The name of a new directory to clone into. The
"humanish" part of the source repository is used if no
directory is explicitly given (repo for
/path/to/repo.git and foo for host.xz:foo/.git). Cloning
into an existing directory is only allowed if the
directory is empty.
GIT URLS
In general, URLs contain information about the transport
protocol, the address of the remote server, and the path to
the repository. Depending on the transport protocol, some of
this information may be absent.
Git natively supports ssh, git, http, https, ftp, ftps, and
rsync protocols. The following syntaxes may be used with
them:
o ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 4
Git Manual GIT-CLONE(1)
o git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o http[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o ftp[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
o rsync://host.xz/path/to/repo.git/
An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh
protocol:
o [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git/
The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username
expansion:
o ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
o git://host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
o [user@]host.xz:/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
For local repositories, also supported by git natively, the
following syntaxes may be used:
o /path/to/repo.git/
o file:///path/to/repo.git/
These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except the former
implies --local option.
When git doesn't know how to handle a certain transport
protocol, it attempts to use the remote-<transport> remote
helper, if one exists. To explicitly request a remote
helper, the following syntax may be used:
o <transport>::<address>
where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an
arbitrary URL-like string recognized by the specific remote
helper being invoked. See git-remote-helpers(1) for details.
If there are a large number of similarly-named remote
repositories and you want to use a different format for them
(such that the URLs you use will be rewritten into URLs that
work), you can create a configuration section of the form:
[url "<actual url base>"]
insteadOf = <other url base>
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 5
Git Manual GIT-CLONE(1)
For example, with this:
[url "git://git.host.xz/"]
insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
insteadOf = work:
a URL like "work:repo.git" or like
"host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten in any context
that takes a URL to be "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
configuration section of the form:
[url "<actual url base>"]
pushInsteadOf = <other url base>
For example, with this:
[url "ssh://example.org/"]
pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be
rewritten to "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for
pushes, but pulls will still use the original URL.
EXAMPLES
o Clone from upstream:
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6
$ cd my2.6
$ make
o Make a local clone that borrows from the current
directory, without checking things out:
$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
$ cd ../copy
$ git show-branch
o Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing
local directory:
$ git clone --reference my2.6 \
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \
my2.7
$ cd my2.7
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 6
Git Manual GIT-CLONE(1)
o Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the
public:
$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git
o Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that
borrows from Linus:
$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \
/pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+---------------+--------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Availability | developer/versioning/git |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+--------------------------+
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from http://git-
core.googlecode.com/files/git-1.7.9.2.tar.gz
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://git-scm.com/.
Git 1.7.9.2 Last change: 02/22/2012 7