1GIT-LFS-MIGRATE(1) General Commands Manual GIT-LFS-MIGRATE(1)
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6 git-lfs-migrate - Migrate history to or from Git LFS
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9 git lfs migrate mode [options] [--] [branch ...]
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12 Convert files in a Git repository to or from Git LFS pointers, or sum‐
13 marize Git file sizes by file type. The import mode converts Git files
14 (i.e., blobs) to Git LFS, while the export mode does the reverse, and
15 the info mode provides an informational summary which may be useful in
16 deciding which files to import or export.
17 In all modes, by default git lfs migrate operates only on the currently
19 checked-out branch, and only on files (of any size and type) added in
20 commits which do not exist on any remote. Multiple options are avail‐
21 able to override these defaults.
22 When converting files to or from Git LFS, the git lfs migrate command
24 will only make changes to your local repository and working copy, never
25 any remotes. This is intentional as the import and export modes are
26 generally "destructive" in the sense that they rewrite your Git his‐
27 tory, changing commits and generating new commit SHAs. (The exception
28 is the "no-rewrite" import sub-mode; see [IMPORT (NO REWRITE)] for de‐
29 tails.)
30 You should therefore always first commit or stash any uncommitted work
32 before using the import or export modes, and then validate the result
33 of the migration before pushing the changes to your remotes, for in‐
34 stance by running the info mode and by examining your rewritten commit
35 history.
36 Once you are satisfied with the changes, you will need to force-push
38 the new Git history of any rewritten branches to all your remotes. This
39 is a step which should be taken with care, since you will be altering
40 the Git history on your remotes.
41 To examine or modify files in branches other than the currently
43 checked-out one, branch refs may be specified directly, or provided in
44 one or more --include-ref options. They may also be excluded by prefix‐
45 ing them with ^ or providing them in --exclude-ref options. Use the
46 --everything option to specify that all refs should be examined, in‐
47 cluding all remote refs. See [INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE (REFS)] for details.
48 For the info and import modes, all file types are considered by de‐
50 fault; while useful in the info mode, this is often not desirable when
51 importing, so either filename patterns (pathspecs) or the --fixup op‐
52 tion should normally be specified in that case. (At least one include
53 pathspec is required for the export mode.) Pathspecs may be defined us‐
54 ing the --include and --exclude options (-I and -X for short), as de‐
55 scribed in INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE.
56 As typical Git LFS usage depends on tracking specific file types using
58 filename patterns defined in .gitattributes files, the git lfs migrate
59 command will examine, create, and modify .gitattributes files as neces‐
60 sary.
61 The import mode (see IMPORT) will convert Git objects of the file types
63 specified (e.g., with --include) to Git LFS pointers, and will add en‐
64 tries for those file types to .gitattributes files, creating those
65 files if they do not exist. The result should be as if git lfs track
66 commands had been run at the points in your Git history corresponding
67 to where each type of converted file first appears. The exception is if
68 the --fixup option is given, in which case the import mode will only
69 examine any existing .gitattributes files and then convert Git objects
70 which should be tracked by Git LFS but are not yet.
71 The export mode (see EXPORT) works as the reverse operation to the im‐
73 port mode, converting any Git LFS pointers that match the file types
74 specified with --include, which must be given at least once. Note that
75 .gitattributes entries will not be removed, nor will the files; in‐
76 stead, the export mode inserts "do not track" entries similar to those
77 created by the git lfs untrack command. The --remote option is avail‐
78 able in the export mode to specify the remote from which Git LFS ob‐
79 jects should be fetched if they do not exist in the local Git LFS ob‐
80 ject cache; if not provided, origin is used by default.
81 The info mode (see INFO) summarizes by file type (i.e., by filename ex‐
83 tension) the total number and size of files in a repository. Note that
84 like the other two modes, by default the info mode operates only on the
85 currently checked-out branch and only on commits which do not exist on
86 any remote, so to get a summary of the entire repository across all
87 branches, use the --everything option. If objects have already been
88 converted to Git LFS pointers, then by default the size of the refer‐
89 enced objects is totaled and reported separately. You may also choose
90 to ignore them by using --pointers=ignore or to treat the pointers as
91 files by using --pointers=no-follow. (The latter option is akin to how
92 existing Git LFS pointers were handled by the info mode in prior ver‐
93 sions of Git LFS).
