Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
GIT-CLONE(1)			  Git Manual			  GIT-CLONE(1)

NAME
       git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory

SYNOPSIS
       git clone [--template=<template-directory>]
	      [-l] [-s]	[--no-hardlinks] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [--mirror]
	      [-o <name>] [-b <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] [--reference <repository>]
	      [--dissociate] [--separate-git-dir <git-dir>]
	      [--depth <depth>]	[--[no-]single-branch] [--[no-]tags]
	      [--recurse-submodules[=<pathspec>]] [--[no-]shallow-submodules]
	      [--[no-]remote-submodules] [--jobs <n>] [--sparse] [--[no-]reject-shallow]
	      [--filter=<filter-spec>] [--also-filter-submodules]] [--]	<repository>
	      [<directory>]

DESCRIPTION
       Clones a	repository into	a newly	created	directory, creates
       remote-tracking branches	for each branch	in the cloned repository
       (visible	using git branch --remotes), and creates and checks out	an
       initial branch that is forked from the cloned repository's currently
       active branch.

       After the clone,	a plain	git fetch without arguments will update	all
       the remote-tracking branches, and a git pull without arguments will in
       addition	merge the remote master	branch into the	current	master branch,
       if any (this is untrue when --single-branch is given; see below).

       This default configuration is achieved by creating references to	the
       remote branch heads under refs/remotes/origin and by initializing
       remote.origin.url and remote.origin.fetch configuration variables.

OPTIONS
       -l, --local
	   When	the repository to clone	from is	on a local machine, this flag
	   bypasses the	normal "Git aware" transport mechanism and clones the
	   repository by making	a copy of HEAD and everything under objects
	   and refs directories. The files under .git/objects/ directory are
	   hardlinked to save space when possible.

	   If the repository is	specified as a local path (e.g.,
	   /path/to/repo), this	is the default,	and --local is essentially a
	   no-op. If the repository is specified as a URL, then	this flag is
	   ignored (and	we never use the local optimizations). Specifying
	   --no-local will override the	default	when /path/to/repo is given,
	   using the regular Git transport instead.

	   If the repository's $GIT_DIR/objects	has symbolic links or is a
	   symbolic link, the clone will fail. This is a security measure to
	   prevent the unintentional copying of	files by dereferencing the
	   symbolic links.

	   This	option does not	work with repositories owned by	other users
	   for security	reasons, and --no-local	must be	specified for the
	   clone to succeed.

	   NOTE: this operation	can race with concurrent modification to the
	   source repository, similar to running cp -r <src> <dst> while
	   modifying <src>.

       --no-hardlinks
	   Force the cloning process from a repository on a local filesystem
	   to copy the files under the .git/objects directory instead of using
	   hardlinks. This may be desirable if you are trying to make a
	   back-up of your repository.

       -s, --shared
	   When	the repository to clone	is on the local	machine, instead of
	   using hard links, automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates
	   to share the	objects	with the source	repository. The	resulting
	   repository starts out without any object of its own.

	   NOTE: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do not	use it unless
	   you understand what it does.	If you clone your repository using
	   this	option and then	delete branches	(or use	any other Git command
	   that	makes any existing commit unreferenced)	in the source
	   repository, some objects may	become unreferenced (or	dangling).
	   These objects may be	removed	by normal Git operations (such as git
	   commit) which automatically call git	maintenance run	--auto.	(See
	   git-maintenance(1).)	If these objects are removed and were
	   referenced by the cloned repository,	then the cloned	repository
	   will	become corrupt.

	   Note	that running git repack	without	the --local option in a
	   repository cloned with --shared will	copy objects from the source
	   repository into a pack in the cloned	repository, removing the disk
	   space savings of clone --shared. It is safe,	however, to run	git
	   gc, which uses the --local option by	default.

	   If you want to break	the dependency of a repository cloned with
	   --shared on its source repository, you can simply run git repack -a
	   to copy all objects from the	source repository into a pack in the
	   cloned repository.

       --reference[-if-able] <repository>
	   If the reference <repository> is on the local machine,
	   automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to obtain objects
	   from	the reference <repository>. Using an already existing
	   repository as an alternate will require fewer objects to be copied
	   from	the repository being cloned, reducing network and local
	   storage costs. When using the --reference-if-able, a	non existing
	   directory is	skipped	with a warning instead of aborting the clone.

	   NOTE: see the NOTE for the --shared option, and also	the
	   --dissociate	option.

