1GIT-CLONE(1) Git Manual GIT-CLONE(1)
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6 git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory
7
9 git clone [--template=<template-directory>]
10 [-l] [-s] [--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror]
11 [-o <name>] [-b <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>]
12 [--dissociate] [--separate-git-dir <git-dir>]
13 [--depth <depth>] [--[no-]single-branch] [--no-tags]
14 [--recurse-submodules[=<pathspec>]] [--[no-]shallow-submodules]
15 [--[no-]remote-submodules] [--jobs <n>] [--sparse] [--[no-]reject-shallow]
16 [--filter=<filter> [--also-filter-submodules]] [--] <repository>
17 [<directory>]
18
20 Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates
21 remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository
22 (visible using git branch --remotes), and creates and checks out an
23 initial branch that is forked from the cloned repository’s currently
24 active branch.
25 After the clone, a plain git fetch without arguments will update all
27 the remote-tracking branches, and a git pull without arguments will in
28 addition merge the remote master branch into the current master branch,
29 if any (this is untrue when "--single-branch" is given; see below).
30 This default configuration is achieved by creating references to the
32 remote branch heads under refs/remotes/origin and by initializing
33 remote.origin.url and remote.origin.fetch configuration variables.
34
36 -l, --local
37 When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, this flag
38 bypasses the normal "Git aware" transport mechanism and clones the
39 repository by making a copy of HEAD and everything under objects
40 and refs directories. The files under .git/objects/ directory are
41 hardlinked to save space when possible.
42 If the repository is specified as a local path (e.g.,
44 /path/to/repo), this is the default, and --local is essentially a
45 no-op. If the repository is specified as a URL, then this flag is
46 ignored (and we never use the local optimizations). Specifying
47 --no-local will override the default when /path/to/repo is given,
48 using the regular Git transport instead.
49 If the repository’s $GIT_DIR/objects has symbolic links or is a
51 symbolic link, the clone will fail. This is a security measure to
52 prevent the unintentional copying of files by dereferencing the
53 symbolic links.
54 NOTE: this operation can race with concurrent modification to the
56 source repository, similar to running cp -r src dst while modifying
57 src.
58 --no-hardlinks
60 Force the cloning process from a repository on a local filesystem
61 to copy the files under the .git/objects directory instead of using
62 hardlinks. This may be desirable if you are trying to make a
63 back-up of your repository.
64 -s, --shared
66 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, instead of
67 using hard links, automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates
68 to share the objects with the source repository. The resulting
69 repository starts out without any object of its own.
70 NOTE: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do not use it unless
72 you understand what it does. If you clone your repository using
73 this option and then delete branches (or use any other Git command
74 that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the source
75 repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling).
76 These objects may be removed by normal Git operations (such as git
77 commit) which automatically call git maintenance run --auto. (See
78 git-maintenance(1).) If these objects are removed and were
79 referenced by the cloned repository, then the cloned repository
80 will become corrupt.
81 Note that running git repack without the --local option in a
83 repository cloned with --shared will copy objects from the source
84 repository into a pack in the cloned repository, removing the disk
85 space savings of clone --shared. It is safe, however, to run git
86 gc, which uses the --local option by default.
87 If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with
89 --shared on its source repository, you can simply run git repack -a
90 to copy all objects from the source repository into a pack in the
91 cloned repository.
92 --reference[-if-able] <repository>
94 If the reference repository is on the local machine, automatically
95 setup .git/objects/info/alternates to obtain objects from the
96 reference repository. Using an already existing repository as an
97 alternate will require fewer objects to be copied from the
98 repository being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs.
99 When using the --reference-if-able, a non existing directory is
100 skipped with a warning instead of aborting the clone.
101 NOTE: see the NOTE for the --shared option, and also the
103 --dissociate option.
104 --dissociate
106 Borrow the objects from reference repositories specified with the
107 --reference options only to reduce network transfer, and stop
108 borrowing from them after a clone is made by making necessary local
109 copies of borrowed objects. This option can also be used when
110 cloning locally from a repository that already borrows objects from
111 another repository—the new repository will borrow objects from the
112 same repository, and this option can be used to stop the borrowing.
113 -q, --quiet
115 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard error
116 stream.
117 -v, --verbose
119 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status to
120 the standard error stream.
121 --progress
123 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
124 when it is attached to a terminal, unless --quiet is specified.
125 This flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream
126 is not directed to a terminal.
127 --server-option=<option>
129 Transmit the given string to the server when communicating using
130 protocol version 2. The given string must not contain a NUL or LF
131 character. The server’s handling of server options, including
132 unknown ones, is server-specific. When multiple
133 --server-option=<option> are given, they are all sent to the other
134 side in the order listed on the command line.
135 -n, --no-checkout
137 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
138 --[no-]reject-shallow
140 Fail if the source repository is a shallow repository. The
141 clone.rejectShallow configuration variable can be used to specify
142 the default.