94 When using the --everything option, take note that it means all refs
96 (local and remote) will be considered, but not necessarily all file
97 types. The import and info modes consider all file types by default,
98 although the --include and --exclude options constrain this behavior.
99 Also note that after importing across all branches with the --every‐
100 thing option (and then checking to ensure the results are satisfac‐
101 tory!) it may be convenient to update multiple branches on your remotes
102 by using the --all option to git push.
103 Unless the --skip-fetch option is given, git lfs migrate always begins
105 by fetching updated lists of refs from all the remotes returned by git
106 remote, but as noted above, after making changes to your local Git his‐
107 tory while converting objects, it will never automatically push those
108 changes to your remotes.
109
111 ○ info Show information about repository size. See INFO.
112 ○ import Convert Git objects to Git LFS pointers. See IMPORT and [IM‐
114 PORT (NO REWRITE)].
115 ○ export Convert Git LFS pointers to Git objects. See EXPORT.
117
121 -I paths --include=paths
122 See INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE.
123 -X paths --exclude=paths
125 See INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE.
126 --include-ref=refname
128 See [INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE (REFS)].
129 --exclude-ref=refname
131 See [INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE (REFS)].
132 --skip-fetch
134 Assumes that the known set of remote references is complete, and
135 should not be refreshed when determining the set of "un-pushed"
136 commits to migrate. Has no effect when combined with --in‐
137 clude-ref or --exclude-ref.
138 --everything
140 See [INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE (REFS)].
141 Note: Git refs are "case-sensitive" on all platforms in "packed
143 from" (see git-pack-refs(1)). On "case-insensitive" file sys‐
144 tems, e.g. NTFS on Windows or default APFS on macOS, git-lfs-mi‐
145 grate(1) would only migrate the first ref if two or more refs
146 are equal except for upper/lower case letters.
147 --yes Assume a yes answer to any prompts, permitting noninteractive
149 use. Currently, the only such prompt is the one asking whether
150 to overwrite (destroy) any working copy changes. Thus, specify‐
151 ing this option may cause data loss if you are not careful.
152 [branch ...]
154 Migrate only the set of branches listed. If not given,
155 git-lfs-migrate(1) will migrate the currently checked out
156 branch.
157 References beginning with ^ will be excluded, whereas branches
159 that do not begin with ^ will be included.
160 If any of --include-ref or --exclude-ref are given, the checked
162 out branch will not be appended, but branches given explicitly
163 will be appended.
164 INFO
166 The info mode summarizes the sizes of file objects present in the Git
167 history. It supports all the core migrate options and these additional
168 ones:
169 ○ --above=<size> Only count files whose individual filesize is above
171 the given size. size may be specified as a number of bytes, or a
172 number followed by a storage unit, e.g., "1b", "20 MB", "3 TiB",
173 etc.
174 If a set of files sharing a common extension has no files in that
176 set whose individual size is above the given --above no files no
177 entry for that set will be shown.
178 ○ --top=<n> Only display the top n entries, ordered by how many total
180 files match the given pathspec. The default is to show only the top
181 5 entries. When existing Git LFS objects are found, an extra, sepa‐
182 rate "LFS Objects" line is output in addition to the top n entries,
183 unless the --pointers option is used to change this behavior.
184 ○ --unit=<unit> Format the number of bytes in each entry as a quan‐
186 tity of the storage unit provided. Valid units include: * b, kib,
187 mib, gib, tib, pib - for IEC storage units * b, kb, mb, gb, tb, pb
188 - for SI storage units
189 If a --unit is not specified, the largest unit that can fit the
191 number of counted bytes as a whole number quantity is chosen.
192 ○ --pointers=[follow|no-follow|ignore] Treat existing Git LFS point‐
194 ers in the history according to one of three alternatives. In the
195 default follow case, if any pointers are found, an additional sepa‐
196 rate "LFS Objects" line item is output which summarizes the total
197 number and size of the Git LFS objects referenced by pointers. In
198 the ignore case, any pointers are simply ignored, while the no-fol‐
199 low case replicates the behavior of the info mode in older Git LFS
200 versions and treats any pointers it finds as if they were regular
201 files, so the output totals only include the contents of the point‐
202 ers, not the contents of the objects to which they refer.