       --dissociate
	   Borrow the objects from reference repositories specified with the
	   --reference options only to reduce network transfer,	and stop
	   borrowing from them after a clone is	made by	making necessary local
	   copies of borrowed objects. This option can also be used when
	   cloning locally from	a repository that already borrows objects from
	   another repository--the new repository will borrow objects from the
	   same	repository, and	this option can	be used	to stop	the borrowing.

       -q, --quiet
	   Operate quietly. Progress is	not reported to	the standard error
	   stream.

       -v, --verbose
	   Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting	of progress status to
	   the standard	error stream.

       --progress
	   Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default
	   when	it is attached to a terminal, unless --quiet is	specified.
	   This	flag forces progress status even if the	standard error stream
	   is not directed to a	terminal.

       --server-option=<option>
	   Transmit the	given string to	the server when	communicating using
	   protocol version 2. The given string	must not contain a NUL or LF
	   character. The server's handling of server options, including
	   unknown ones, is server-specific. When multiple
	   --server-option=<option> are	given, they are	all sent to the	other
	   side	in the order listed on the command line. When no
	   --server-option=<option> is given from the command line, the	values
	   of configuration variable remote.<name>.serverOption	are used
	   instead.

       -n, --no-checkout
	   No checkout of HEAD is performed after the clone is complete.

       --[no-]reject-shallow
	   Fail	if the source repository is a shallow repository. The
	   clone.rejectShallow configuration variable can be used to specify
	   the default.

       --bare
	   Make	a bare Git repository. That is,	instead	of creating
	   <directory> and placing the administrative files in
	   <directory>/.git, make the <directory> itself the $GIT_DIR. This
	   obviously implies the --no-checkout because there is	nowhere	to
	   check out the working tree. Also the	branch heads at	the remote are
	   copied directly to corresponding local branch heads,	without
	   mapping them	to refs/remotes/origin/. When this option is used,
	   neither remote-tracking branches nor	the related configuration
	   variables are created.

       --sparse
	   Employ a sparse-checkout, with only files in	the toplevel directory
	   initially being present. The	git-sparse-checkout(1) command can be
	   used	to grow	the working directory as needed.

       --filter=<filter-spec>
	   Use the partial clone feature and request that the server sends a
	   subset of reachable objects according to a given object filter.
	   When	using --filter,	the supplied <filter-spec> is used for the
	   partial clone filter. For example, --filter=blob:none will filter
	   out all blobs (file contents) until needed by Git. Also,
	   --filter=blob:limit=<size> will filter out all blobs	of size	at
	   least <size>. For more details on filter specifications, see	the
	   --filter option in git-rev-list(1).

       --also-filter-submodules
	   Also	apply the partial clone	filter to any submodules in the
	   repository. Requires	--filter and --recurse-submodules. This	can be
	   turned on by	default	by setting the clone.filterSubmodules config
	   option.

       --mirror
	   Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies --bare.
	   Compared to --bare, --mirror	not only maps local branches of	the
	   source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs (including
	   remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a refspec
	   configuration such that all these refs are overwritten by a git
	   remote update in the	target repository.

       -o <name>, --origin <name>
	   Instead of using the	remote name origin to keep track of the
	   upstream repository,	use <name>. Overrides clone.defaultRemoteName
	   from	the config.

       -b <name>, --branch <name>
	   Instead of pointing the newly created HEAD to the branch pointed to
	   by the cloned repository's HEAD, point to <name> branch instead. In
	   a non-bare repository, this is the branch that will be checked out.
	   --branch can	also take tags and detaches the	HEAD at	that commit in
	   the resulting repository.

       --revision=<rev>
	   Create a new	repository, and	fetch the history leading to the given
	   revision <rev> (and nothing else), without making any
	   remote-tracking branch, and without making any local	branch,	and
	   detach HEAD to <rev>. The argument can be a ref name	(e.g.
	   refs/heads/main or refs/tags/v1.0) that peels down to a commit, or
	   a hexadecimal object	name. This option is incompatible with
	   --branch and	--mirror.

       -u <upload-pack>, --upload-pack <upload-pack>
	   When	given, and the repository to clone from	is accessed via	ssh,
	   this	specifies a non-default	path for the command run on the	other
	   end.

       --template=<template-directory>
	   Specify the directory from which templates will be used; (See the
	   "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY"	section	of git-init(1).)

       -c <key>=<value>, --config <key>=<value>
	   Set a configuration variable	in the newly-created repository; this
	   takes effect	immediately after the repository is initialized, but
	   before the remote history is	fetched	or any files checked out. The
	   <key> is in the same	format as expected by git-config(1) (e.g.,
	   core.eol=true). If multiple values are given	for the	same key, each
	   value will be written to the	config file. This makes	it safe, for
	   example, to add additional fetch refspecs to	the origin remote.

