1GIT-GC(1) Git Manual GIT-GC(1)
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6 git-gc - Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository
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9 git gc [--aggressive] [--auto] [--quiet] [--prune=<date> | --no-prune]
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12 Runs a number of housekeeping tasks within the current repository, such
13 as compressing file revisions (to reduce disk space and increase
14 performance) and removing unreachable objects which may have been
15 created from prior invocations of git add.
16 Users are encouraged to run this task on a regular basis within each
18 repository to maintain good disk space utilization and good operating
19 performance.
20 Some git commands may automatically run git gc; see the --auto flag
22 below for details. If you know what you’re doing and all you want is to
23 disable this behavior permanently without further considerations, just
24 do:
25 $ git config --global gc.auto 0
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30 --aggressive
31 Usually git gc runs very quickly while providing good disk space
32 utilization and performance. This option will cause git gc to more
33 aggressively optimize the repository at the expense of taking much
34 more time. The effects of this optimization are persistent, so this
35 option only needs to be used occasionally; every few hundred
36 changesets or so.
37 --auto
39 With this option, git gc checks whether any housekeeping is
40 required; if not, it exits without performing any work. Some git
41 commands run git gc --auto after performing operations that could
42 create many loose objects.
43 Housekeeping is required if there are too many loose objects or too
45 many packs in the repository. If the number of loose objects
46 exceeds the value of the gc.auto configuration variable, then all
47 loose objects are combined into a single pack using git repack -d
48 -l. Setting the value of gc.auto to 0 disables automatic packing of
49 loose objects.
50 If the number of packs exceeds the value of gc.autopacklimit, then
52 existing packs (except those marked with a .keep file) are
53 consolidated into a single pack by using the -A option of git
54 repack. Setting gc.autopacklimit to 0 disables automatic
55 consolidation of packs.
56 --prune=<date>
58 Prune loose objects older than date (default is 2 weeks ago,
59 overridable by the config variable gc.pruneExpire). This option is
60 on by default.
61 --no-prune
63 Do not prune any loose objects.
64 --quiet
66 Suppress all progress reports.
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69 The optional configuration variable gc.reflogExpire can be set to
70 indicate how long historical entries within each branch’s reflog should
71 remain available in this repository. The setting is expressed as a
72 length of time, for example 90 days or 3 months. It defaults to 90
73 days.
74 The optional configuration variable gc.reflogExpireUnreachable can be
76 set to indicate how long historical reflog entries which are not part
77 of the current branch should remain available in this repository. These
78 types of entries are generally created as a result of using git commit
79 --amend or git rebase and are the commits prior to the amend or rebase
80 occurring. Since these changes are not part of the current project most
81 users will want to expire them sooner. This option defaults to 30 days.
82 The above two configuration variables can be given to a pattern. For
84 example, this sets non-default expiry values only to remote-tracking
85 branches:
86 [gc "refs/remotes/*"]
88 reflogExpire = never
89 reflogexpireUnreachable = 3 days
90 The optional configuration variable gc.rerereresolved indicates how
93 long records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are kept. This
94 defaults to 60 days.
95 The optional configuration variable gc.rerereunresolved indicates how
97 long records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are kept. This
98 defaults to 15 days.
99 The optional configuration variable gc.packrefs determines if git gc
101 runs git pack-refs. This can be set to "notbare" to enable it within
102 all non-bare repos or it can be set to a boolean value. This defaults
103 to true.
104 The optional configuration variable gc.aggressiveWindow controls how
106 much time is spent optimizing the delta compression of the objects in
107 the repository when the --aggressive option is specified. The larger
108 the value, the more time is spent optimizing the delta compression. See
109 the documentation for the --window' option in git-repack(1) for more
110 details. This defaults to 250.
111 The optional configuration variable gc.pruneExpire controls how old the
113 unreferenced loose objects have to be before they are pruned. The
114 default is "2 weeks ago".
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117 git gc tries very hard to be safe about the garbage it collects. In
118 particular, it will keep not only objects referenced by your current
119 set of branches and tags, but also objects referenced by the index,
120 remote-tracking branches, refs saved by git filter-branch in
121 refs/original/, or reflogs (which may reference commits in branches
122 that were later amended or rewound).
123 If you are expecting some objects to be collected and they aren’t,
125 check all of those locations and decide whether it makes sense in your
126 case to remove those references.
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129 The git gc --auto command will run the pre-auto-gc hook. See
130 githooks(5) for more information.
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133 git-prune(1) git-reflog(1) git-repack(1) git-rerere(1)
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136 Written by Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org[1]>
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139 Part of the git(1) suite
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142 1. spearce@spearce.org
143 mailto:spearce@spearce.org
144Git 1.7.4.4 04/11/2011 GIT-GC(1)