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>] [--] <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 NOTE: this operation can race with concurrent modification to the
51 source repository, similar to running cp -r src dst while modifying
52 src.
53 --no-hardlinks
55 Force the cloning process from a repository on a local filesystem
56 to copy the files under the .git/objects directory instead of using
57 hardlinks. This may be desirable if you are trying to make a
58 back-up of your repository.
59 -s, --shared
61 When the repository to clone is on the local machine, instead of
62 using hard links, automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates
63 to share the objects with the source repository. The resulting
64 repository starts out without any object of its own.
65 NOTE: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do not use it unless
67 you understand what it does. If you clone your repository using
68 this option and then delete branches (or use any other Git command
69 that makes any existing commit unreferenced) in the source
70 repository, some objects may become unreferenced (or dangling).
71 These objects may be removed by normal Git operations (such as git
72 commit) which automatically call git maintenance run --auto. (See
73 git-maintenance(1).) If these objects are removed and were
74 referenced by the cloned repository, then the cloned repository
75 will become corrupt.
76 Note that running git repack without the --local option in a
78 repository cloned with --shared will copy objects from the source
79 repository into a pack in the cloned repository, removing the disk
80 space savings of clone --shared. It is safe, however, to run git
81 gc, which uses the --local option by default.
82 If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned with
84 --shared on its source repository, you can simply run git repack -a
85 to copy all objects from the source repository into a pack in the
86 cloned repository.
87 --reference[-if-able] <repository>
89 If the reference repository is on the local machine, automatically
90 setup .git/objects/info/alternates to obtain objects from the
91 reference repository. Using an already existing repository as an
92 alternate will require fewer objects to be copied from the
93 repository being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs.
94 When using the --reference-if-able, a non existing directory is
95 skipped with a warning instead of aborting the clone.
96 NOTE: see the NOTE for the --shared option, and also the
98 --dissociate option.
99 --dissociate
101 Borrow the objects from reference repositories specified with the
102 --reference options only to reduce network transfer, and stop
103 borrowing from them after a clone is made by making necessary local
104 copies of borrowed objects. This option can also be used when
105 cloning locally from a repository that already borrows objects from
106 another repository—the new repository will borrow objects from the
107 same repository, and this option can be used to stop the borrowing.
108 -q, --quiet
110 Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard error
111 stream.
112 -v, --verbose
114 Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress status to
115 the standard error stream.
116 --progress
118 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
119 when it is attached to a terminal, unless --quiet is specified.
120 This flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream
121 is not directed to a terminal.
122 --server-option=<option>
124 Transmit the given string to the server when communicating using
125 protocol version 2. The given string must not contain a NUL or LF
126 character. The server’s handling of server options, including
127 unknown ones, is server-specific. When multiple
128 --server-option=<option> are given, they are all sent to the other
129 side in the order listed on the command line.
130 -n, --no-checkout
132 No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.
133 --[no-]reject-shallow
135 Fail if the source repository is a shallow repository. The
136 clone.rejectShallow configuration variable can be used to specify
137 the default.
138 --bare
140 Make a bare Git repository. That is, instead of creating
141 <directory> and placing the administrative files in
142 <directory>/.git, make the <directory> itself the $GIT_DIR. This
143 obviously implies the --no-checkout because there is nowhere to
144 check out the working tree. Also the branch heads at the remote are
145 copied directly to corresponding local branch heads, without
146 mapping them to refs/remotes/origin/. When this option is used,
147 neither remote-tracking branches nor the related configuration
148 variables are created.
149 --sparse
151 Initialize the sparse-checkout file so the working directory starts
152 with only the files in the root of the repository. The
153 sparse-checkout file can be modified to grow the working directory
154 as needed.
155 --filter=<filter-spec>
157 Use the partial clone feature and request that the server sends a
158 subset of reachable objects according to a given object filter.
159 When using --filter, the supplied <filter-spec> is used for the
160 partial clone filter. For example, --filter=blob:none will filter
161 out all blobs (file contents) until needed by Git. Also,
162 --filter=blob:limit=<size> will filter out all blobs of size at
163 least <size>. For more details on filter specifications, see the
164 --filter option in git-rev-list(1).
165 --mirror
167 Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies --bare.
168 Compared to --bare, --mirror not only maps local branches of the
169 source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including
170 remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec
171 configuration such that all these refs are overwritten by a git
172 remote update in the target repository.
173 -o <name>, --origin <name>
175 Instead of using the remote name origin to keep track of the
176 upstream repository, use <name>. Overrides clone.defaultRemoteName
177 from the config.
178 -b <name>, --branch <name>
180 Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed to
181 by the cloned repository’s HEAD, point to <name> branch instead. In
182 a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will be checked out.
183 --branch can also take tags and detaches the HEAD at that commit in
184 the resulting repository.
185 -u <upload-pack>, --upload-pack <upload-pack>
187 When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed via ssh,
188 this specifies a non-default path for the command run on the other
189 end.
190 --template=<template_directory>
192 Specify the directory from which templates will be used; (See the
193 "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of git-init(1).)
194 -c <key>=<value>, --config <key>=<value>
196 Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository; this
197 takes effect immediately after the repository is initialized, but
198 before the remote history is fetched or any files checked out. The
199 key is in the same format as expected by git-config(1) (e.g.,
200 core.eol=true). If multiple values are given for the same key, each
201 value will be written to the config file. This makes it safe, for
202 example, to add additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote.
203 Due to limitations of the current implementation, some
205 configuration variables do not take effect until after the initial
206 fetch and checkout. Configuration variables known to not take
207 effect are: remote.<name>.mirror and remote.<name>.tagOpt. Use the
208 corresponding --mirror and --no-tags options instead.