	   Due to limitations of the current implementation, some
	   configuration variables do not take effect until after the initial
	   fetch and checkout. Configuration variables known to	not take
	   effect are: remote.<name>.mirror and	remote.<name>.tagOpt. Use the
	   corresponding --mirror and --no-tags	options	instead.

       --depth <depth>
	   Create a shallow clone with a history truncated to the specified
	   number of commits. Implies --single-branch unless
	   --no-single-branch is given to fetch	the histories near the tips of
	   all branches. If you	want to	clone submodules shallowly, also pass
	   --shallow-submodules.

       --shallow-since=<date>
	   Create a shallow clone with a history after the specified time.

       --shallow-exclude=<ref>
	   Create a shallow clone with a history, excluding commits reachable
	   from	a specified remote branch or tag. This option can be specified
	   multiple times.

       --[no-]single-branch
	   Clone only the history leading to the tip of	a single branch,
	   either specified by the --branch option or the primary branch
	   remote's HEAD points	at. Further fetches into the resulting
	   repository will only	update the remote-tracking branch for the
	   branch this option was used for the initial cloning.	If the HEAD at
	   the remote did not point at any branch when --single-branch clone
	   was made, no	remote-tracking	branch is created.

       --[no-]tags
	   Control whether or not tags will be cloned. When --no-tags is
	   given, the option will be become permanent by setting the
	   remote.<remote>.tagOpt=--no-tags configuration. This	ensures	that
	   future git pull and git fetch won't follow any tags.	Subsequent
	   explicit tag	fetches	will still work	(see git-fetch(1)).

	   By default, tags are	cloned and passing --tags is thus typically a
	   no-op, unless it cancels out	a previous --no-tags.

	   Can be used in conjunction with --single-branch to clone and
	   maintain a branch with no references	other than a single cloned
	   branch. This	is useful e.g. to maintain minimal clones of the
	   default branch of some repository for search	indexing.

       --recurse-submodules[=<pathspec>]
	   After the clone is created, initialize and clone submodules within
	   based on the	provided <pathspec>. If	no =<pathspec> is provided,
	   all submodules are initialized and cloned. This option can be given
	   multiple times for pathspecs	consisting of multiple entries.	The
	   resulting clone has submodule.active	set to the provided pathspec,
	   or "." (meaning all submodules) if no pathspec is provided.

	   Submodules are initialized and cloned using their default settings.
	   This	is equivalent to running git submodule update --init
	   --recursive <pathspec> immediately after the	clone is finished.
	   This	option is ignored if the cloned	repository does	not have a
	   worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of --no-checkout/-n, --bare, or
	   --mirror is given)

       --[no-]shallow-submodules
	   All submodules which	are cloned will	be shallow with	a depth	of 1.

       --[no-]remote-submodules
	   All submodules which	are cloned will	use the	status of the
	   submodule's remote-tracking branch to update	the submodule, rather
	   than	the superproject's recorded SHA-1. Equivalent to passing
	   --remote to git submodule update.

       --separate-git-dir=<git-dir>
	   Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is	supposed to
	   be, place the cloned	repository at the specified directory, then
	   make	a filesystem-agnostic Git symbolic link	to there. The result
	   is Git repository can be separated from working tree.

       --ref-format=<ref-format>
	   Specify the given ref storage format	for the	repository. The	valid
	   values are:

	      files for loose files with packed-refs. This is the default.

	      reftable	for the	reftable format. This format is	experimental
	       and its internals are subject to	change.

       -j <n>, --jobs <n>
	   The number of submodules fetched at the same	time. Defaults to the
	   submodule.fetchJobs option.

       <repository>
	   The (possibly remote) <repository> to clone from. See the GIT URLS
	   section below for more information on specifying repositories.

       <directory>
	   The name of a new directory to clone	into. The "humanish" part of
	   the source repository is used if no <directory> is explicitly given
	   (repo for /path/to/repo.git and foo for host.xz:foo/.git). Cloning
	   into	an existing directory is only allowed if the directory is
	   empty.

       --bundle-uri=<uri>
	   Before fetching from	the remote, fetch a bundle from	the given
	   <uri> and unbundle the data into the	local repository. The refs in
	   the bundle will be stored under the hidden refs/bundle/* namespace.
	   This	option is incompatible with --depth, --shallow-since, and
	   --shallow-exclude.

GIT URLS
       In general, URLs	contain	information about the transport	protocol, the
       address of the remote server, and the path to the repository. Depending
       on the transport	protocol, some of this information may be absent.