143 --bare
145 Make a bare Git repository. That is, instead of creating
146 <directory> and placing the administrative files in
147 <directory>/.git, make the <directory> itself the $GIT_DIR. This
148 obviously implies the --no-checkout because there is nowhere to
149 check out the working tree. Also the branch heads at the remote are
150 copied directly to corresponding local branch heads, without
151 mapping them to refs/remotes/origin/. When this option is used,
152 neither remote-tracking branches nor the related configuration
153 variables are created.
154 --sparse
156 Employ a sparse-checkout, with only files in the toplevel directory
157 initially being present. The git-sparse-checkout(1) command can be
158 used to grow the working directory as needed.
159 --filter=<filter-spec>
161 Use the partial clone feature and request that the server sends a
162 subset of reachable objects according to a given object filter.
163 When using --filter, the supplied <filter-spec> is used for the
164 partial clone filter. For example, --filter=blob:none will filter
165 out all blobs (file contents) until needed by Git. Also,
166 --filter=blob:limit=<size> will filter out all blobs of size at
167 least <size>. For more details on filter specifications, see the
168 --filter option in git-rev-list(1).
169 --also-filter-submodules
171 Also apply the partial clone filter to any submodules in the
172 repository. Requires --filter and --recurse-submodules. This can be
173 turned on by default by setting the clone.filterSubmodules config
174 option.
175 --mirror
177 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies --bare.
178 Compared to --bare, --mirror not only maps local branches of the
179 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including
180 remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec
181 configuration such that all these refs are overwritten by a git
182 remote update in the target repository.
183 -o <name>, --origin <name>
185 Instead of using the remote name origin to keep track of the
186 upstream repository, use <name>. Overrides clone.defaultRemoteName
187 from the config.
188 -b <name>, --branch <name>
190 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed to
191 by the cloned repository’s HEAD, point to <name> branch instead. In
192 a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will be checked out.
193 --branch can also take tags and detaches the HEAD at that commit in
194 the resulting repository.
195 -u <upload-pack>, --upload-pack <upload-pack>
197 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed via ssh,
198 this specifies a non-default path for the command run on the other
199 end.
200 --template=<template-directory>
202 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; (See the
203 "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of git-init(1).)
204 -c <key>=<value>, --config <key>=<value>
206 Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; this
207 takes effect immediately after the repository is initialized, but
208 before the remote history is fetched or any files checked out. The
209 key is in the same format as expected by git-config(1) (e.g.,
210 core.eol=true). If multiple values are given for the same key, each
211 value will be written to the config file. This makes it safe, for
212 example, to add additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote.
213 Due to limitations of the current implementation, some
215 configuration variables do not take effect until after the initial
216 fetch and checkout. Configuration variables known to not take
217 effect are: remote.<name>.mirror and remote.<name>.tagOpt. Use the
218 corresponding --mirror and --no-tags options instead.
219 --depth <depth>
221 Create a shallow clone with a history truncated to the specified
222 number of commits. Implies --single-branch unless
223 --no-single-branch is given to fetch the histories near the tips of
224 all branches. If you want to clone submodules shallowly, also pass
225 --shallow-submodules.
226 --shallow-since=<date>
228 Create a shallow clone with a history after the specified time.
229 --shallow-exclude=<revision>
231 Create a shallow clone with a history, excluding commits reachable
232 from a specified remote branch or tag. This option can be specified
233 multiple times.
234 --[no-]single-branch
236 Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch,
237 either specified by the --branch option or the primary branch
238 remote’s HEAD points at. Further fetches into the resulting
239 repository will only update the remote-tracking branch for the
240 branch this option was used for the initial cloning. If the HEAD at
241 the remote did not point at any branch when --single-branch clone
242 was made, no remote-tracking branch is created.
243 --no-tags
245 Don’t clone any tags, and set remote.<remote>.tagOpt=--no-tags in
246 the config, ensuring that future git pull and git fetch operations
247 won’t follow any tags. Subsequent explicit tag fetches will still
248 work, (see git-fetch(1)).
249 Can be used in conjunction with --single-branch to clone and
251 maintain a branch with no references other than a single cloned
252 branch. This is useful e.g. to maintain minimal clones of the
253 default branch of some repository for search indexing.
254 --recurse-submodules[=<pathspec>]
256 After the clone is created, initialize and clone submodules within
257 based on the provided pathspec. If no pathspec is provided, all
258 submodules are initialized and cloned. This option can be given
259 multiple times for pathspecs consisting of multiple entries. The
260 resulting clone has submodule.active set to the provided pathspec,
261 or "." (meaning all submodules) if no pathspec is provided.
262 Submodules are initialized and cloned using their default settings.
264 This is equivalent to running git submodule update --init
265 --recursive <pathspec> immediately after the clone is finished.