203 ○ --fixup Infer --include and --exclude filters on a per-commit basis
205 based on the .gitattributes files in a repository. In practice,
206 this option counts any filepaths which should be tracked by Git LFS
207 according to the repository´s .gitattributes file(s), but aren´t
208 already pointers. The .gitattributes files are not reported, in
209 contrast to the normal output of the info mode. This option is in‐
210 compatible with explicitly given --include, --exclude filters and
211 with any --pointers setting other than ignore, hence --fixup im‐
212 plies --pointers=ignore if it is not explicitly set.
213 The format of the output shows the filename pattern, the total size of
217 the file objects (excluding those below the --above threshold, if one
218 was defined), and the ratio of the number of files above the threshold
219 to the total number of files; this ratio is also shown as a percentage.
220 For example:
221 *.gif 93 MB 9480/10504 files(s) 90% *.png 14 MB
223 1732/1877 files(s) 92%
224 By default only the top five entries are shown, but --top allows for
226 more or fewer to be output as desired.
227 IMPORT
229 The import mode migrates objects present in the Git history to pointer
230 files tracked and stored with Git LFS. It supports all the core migrate
231 options and these additional ones:
232 ○ --verbose Print the commit oid and filename of migrated files to
234 STDOUT.
235 ○ --above=<size> Only migrate files whose individual filesize is
237 above the given size. size may be specified as a number of bytes,
238 or a number followed by a storage unit, e.g., "1b", "20 MB", "3
239 TiB", etc.
240 ○ --object-map=<path> Write to path a file with the mapping of each
242 rewritten commits. The file format is CSV with this pattern:
243 OLD-SHA,NEW-SHA
244 ○ --no-rewrite Migrate objects to Git LFS in a new commit without
246 rewriting Git history. Please note that when this option is used,
247 the migrate import command will expect a different argument list,
248 specialized options will become available, and the core migrate op‐
249 tions will be ignored. See [IMPORT (NO REWRITE)].
250 ○ --fixup Infer --include and --exclude filters on a per-commit basis
252 based on the .gitattributes files in a repository. In practice,
253 this option imports any filepaths which should be tracked by Git
254 LFS according to the repository´s .gitattributes file(s), but
255 aren´t already pointers. This option is incompatible with explic‐
256 itly given --include, --exclude filters.
257 If --no-rewrite is not provided and --include or --exclude (-I, -X, re‐
261 spectively) are given, the .gitattributes will be modified to include
262 any new filepath patterns as given by those flags.
263 If --no-rewrite is not provided and neither of those flags are given,
265 the gitattributes will be incrementally modified to include new
266 filepath extensions as they are rewritten in history.
267 IMPORT (NO REWRITE)
269 The import mode has a special sub-mode enabled by the --no-rewrite
270 flag. This sub-mode will migrate objects to pointers as in the base im‐
271 port mode, but will do so in a new commit without rewriting Git his‐
272 tory. When using this sub-mode, the base migrate options, such as --in‐
273 clude-ref, will be ignored, as will those for the base import mode. The
274 migrate command will also take a different argument list. As a result
275 of these changes, --no-rewrite will only operate on the current branch
276 - any other interested branches must have the generated commit merged
277 in.
278 The --no-rewrite sub-mode supports the following options and arguments:
280 ○ -m <message> --message=<message> Specifies a commit message for the
282 newly created commit.
283 ○ [file ...] The list of files to import. These files must be tracked
285 by patterns specified in the gitattributes.
286 If --message is given, the new commit will be created with the provided
290 message. If no message is given, a commit message will be generated
291 based on the file arguments.
292 EXPORT
294 The export mode migrates Git LFS pointer files present in the Git his‐
295 tory out of Git LFS, converting them into their corresponding object
296 files. It supports all the core migrate options and these additional
297 ones:
298 ○ --verbose Print the commit oid and filename of migrated files to
300 STDOUT.
301 ○ --object-map=<path> Write to path a file with the mapping of each
303 rewritten commit. The file format is CSV with this pattern:
304 OLD-SHA,NEW-SHA
305 ○ --remote=<git-remote> Download LFS objects from the provided
307 git-remote during the export. If not provided, defaults to origin.
308 The export mode requires at minimum a pattern provided with the --in‐
312 clude argument to specify which files to export. Files matching the
313 --include patterns will be removed from Git LFS, while files matching
314 the --exclude patterns will retain their Git LFS status. The export
315 command will modify the .gitattributes to set/unset any filepath pat‐
316 terns as given by those flags.
