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]
10 [--version=<version>] <file> <git-rev-list-args>
11 git bundle verify [-q | --quiet] <file>
12 git bundle list-heads <file> [<refname>...]
13 git bundle unbundle [--progress] <file> [<refname>...]
14
16 Create, unpack, and manipulate "bundle" files. Bundles are used for the
17 "offline" transfer of Git objects without an active "server" sitting on
18 the other side of the network connection.
19 They can be used to create both incremental and full backups of a
21 repository, and to relay the state of the references in one repository
22 to another.
23 Git commands that fetch or otherwise "read" via protocols such as
25 ssh:// and https:// can also operate on bundle files. It is possible
26 git-clone(1) a new repository from a bundle, to use git-fetch(1) to
27 fetch from one, and to list the references contained within it with
28 git-ls-remote(1). There’s no corresponding "write" support, i.e.a git
29 push into a bundle is not supported.
30 See the "EXAMPLES" section below for examples of how to use bundles.
32
34 Bundles are .pack files (see git-pack-objects(1)) with a header
35 indicating what references are contained within the bundle.
36 Like the packed archive format itself bundles can either be
38 self-contained, or be created using exclusions. See the "OBJECT
39 PREREQUISITES" section below.
40 Bundles created using revision exclusions are "thin packs" created
42 using the --thin option to git-pack-objects(1), and unbundled using the
43 --fix-thin option to git-index-pack(1).
44 There is no option to create a "thick pack" when using revision
46 exclusions, and users should not be concerned about the difference. By
47 using "thin packs", bundles created using exclusions are smaller in
48 size. That they’re "thin" under the hood is merely noted here as a
49 curiosity, and as a reference to other documentation.
50 See gitformat-bundle(5) for more details and the discussion of "thin
52 pack" in gitformat-pack(5) for further details.
53
55 create [options] <file> <git-rev-list-args>
56 Used to create a bundle named file. This requires the
57 <git-rev-list-args> arguments to define the bundle contents.
58 options contains the options specific to the git bundle create
59 subcommand.
60 verify <file>
62 Used to check that a bundle file is valid and will apply cleanly to
63 the current repository. This includes checks on the bundle format
64 itself as well as checking that the prerequisite commits exist and
65 are fully linked in the current repository. Then, git bundle prints
66 a list of missing commits, if any. Finally, information about
67 additional capabilities, such as "object filter", is printed. See
68 "Capabilities" in gitformat-bundle(5) for more information. The
69 exit code is zero for success, but will be nonzero if the bundle
70 file is invalid.
71 list-heads <file>
73 Lists the references defined in the bundle. If followed by a list
74 of references, only references matching those given are printed
75 out.
76 unbundle <file>
78 Passes the objects in the bundle to git index-pack for storage in
79 the repository, then prints the names of all defined references. If
80 a list of references is given, only references matching those in
81 the list are printed. This command is really plumbing, intended to
82 be called only by git fetch.
83 <git-rev-list-args>
85 A list of arguments, acceptable to git rev-parse and git rev-list
86 (and containing a named ref, see SPECIFYING REFERENCES below), that
87 specifies the specific objects and references to transport. For
88 example, master~10..master causes the current master reference to
89 be packaged along with all objects added since its 10th ancestor
90 commit. There is no explicit limit to the number of references and
91 objects that may be packaged.
92 [<refname>...]
94 A list of references used to limit the references reported as
95 available. This is principally of use to git fetch, which expects
96 to receive only those references asked for and not necessarily
97 everything in the pack (in this case, git bundle acts like git
98 fetch-pack).
99 --progress
101 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
102 when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This
103 flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream is
104 not directed to a terminal.
105 --all-progress
107 When --stdout is specified then progress report is displayed during
108 the object count and compression phases but inhibited during the
109 write-out phase. The reason is that in some cases the output stream
110 is directly linked to another command which may wish to display
111 progress status of its own as it processes incoming pack data. This
112 flag is like --progress except that it forces progress report for
113 the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is used.
114 --all-progress-implied
116 This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display is
117 activated. Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn’t actually force
118 any progress display by itself.
119 --version=<version>
121 Specify the bundle version. Version 2 is the older format and can
122 only be used with SHA-1 repositories; the newer version 3 contains
123 capabilities that permit extensions. The default is the oldest
124 supported format, based on the hash algorithm in use.
125 -q, --quiet
127 This flag makes the command not to report its progress on the
128 standard error stream.
129
131 Revisions must be accompanied by reference names to be packaged in a
132 bundle.
133 More than one reference may be packaged, and more than one set of
135 prerequisite objects can be specified. The objects packaged are those
136 not contained in the union of the prerequisites.
137 The git bundle create command resolves the reference names for you
139 using the same rules as git rev-parse --abbrev-ref=loose. Each
140 prerequisite can be specified explicitly (e.g. ^master~10), or
141 implicitly (e.g. master~10..master, --since=10.days.ago master).