266 This option is ignored if the cloned repository does not have a
267 worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of --no-checkout/-n, --bare, or
268 --mirror is given)
269 --[no-]shallow-submodules
271 All submodules which are cloned will be shallow with a depth of 1.
272 --[no-]remote-submodules
274 All submodules which are cloned will use the status of the
275 submodule’s remote-tracking branch to update the submodule, rather
276 than the superproject’s recorded SHA-1. Equivalent to passing
277 --remote to git submodule update.
278 --separate-git-dir=<git-dir>
280 Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed to
281 be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, then
282 make a filesystem-agnostic Git symbolic link to there. The result
283 is Git repository can be separated from working tree.
284 -j <n>, --jobs <n>
286 The number of submodules fetched at the same time. Defaults to the
287 submodule.fetchJobs option.
288 <repository>
290 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the GIT URLS
291 section below for more information on specifying repositories.
292 <directory>
294 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" part of
295 the source repository is used if no directory is explicitly given
296 (repo for /path/to/repo.git and foo for host.xz:foo/.git). Cloning
297 into an existing directory is only allowed if the directory is
298 empty.
299 --bundle-uri=<uri>
301 Before fetching from the remote, fetch a bundle from the given
302 <uri> and unbundle the data into the local repository. The refs in
303 the bundle will be stored under the hidden refs/bundle/* namespace.
304 This option is incompatible with --depth, --shallow-since, and
305 --shallow-exclude.
306
308 In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol, the
309 address of the remote server, and the path to the repository. Depending
310 on the transport protocol, some of this information may be absent.
311 Git supports ssh, git, http, and https protocols (in addition, ftp and
313 ftps can be used for fetching, but this is inefficient and deprecated;
314 do not use them).
315 The native transport (i.e. git:// URL) does no authentication and
317 should be used with caution on unsecured networks.
318 The following syntaxes may be used with them:
320 • ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
322 • git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
324 • http[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
326 • ftp[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
328 An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh protocol:
330 • [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git/
332 This syntax is only recognized if there are no slashes before the first
334 colon. This helps differentiate a local path that contains a colon. For
335 example the local path foo:bar could be specified as an absolute path
336 or ./foo:bar to avoid being misinterpreted as an ssh url.
337 The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username expansion:
339 • ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
341 • git://host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
343 • [user@]host.xz:/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
345 For local repositories, also supported by Git natively, the following
347 syntaxes may be used:
348 • /path/to/repo.git/
350 • file:///path/to/repo.git/
352 These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except the former implies
354 --local option.
355 git clone, git fetch and git pull, but not git push, will also accept a
357 suitable bundle file. See git-bundle(1).
358 When Git doesn’t know how to handle a certain transport protocol, it
360 attempts to use the remote-<transport> remote helper, if one exists. To
361 explicitly request a remote helper, the following syntax may be used:
362 • <transport>::<address>
364 where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary
366 URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being invoked.
367 See gitremote-helpers(7) for details.
368 If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories and
370 you want to use a different format for them (such that the URLs you use
371 will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can create a configuration
372 section of the form:
373 [url "<actual url base>"]
375 insteadOf = <other url base>
376 For example, with this:
378 [url "git://git.host.xz/"]
380 insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
381 insteadOf = work:
382 a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be
384 rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
385 "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
386 If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
388 configuration section of the form:
389 [url "<actual url base>"]
391 pushInsteadOf = <other url base>
392 For example, with this:
394 [url "ssh://example.org/"]
396 pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
397 a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten to
399 "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will still
400 use the original URL.
401
403 • Clone from upstream:
404 $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git my-linux
406 $ cd my-linux
407 $ make
408 • Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without
410 checking things out:
411 $ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
413 $ cd ../copy
414 $ git show-branch
415 • Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local
417 directory:
418 $ git clone --reference /git/linux.git \
420 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git \
421 my-linux
422 $ cd my-linux
423 • Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:
425 $ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git
427
429 Everything below this line in this section is selectively included from
430 the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as what’s
431 found there:
432 init.templateDir
434 Specify the directory from which templates will be copied. (See the
435 "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of git-init(1).)
436 init.defaultBranch
438 Allows overriding the default branch name e.g. when initializing a
439 new repository.
440 clone.defaultRemoteName
442 The name of the remote to create when cloning a repository.
443 Defaults to origin, and can be overridden by passing the --origin
444 command-line option to git-clone(1).
445 clone.rejectShallow
447 Reject cloning a repository if it is a shallow one; this can be
448 overridden by passing the --reject-shallow option on the command
449 line. See git-clone(1)
450 clone.filterSubmodules
452 If a partial clone filter is provided (see --filter in git-rev-
453 list(1)) and --recurse-submodules is used, also apply the filter to
454 submodules.
455
457 Part of the git(1) suite
458Git 2.43.0 11/20/2023 GIT-CLONE(1)