       Git supports ssh, git, http, and	https protocols	(in addition, ftp and
       ftps can	be used	for fetching, but this is inefficient and deprecated;
       do not use them).

       The native transport (i.e. git:// URL) does no authentication and
       should be used with caution on unsecured	networks.

       The following syntaxes may be used with them:

          ssh://[<user>@]<host>[:<port>]/<path-to-git-repo>

          git://<host>[:<port>]/<path-to-git-repo>

          http[s]://<host>[:<port>]/<path-to-git-repo>

          ftp[s]://<host>[:<port>]/<path-to-git-repo>

       An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the	ssh protocol:

          [<user>@]<host>:/<path-to-git-repo>

       This syntax is only recognized if there are no slashes before the first
       colon. This helps differentiate a local path that contains a colon. For
       example the local path foo:bar could be specified as an absolute	path
       or ./foo:bar to avoid being misinterpreted as an	ssh url.

       The ssh and git protocols additionally support ~<username> expansion:

          ssh://[<user>@]<host>[:<port>]/~<user>/<path-to-git-repo>

          git://<host>[:<port>]/~<user>/<path-to-git-repo>

          [<user>@]<host>:~<user>/<path-to-git-repo>

       For local repositories, also supported by Git natively, the following
       syntaxes	may be used:

          /path/to/repo.git/

          file:///path/to/repo.git/

       These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except	the former implies
       --local option.

       git clone, git fetch and	git pull, but not git push, will also accept a
       suitable	bundle file. See git-bundle(1).

       When Git	doesn't	know how to handle a certain transport protocol, it
       attempts	to use the remote-<transport> remote helper, if	one exists. To
       explicitly request a remote helper, the following syntax	may be used:

          <transport>::<address>

       where <address> may be a	path, a	server and path, or an arbitrary
       URL-like	string recognized by the specific remote helper	being invoked.
       See gitremote-helpers(7)	for details.

       If there	are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories and
       you want	to use a different format for them (such that the URLs you use
       will be rewritten into URLs that	work), you can create a	configuration
       section of the form:

		   [url	"<actual-url-base>"]
			   insteadOf = <other-url-base>

       For example, with this:

		   [url	"git://git.host.xz/"]
			   insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
			   insteadOf = work:

       a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git" will be
       rewritten in any	context	that takes a URL to be
       "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".

       If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
       configuration section of	the form:

		   [url	"<actual-url-base>"]
			   pushInsteadOf = <other-url-base>

       For example, with this:

		   [url	"ssh://example.org/"]
			   pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/

       a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten to
       "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for	pushes,	but pulls will still
       use the original	URL.

EXAMPLES
          Clone from upstream:

	       $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git my-linux
	       $ cd my-linux
	       $ make

          Make	a local	clone that borrows from	the current directory, without
	   checking things out:

	       $ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
	       $ cd ../copy
	       $ git show-branch

          Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing	local
	   directory:

	       $ git clone --reference /git/linux.git \
		       git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git \
		       my-linux
	       $ cd my-linux

          Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:

	       $ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git

          Clone a local repository from a different user:

	       $ git clone --no-local /home/otheruser/proj.git /pub/scm/proj.git

CONFIGURATION
       Everything below	this line in this section is selectively included from
       the git-config(1) documentation.	The content is the same	as what's
       found there:

       init.templateDir
	   Specify the directory from which templates will be copied. (See the
	   "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY"	section	of git-init(1).)

       init.defaultBranch
	   Allows overriding the default branch	name e.g. when initializing a
	   new repository.

       init.defaultObjectFormat
	   Allows overriding the default object	format for new repositories.
	   See --object-format=	in git-init(1).	Both the command line option
	   and the GIT_DEFAULT_HASH environment	variable take precedence over
	   this	config.

       init.defaultRefFormat
	   Allows overriding the default ref storage format for	new
	   repositories. See --ref-format= in git-init(1). Both	the command
	   line	option and the GIT_DEFAULT_REF_FORMAT environment variable
	   take	precedence over	this config.

       clone.defaultRemoteName
	   The name of the remote to create when cloning a repository.
	   Defaults to origin. It can be overridden by passing the --origin
	   command-line	option.

       clone.rejectShallow
	   Reject cloning a repository if it is	a shallow one; this can	be
	   overridden by passing the --reject-shallow option on	the command
	   line.

       clone.filterSubmodules
	   If a	partial	clone filter is	provided (see --filter in git-rev-
	   list(1)) and	--recurse-submodules is	used, also apply the filter to
	   submodules.

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite

Git 2.49.0			  2025-03-14			  GIT-CLONE(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=git-clone&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+14.3-RELEASE+and+Ports>

home | help