142 All of these simple cases are OK (assuming we have a "master" and
144 "next" branch):
145 $ git bundle create master.bundle master
147 $ echo master | git bundle create master.bundle --stdin
148 $ git bundle create master-and-next.bundle master next
149 $ (echo master; echo next) | git bundle create master-and-next.bundle --stdin
150 And so are these (and the same but omitted --stdin examples):
152 $ git bundle create recent-master.bundle master~10..master
154 $ git bundle create recent-updates.bundle master~10..master next~5..next
155 A revision name or a range whose right-hand-side cannot be resolved to
157 a reference is not accepted:
158 $ git bundle create HEAD.bundle $(git rev-parse HEAD)
160 fatal: Refusing to create empty bundle.
161 $ git bundle create master-yesterday.bundle master~10..master~5
162 fatal: Refusing to create empty bundle.
163
165 When creating bundles it is possible to create a self-contained bundle
166 that can be unbundled in a repository with no common history, as well
167 as providing negative revisions to exclude objects needed in the
168 earlier parts of the history.
169 Feeding a revision such as new to git bundle create will create a
171 bundle file that contains all the objects reachable from the revision
172 new. That bundle can be unbundled in any repository to obtain a full
173 history that leads to the revision new:
174 $ git bundle create full.bundle new
176 A revision range such as old..new will produce a bundle file that will
178 require the revision old (and any objects reachable from it) to exist
179 for the bundle to be "unbundle"-able:
180 $ git bundle create full.bundle old..new
182 A self-contained bundle without any prerequisites can be extracted into
184 anywhere, even into an empty repository, or be cloned from (i.e., new,
185 but not old..new).
186 It is okay to err on the side of caution, causing the bundle file to
188 contain objects already in the destination, as these are ignored when
189 unpacking at the destination.
190 If you want to match git clone --mirror, which would include your refs
192 such as refs/remotes/*, use --all. If you want to provide the same set
193 of refs that a clone directly from the source repository would get, use
194 --branches --tags for the <git-rev-list-args>.
195 The git bundle verify command can be used to check whether your
197 recipient repository has the required prerequisite commits for a
198 bundle.
199
201 Assume you want to transfer the history from a repository R1 on machine
202 A to another repository R2 on machine B. For whatever reason, direct
203 connection between A and B is not allowed, but we can move data from A
204 to B via some mechanism (CD, email, etc.). We want to update R2 with
205 development made on the branch master in R1.
206 To bootstrap the process, you can first create a bundle that does not
208 have any prerequisites. You can use a tag to remember up to what commit
209 you last processed, in order to make it easy to later update the other
210 repository with an incremental bundle:
211 machineA$ cd R1
213 machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle master
214 machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
215 Then you transfer file.bundle to the target machine B. Because this
217 bundle does not require any existing object to be extracted, you can
218 create a new repository on machine B by cloning from it:
219 machineB$ git clone -b master /home/me/tmp/file.bundle R2
221 This will define a remote called "origin" in the resulting repository
223 that lets you fetch and pull from the bundle. The $GIT_DIR/config file
224 in R2 will have an entry like this:
225 [remote "origin"]
227 url = /home/me/tmp/file.bundle
228 fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
229 To update the resulting mine.git repository, you can fetch or pull
231 after replacing the bundle stored at /home/me/tmp/file.bundle with
232 incremental updates.
233 After working some more in the original repository, you can create an
235 incremental bundle to update the other repository:
236 machineA$ cd R1
238 machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle lastR2bundle..master
239 machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
240 You then transfer the bundle to the other machine to replace
242 /home/me/tmp/file.bundle, and pull from it.
243 machineB$ cd R2
245 machineB$ git pull
246 If you know up to what commit the intended recipient repository should
248 have the necessary objects, you can use that knowledge to specify the
249 prerequisites, giving a cut-off point to limit the revisions and
250 objects that go in the resulting bundle. The previous example used the
251 lastR2bundle tag for this purpose, but you can use any other options
252 that you would give to the git-log(1) command. Here are more examples:
253 You can use a tag that is present in both:
255 $ git bundle create mybundle v1.0.0..master
257 You can use a prerequisite based on time:
259 $ git bundle create mybundle --since=10.days master
261 You can use the number of commits:
263 $ git bundle create mybundle -10 master
265 You can run git-bundle verify to see if you can extract from a bundle
267 that was created with a prerequisite:
268 $ git bundle verify mybundle
270 This will list what commits you must have in order to extract from the
272 bundle and will error out if you do not have them.
273 A bundle from a recipient repository’s point of view is just like a
275 regular repository which it fetches or pulls from. You can, for
276 example, map references when fetching:
277 $ git fetch mybundle master:localRef
279 You can also see what references it offers:
281 $ git ls-remote mybundle
283
285 See gitformat-bundle(5).
286
288 Part of the git(1) suite
289Git 2.39.1 2023-01-13 GIT-BUNDLE(1)