317
319 You can specify that git lfs migrate should only convert files whose
320 pathspec matches the --include glob patterns and does not match the
321 --exclude glob patterns, either to reduce total migration time or to
322 only migrate part of your repo. Multiple patterns may be given using
323 commas as delimiters.
324 Pattern matching is done so as to be functionally equivalent to the
326 pattern matching format of .gitattributes. In addition to simple file
327 extension matches (e.g., *.gif) patterns may also specify directory
328 paths, in which case the path/** format may be used to match recur‐
329 sively.
330
332 You can specify that git lfs migrate should only convert files added in
333 commits reachable from certain references, namely those defined using
334 one or more --include-ref options, and should ignore files in commits
335 reachable from references defined in --exclude-ref options.
336 D---E---F / \ A---B------C refs/heads/my-feature \ \ \ refs/heads/main
338 \ refs/remotes/origin/main
339 In the above configuration, the following commits are reachable by each
341 ref:
342 refs/heads/main: C, B, A refs/heads/my-feature: F, E, D, B, A refs/re‐
344 mote/origin/main: A
345 The following git lfs migrate options would, therefore, include commits
347 F, E, D, C, and B, but exclude commit A:
348 --include-ref=refs/heads/my-feature --include-ref=refs/heads/main --ex‐
350 clude-ref=refs/remotes/origin/main
351 The presence of flag --everything indicates that all local and remote
353 references should be migrated.
354
356 Migrate unpushed commits
357 A common use case for the migrate command is to convert large Git ob‐
358 jects to LFS before pushing your commits. By default, it only scans
359 commits that don´t exist on any remote, so long as the repository is
360 non-bare.
361 First, run git lfs migrate info to list the file types taking up the
363 most space in your repository:
364 $ git lfs migrate info migrate: Fetching remote refs: ..., done mi‐
366 grate: Sorting commits: ..., done migrate: Examining commits: 100%
367 (1/1), done *.mp3 284 MB 1/1 files(s) 100% *.pdf 42 MB
368 8/8 files(s) 100% *.psd 9.8 MB 15/15 files(s) 100%
369 *.ipynb 6.9 MB 6/6 files(s) 100% *.csv 5.8 MB 2/2
370 files(s) 100%
371 Now, you can run git lfs migrate import to convert some file types to
373 LFS:
374 $ git lfs migrate import --include="*.mp3,*.psd" migrate: Fetching re‐
376 mote refs: ..., done migrate: Sorting commits: ..., done migrate:
377 Rewriting commits: 100% (1/1), done
378 main d2b959babd099fe70da1c1512e2475e8a24de163 ->
379 136e706bf1ae79643915c134e17a6c933fd53c61 migrate: Updating refs: ...,
380 done
381 If after conversion you find that some files in your working directory
383 have been replaced with Git LFS pointers, this is normal, and the work‐
384 ing copies of these files can be repopulated with their full expected
385 contents by using git lfs checkout.
386 Migrate local history
388 You can also migrate the entire history of your repository:
389 ``` # Check for large files and existing Git LFS objects in your local
391 main branch $ git lfs migrate info --include-ref=main$ git lfs migrate
392 info --everything# and listing the top 100 or fewer results $ git lfs
393 migrate info --everything --pointers=ignore --top=100 ```
394 The same flags will work in import mode:
396 ``` # Convert all zip files in your main branch $ git lfs migrate im‐
398 port --include-ref=main --include="*.zip"$ git lfs migrate import --ev‐
399 erything --include="*.zip"$ git lfs migrate import --everything
400 --above=100Kb ```
401 Note: This will require a force-push to any existing Git remotes. Using
403 the --all option when force-pushing may be convenient if many refs were
404 updated, e.g., after importing to Git LFS with the --everything option.
405 Migrate without rewriting local history
407 You can also migrate files without modifying the existing history of
408 your repository. Note that in the examples below, files in subdirecto‐
409 ries are not included because they are not explicitly specified.
410 Without a specified commit message:
412 $ git lfs migrate import --no-rewrite test.zip *.mp3 *.psd
414 With a specified commit message:
416 $ git lfs migrate import --no-rewrite \ -m "Import test.zip, .mp3, .psd
418 files in root of repo" \ test.zip *.mp3 *.psd
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421 git-lfs-checkout(1), git-lfs-track(1), git-lfs-untrack(1), gitat‐
422 tributes(5).
423 Part of the git-lfs(1) suite.
425 October 2021 GIT-LFS-MIGRATE(1)