209 --depth <depth>
211 Create a shallow clone with a history truncated to the specified
212 number of commits. Implies --single-branch unless
213 --no-single-branch is given to fetch the histories near the tips of
214 all branches. If you want to clone submodules shallowly, also pass
215 --shallow-submodules.
216 --shallow-since=<date>
218 Create a shallow clone with a history after the specified time.
219 --shallow-exclude=<revision>
221 Create a shallow clone with a history, excluding commits reachable
222 from a specified remote branch or tag. This option can be specified
223 multiple times.
224 --[no-]single-branch
226 Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch,
227 either specified by the --branch option or the primary branch
228 remote’s HEAD points at. Further fetches into the resulting
229 repository will only update the remote-tracking branch for the
230 branch this option was used for the initial cloning. If the HEAD at
231 the remote did not point at any branch when --single-branch clone
232 was made, no remote-tracking branch is created.
233 --no-tags
235 Don’t clone any tags, and set remote.<remote>.tagOpt=--no-tags in
236 the config, ensuring that future git pull and git fetch operations
237 won’t follow any tags. Subsequent explicit tag fetches will still
238 work, (see git-fetch(1)).
239 Can be used in conjunction with --single-branch to clone and
241 maintain a branch with no references other than a single cloned
242 branch. This is useful e.g. to maintain minimal clones of the
243 default branch of some repository for search indexing.
244 --recurse-submodules[=<pathspec>]
246 After the clone is created, initialize and clone submodules within
247 based on the provided pathspec. If no pathspec is provided, all
248 submodules are initialized and cloned. This option can be given
249 multiple times for pathspecs consisting of multiple entries. The
250 resulting clone has submodule.active set to the provided pathspec,
251 or "." (meaning all submodules) if no pathspec is provided.
252 Submodules are initialized and cloned using their default settings.
254 This is equivalent to running git submodule update --init
255 --recursive <pathspec> immediately after the clone is finished.
256 This option is ignored if the cloned repository does not have a
257 worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of --no-checkout/-n, --bare, or
258 --mirror is given)
259 --[no-]shallow-submodules
261 All submodules which are cloned will be shallow with a depth of 1.
262 --[no-]remote-submodules
264 All submodules which are cloned will use the status of the
265 submodule’s remote-tracking branch to update the submodule, rather
266 than the superproject’s recorded SHA-1. Equivalent to passing
267 --remote to git submodule update.
268 --separate-git-dir=<git dir>
270 Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed to
271 be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory, then
272 make a filesystem-agnostic Git symbolic link to there. The result
273 is Git repository can be separated from working tree.
274 -j <n>, --jobs <n>
276 The number of submodules fetched at the same time. Defaults to the
277 submodule.fetchJobs option.
278 <repository>
280 The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. See the GIT URLS
281 section below for more information on specifying repositories.
282 <directory>
284 The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" part of
285 the source repository is used if no directory is explicitly given
286 (repo for /path/to/repo.git and foo for host.xz:foo/.git). Cloning
287 into an existing directory is only allowed if the directory is
288 empty.
289
291 In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol, the
292 address of the remote server, and the path to the repository. Depending
293 on the transport protocol, some of this information may be absent.
294 Git supports ssh, git, http, and https protocols (in addition, ftp, and
296 ftps can be used for fetching, but this is inefficient and deprecated;
297 do not use it).
298 The native transport (i.e. git:// URL) does no authentication and
300 should be used with caution on unsecured networks.
301 The following syntaxes may be used with them:
303 • ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
305 • git://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
307 • http[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
309 • ftp[s]://host.xz[:port]/path/to/repo.git/
311 An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh protocol:
313 • [user@]host.xz:path/to/repo.git/
315 This syntax is only recognized if there are no slashes before the first
317 colon. This helps differentiate a local path that contains a colon. For
318 example the local path foo:bar could be specified as an absolute path
319 or ./foo:bar to avoid being misinterpreted as an ssh url.
320 The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~username expansion:
322 • ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
324 • git://host.xz[:port]/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
326 • [user@]host.xz:/~[user]/path/to/repo.git/
328 For local repositories, also supported by Git natively, the following
330 syntaxes may be used:
331 • /path/to/repo.git/
333 • file:///path/to/repo.git/
335 These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except the former implies
337 --local option.
338 git clone, git fetch and git pull, but not git push, will also accept a
340 suitable bundle file. See git-bundle(1).
341 When Git doesn’t know how to handle a certain transport protocol, it
343 attempts to use the remote-<transport> remote helper, if one exists. To
344 explicitly request a remote helper, the following syntax may be used:
345 • <transport>::<address>
347 where <address> may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary
349 URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being invoked.
350 See gitremote-helpers(7) for details.
351 If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories and
353 you want to use a different format for them (such that the URLs you use
354 will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can create a configuration
355 section of the form:
356 [url "<actual url base>"]
358 insteadOf = <other url base>
359 For example, with this:
361 [url "git://git.host.xz/"]
363 insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
364 insteadOf = work:
365 a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be
367 rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
368 "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
369 If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
371 configuration section of the form:
372 [url "<actual url base>"]
374 pushInsteadOf = <other url base>
375 For example, with this:
377 [url "ssh://example.org/"]
379 pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
380 a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten to
382 "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will still
383 use the original URL.
384
386 • Clone from upstream:
387 $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git my-linux
389 $ cd my-linux
390 $ make
391 • Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory, without
393 checking things out:
394 $ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
396 $ cd ../copy
397 $ git show-branch
398 • Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local
400 directory:
401 $ git clone --reference /git/linux.git \
403 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git \
404 my-linux
405 $ cd my-linux
406 • Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:
408 $ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git
410
412 Part of the git(1) suite
413Git 2.33.1 2021-10-12 GIT-CLONE(1)