1GIT-PACK-OBJECTS(1)               Git Manual               GIT-PACK-OBJECTS(1)
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NAME

6       git-pack-objects - Create a packed archive of objects
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SYNOPSIS

9       git pack-objects [-q | --progress | --all-progress] [--all-progress-implied]
10               [--no-reuse-delta] [--delta-base-offset] [--non-empty]
11               [--local] [--incremental] [--window=N] [--depth=N]
12               [--revs [--unpacked | --all]*] [--stdout | base-name]
13               [--keep-true-parents] < object-list
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15

DESCRIPTION

17       Reads list of objects from the standard input, and writes a packed
18       archive with specified base-name, or to the standard output.
19
20       A packed archive is an efficient way to transfer a set of objects
21       between two repositories as well as an access efficient archival
22       format. In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a compressed
23       whole or as a difference from some other object. The latter is often
24       called a delta.
25
26       The packed archive format (.pack) is designed to be self-contained so
27       that it can be unpacked without any further information. Therefore,
28       each object that a delta depends upon must be present within the pack.
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30       A pack index file (.idx) is generated for fast, random access to the
31       objects in the pack. Placing both the index file (.idx) and the packed
32       archive (.pack) in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
33       any of the directories on $GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES) enables
34       git to read from the pack archive.
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36       The git unpack-objects command can read the packed archive and expand
37       the objects contained in the pack into "one-file one-object" format;
38       this is typically done by the smart-pull commands when a pack is
39       created on-the-fly for efficient network transport by their peers.
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OPTIONS

42       base-name
43           Write into a pair of files (.pack and .idx), using <base-name> to
44           determine the name of the created file. When this option is used,
45           the two files are written in <base-name>-<SHA1>.{pack,idx} files.
46           <SHA1> is a hash of the sorted object names to make the resulting
47           filename based on the pack content, and written to the standard
48           output of the command.
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50       --stdout
51           Write the pack contents (what would have been written to .pack
52           file) out to the standard output.
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54       --revs
55           Read the revision arguments from the standard input, instead of
56           individual object names. The revision arguments are processed the
57           same way as git rev-list with the --objects flag uses its commit
58           arguments to build the list of objects it outputs. The objects on
59           the resulting list are packed.
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61       --unpacked
62           This implies --revs. When processing the list of revision arguments
63           read from the standard input, limit the objects packed to those
64           that are not already packed.
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66       --all
67           This implies --revs. In addition to the list of revision arguments
68           read from the standard input, pretend as if all refs under refs/
69           are specified to be included.
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71       --include-tag
72           Include unasked-for annotated tags if the object they reference was
73           included in the resulting packfile. This can be useful to send new
74           tags to native git clients.
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76       --window=[N], --depth=[N]
77           These two options affect how the objects contained in the pack are
78           stored using delta compression. The objects are first internally
79           sorted by type, size and optionally names and compared against the
80           other objects within --window to see if using delta compression
81           saves space. --depth limits the maximum delta depth; making it too
82           deep affects the performance on the unpacker side, because delta
83           data needs to be applied that many times to get to the necessary
84           object. The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50.
85
86       --window-memory=[N]
87           This option provides an additional limit on top of --window; the
88           window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take up more
89           than N bytes in memory. This is useful in repositories with a mix
90           of large and small objects to not run out of memory with a large
91           window, but still be able to take advantage of the large window for
92           the smaller objects. The size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or
93           "g".  --window-memory=0 makes memory usage unlimited, which is the
94           default.
95
96       --max-pack-size=[N]
97           Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed
98           with "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1
99           MiB. If specified, multiple packfiles may be created. The default
100           is unlimited, unless the config variable pack.packSizeLimit is set.
101
102       --honor-pack-keep
103           This flag causes an object already in a local pack that has a .keep
104           file to be ignored, even if it it would have otherwise been packed.
105
106       --incremental
107           This flag causes an object already in a pack to be ignored even if
108           it would have otherwise been packed.
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110       --local
111           This flag causes an object that is borrowed from an alternate
112           object store to be ignored even if it would have otherwise been
113           packed.
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115       --non-empty
116           Only create a packed archive if it would contain at least one
117           object.
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119       --progress
120           Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
121           when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This
122           flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream is
123           not directed to a terminal.
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125       --all-progress
126           When --stdout is specified then progress report is displayed during
127           the object count and compression phases but inhibited during the
128           write-out phase. The reason is that in some cases the output stream
129           is directly linked to another command which may wish to display
130           progress status of its own as it processes incoming pack data. This
131           flag is like --progress except that it forces progress report for
132           the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is used.
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134       --all-progress-implied
135           This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display is
136           activated. Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn’t actually force
137           any progress display by itself.
138
139       -q
140           This flag makes the command not to report its progress on the
141           standard error stream.
142
143       --no-reuse-delta
144           When creating a packed archive in a repository that has existing
145           packs, the command reuses existing deltas. This sometimes results
146           in a slightly suboptimal pack. This flag tells the command not to
147           reuse existing deltas but compute them from scratch.
148
149       --no-reuse-object
150           This flag tells the command not to reuse existing object data at
151           all, including non deltified object, forcing recompression of
152           everything. This implies --no-reuse-delta. Useful only in the
153           obscure case where wholesale enforcement of a different compression
154           level on the packed data is desired.
155
156       --compression=[N]
157           Specifies compression level for newly-compressed data in the
158           generated pack. If not specified, pack compression level is
159           determined first by pack.compression, then by core.compression, and
160           defaults to -1, the zlib default, if neither is set. Add
161           --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression level
162           on all data no matter the source.
163
164       --thin
165           Create a "thin" pack by omitting the common objects between a
166           sender and a receiver in order to reduce network transfer. This
167           option only makes sense in conjunction with --stdout.
168
169           Note: A thin pack violates the packed archive format by omitting
170           required objects and is thus unusable by git without making it
171           self-contained. Use git index-pack --fix-thin (see git-index-
172           pack(1)) to restore the self-contained property.
173
174       --delta-base-offset
175           A packed archive can express base object of a delta as either
176           20-byte object name or as an offset in the stream, but older
177           version of git does not understand the latter. By default, git
178           pack-objects only uses the former format for better compatibility.
179           This option allows the command to use the latter format for
180           compactness. Depending on the average delta chain length, this
181           option typically shrinks the resulting packfile by 3-5 per-cent.
182
183       --threads=<n>
184           Specifies the number of threads to spawn when searching for best
185           delta matches. This requires that pack-objects be compiled with
186           pthreads otherwise this option is ignored with a warning. This is
187           meant to reduce packing time on multiprocessor machines. The
188           required amount of memory for the delta search window is however
189           multiplied by the number of threads. Specifying 0 will cause git to
190           auto-detect the number of CPU’s and set the number of threads
191           accordingly.
192
193       --index-version=<version>[,<offset>]
194           This is intended to be used by the test suite only. It allows to
195           force the version for the generated pack index, and to force 64-bit
196           index entries on objects located above the given offset.
197
198       --keep-true-parents
199           With this option, parents that are hidden by grafts are packed
200           nevertheless.
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AUTHOR

203       Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org[1]>
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DOCUMENTATION

206       Documentation by Junio C Hamano
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SEE ALSO

209       git-rev-list(1) git-repack(1) git-prune-packed(1)
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GIT

212       Part of the git(1) suite
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NOTES

215        1. torvalds@osdl.org
216           mailto:torvalds@osdl.org
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220Git 1.7.1                         08/16/2017               GIT-PACK-OBJECTS(1)
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