1git-clone(1) 2============ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git clone' [--template=<template_directory>] 13 [-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror] 14 [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>] 15 [--depth <depth>] [--recursive] [--] <repository> [<directory>] 16 17DESCRIPTION 18----------- 19 20Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates 21remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository 22(visible using `git branch -r`), and creates and checks out an initial 23branch equal to the cloned repository's currently active branch. 24 25After the clone, a plain `git fetch` without arguments will update 26all the remote-tracking branches, and a `git pull` without 27arguments will in addition merge the remote master branch into the 28current master branch, if any. 29 30This default configuration is achieved by creating references to 31the remote branch heads under `$GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin` and 32by initializing `remote.origin.url` and `remote.origin.fetch` 33configuration variables. 34 35 36OPTIONS 37------- 38--local:: 39-l:: 40 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, 41 this flag bypasses normal "git aware" transport 42 mechanism and clones the repository by making a copy of 43 HEAD and everything under objects and refs directories. 44 The files under `.git/objects/` directory are hardlinked 45 to save space when possible. This is now the default when 46 the source repository is specified with `/path/to/repo` 47 syntax, so it essentially is a no-op option. To force 48 copying instead of hardlinking (which may be desirable 49 if you are trying to make a back-up of your repository), 50 but still avoid the usual "git aware" transport 51 mechanism, `--no-hardlinks` can be used. 52 53--no-hardlinks:: 54 Optimize the cloning process from a repository on a 55 local filesystem by copying files under `.git/objects` 56 directory. 57 58--shared:: 59-s:: 60 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, 61 instead of using hard links, automatically setup 62 .git/objects/info/alternates to share the objects 63 with the source repository. The resulting repository 64 starts out without any object of its own. 65+ 66*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use 67it unless you understand what it does. If you clone your 68repository using this option and then delete branches (or use any 69other git command that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the 70source repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling). 71These objects may be removed by normal git operations (such as 'git-commit') 72which automatically call `git gc --auto`. (See linkgit:git-gc[1].) 73If these objects are removed and were referenced by the cloned repository, 74then the cloned repository will become corrupt. 75 76 77 78--reference <repository>:: 79 If the reference repository is on the local machine 80 automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to 81 obtain objects from the reference repository. Using 82 an already existing repository as an alternate will 83 require fewer objects to be copied from the repository 84 being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. 85+ 86*NOTE*: see NOTE to --shared option. 87 88--quiet:: 89-q:: 90 Operate quietly. This flag is also passed to the `rsync' 91 command when given. 92 93--verbose:: 94-v:: 95 Display the progressbar, even in case the standard output is not 96 a terminal. 97 98--no-checkout:: 99-n:: 100 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete. 101 102--bare:: 103 Make a 'bare' GIT repository. That is, instead of 104 creating `<directory>` and placing the administrative 105 files in `<directory>/.git`, make the `<directory>` 106 itself the `$GIT_DIR`. This obviously implies the `-n` 107 because there is nowhere to check out the working tree. 108 Also the branch heads at the remote are copied directly 109 to corresponding local branch heads, without mapping 110 them to `refs/remotes/origin/`. When this option is 111 used, neither remote-tracking branches nor the related 112 configuration variables are created. 113 114--mirror:: 115 Set up a mirror of the remote repository. This implies --bare. 116 117--origin <name>:: 118-o <name>:: 119 Instead of using the remote name 'origin' to keep track 120 of the upstream repository, use <name>. 121 122--upload-pack <upload-pack>:: 123-u <upload-pack>:: 124 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed 125 via ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command 126 run on the other end. 127 128--template=<template_directory>:: 129 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; 130 if unset the templates are taken from the installation 131 defined default, typically `/usr/share/git-core/templates`. 132 133--depth <depth>:: 134 Create a 'shallow' clone with a history truncated to the 135 specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a 136 number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from 137 it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you 138 are only interested in the recent history of a large project 139 with a long history, and would want to send in fixes 140 as patches. 141 142--recursive:: 143 After the clone is created, initialize all submodules within, 144 using their default settings. This is equivalent to running 145 'git submodule update --init --recursive' immediately after 146 the clone is finished. This option is ignored if the cloned 147 repository does not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of 148 `--no-checkout`/`-n`, `--bare`, or `--mirror` is given) 149 150<repository>:: 151 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the 152 <<URLS,URLS>> section below for more information on specifying 153 repositories. 154 155<directory>:: 156 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" 157 part of the source repository is used if no directory is 158 explicitly given ("repo" for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" 159 for "host.xz:foo/.git"). Cloning into an existing directory 160 is only allowed if the directory is empty. 161 162:git-clone: 1 163include::urls.txt[] 164 165Examples 166-------- 167 168Clone from upstream:: 169+ 170------------ 171$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.6 my2.6 172$ cd my2.6 173$ make 174------------ 175 176 177Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without checking things out:: 178+ 179------------ 180$ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy 181$ cd ../copy 182$ git show-branch 183------------ 184 185 186Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory:: 187+ 188------------ 189$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ 190 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ 191 my2.7 192$ cd my2.7 193------------ 194 195 196Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:: 197+ 198------------ 199$ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git 200------------ 201 202 203Create a repository on the kernel.org machine that borrows from Linus:: 204+ 205------------ 206$ git clone --bare -l -s /pub/scm/.../torvalds/linux-2.6.git \ 207 /pub/scm/.../me/subsys-2.6.git 208------------ 209 210 211Author 212------ 213Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 214 215 216Documentation 217-------------- 218Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 219 220 221GIT 222--- 223Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite