1GIT-BUNDLE(1) Git Manual GIT-BUNDLE(1)
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6 git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive
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9 git bundle create [-q | --quiet | --progress | --all-progress] [--all-progress-implied] <file> <git-rev-list-args>
10 git bundle verify [-q | --quiet] <file>
11 git bundle list-heads <file> [<refname>...]
12 git bundle unbundle <file> [<refname>...]
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15 Some workflows require that one or more branches of development on one
16 machine be replicated on another machine, but the two machines cannot
17 be directly connected, and therefore the interactive Git protocols
18 (git, ssh, http) cannot be used.
19 The git bundle command packages objects and references in an archive at
21 the originating machine, which can then be imported into another
22 repository using git fetch, git pull, or git clone, after moving the
23 archive by some means (e.g., by sneakernet).
24 As no direct connection between the repositories exists, the user must
26 specify a basis for the bundle that is held by the destination
27 repository: the bundle assumes that all objects in the basis are
28 already in the destination repository.
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31 create [options] <file> <git-rev-list-args>
32 Used to create a bundle named file. This requires the
33 <git-rev-list-args> arguments to define the bundle contents.
34 options contains the options specific to the git bundle create
35 subcommand.
36 verify <file>
38 Used to check that a bundle file is valid and will apply cleanly to
39 the current repository. This includes checks on the bundle format
40 itself as well as checking that the prerequisite commits exist and
41 are fully linked in the current repository. git bundle prints a
42 list of missing commits, if any, and exits with a non-zero status.
43 list-heads <file>
45 Lists the references defined in the bundle. If followed by a list
46 of references, only references matching those given are printed
47 out.
48 unbundle <file>
50 Passes the objects in the bundle to git index-pack for storage in
51 the repository, then prints the names of all defined references. If
52 a list of references is given, only references matching those in
53 the list are printed. This command is really plumbing, intended to
54 be called only by git fetch.
55 <git-rev-list-args>
57 A list of arguments, acceptable to git rev-parse and git rev-list
58 (and containing a named ref, see SPECIFYING REFERENCES below), that
59 specifies the specific objects and references to transport. For
60 example, master~10..master causes the current master reference to
61 be packaged along with all objects added since its 10th ancestor
62 commit. There is no explicit limit to the number of references and
63 objects that may be packaged.
64 [<refname>...]
66 A list of references used to limit the references reported as
67 available. This is principally of use to git fetch, which expects
68 to receive only those references asked for and not necessarily
69 everything in the pack (in this case, git bundle acts like git
70 fetch-pack).
71 --progress
73 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
74 when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This
75 flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream is
76 not directed to a terminal.
77 --all-progress
79 When --stdout is specified then progress report is displayed during
80 the object count and compression phases but inhibited during the
81 write-out phase. The reason is that in some cases the output stream
82 is directly linked to another command which may wish to display
83 progress status of its own as it processes incoming pack data. This
84 flag is like --progress except that it forces progress report for
85 the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is used.
86 --all-progress-implied
88 This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display is
89 activated. Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn’t actually force
90 any progress display by itself.
91 -q, --quiet
93 This flag makes the command not to report its progress on the
94 standard error stream.
95
97 git bundle will only package references that are shown by git show-ref:
98 this includes heads, tags, and remote heads. References such as
99 master~1 cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for defining
100 the basis. More than one reference may be packaged, and more than one
101 basis can be specified. The objects packaged are those not contained in
102 the union of the given bases. Each basis can be specified explicitly
103 (e.g. ^master~10), or implicitly (e.g. master~10..master,
104 --since=10.days.ago master).
105 It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination. It
107 is okay to err on the side of caution, causing the bundle file to
108 contain objects already in the destination, as these are ignored when
109 unpacking at the destination.
110 git clone can use any bundle created without negative refspecs (e.g.,
112 new, but not old..new). If you want to match git clone --mirror, which
113 would include your refs such as refs/remotes/*, use --all. If you want
114 to provide the same set of refs that a clone directly from the source
115 repository would get, use --branches --tags for the
116 <git-rev-list-args>.
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119 Assume you want to transfer the history from a repository R1 on machine
120 A to another repository R2 on machine B. For whatever reason, direct
121 connection between A and B is not allowed, but we can move data from A
122 to B via some mechanism (CD, email, etc.). We want to update R2 with
123 development made on the branch master in R1.
124 To bootstrap the process, you can first create a bundle that does not
126 have any basis. You can use a tag to remember up to what commit you
127 last processed, in order to make it easy to later update the other
128 repository with an incremental bundle:
129 machineA$ cd R1
131 machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle master
132 machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
133 Then you transfer file.bundle to the target machine B. Because this
135 bundle does not require any existing object to be extracted, you can
136 create a new repository on machine B by cloning from it:
137 machineB$ git clone -b master /home/me/tmp/file.bundle R2
139 This will define a remote called "origin" in the resulting repository
141 that lets you fetch and pull from the bundle. The $GIT_DIR/config file
142 in R2 will have an entry like this:
143 [remote "origin"]
145 url = /home/me/tmp/file.bundle
146 fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
147 To update the resulting mine.git repository, you can fetch or pull
149 after replacing the bundle stored at /home/me/tmp/file.bundle with
150 incremental updates.
151 After working some more in the original repository, you can create an
153 incremental bundle to update the other repository:
154 machineA$ cd R1
156 machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle lastR2bundle..master
157 machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
158 You then transfer the bundle to the other machine to replace
160 /home/me/tmp/file.bundle, and pull from it.
161 machineB$ cd R2
163 machineB$ git pull
164 If you know up to what commit the intended recipient repository should
166 have the necessary objects, you can use that knowledge to specify the
167 basis, giving a cut-off point to limit the revisions and objects that
168 go in the resulting bundle. The previous example used the lastR2bundle
169 tag for this purpose, but you can use any other options that you would
170 give to the git-log(1) command. Here are more examples:
171 You can use a tag that is present in both:
173 $ git bundle create mybundle v1.0.0..master
175 You can use a basis based on time:
177 $ git bundle create mybundle --since=10.days master
179 You can use the number of commits:
181 $ git bundle create mybundle -10 master
183 You can run git-bundle verify to see if you can extract from a bundle
185 that was created with a basis:
186 $ git bundle verify mybundle
188 This will list what commits you must have in order to extract from the
190 bundle and will error out if you do not have them.
191 A bundle from a recipient repository’s point of view is just like a
193 regular repository which it fetches or pulls from. You can, for
194 example, map references when fetching:
195 $ git fetch mybundle master:localRef
197 You can also see what references it offers:
199 $ git ls-remote mybundle
201
203 Part of the git(1) suite
204Git 2.26.2 2020-04-20 GIT-BUNDLE(1)