6 git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive
12 'git bundle' create <file> <git-rev-list-args>
13 'git bundle' verify <file>
14 'git bundle' list-heads <file> [<refname>...]
15 'git bundle' unbundle <file> [<refname>...]
20 Some workflows require that one or more branches of development on one
21 machine be replicated on another machine, but the two machines cannot
22 be directly connected, and therefore the interactive git protocols (git,
23 ssh, rsync, http) cannot be used. This command provides support for
24 'git fetch' and 'git pull' to operate by packaging objects and references
25 in an archive at the originating machine, then importing those into
26 another repository using 'git fetch' and 'git pull'
27 after moving the archive by some means (e.g., by sneakernet). As no
28 direct connection between the repositories exists, the user must specify a
29 basis for the bundle that is held by the destination repository: the
30 bundle assumes that all objects in the basis are already in the
31 destination repository.
37 Used to create a bundle named 'file'. This requires the
38 'git-rev-list-args' arguments to define the bundle contents.
41 Used to check that a bundle file is valid and will apply
42 cleanly to the current repository. This includes checks on the
43 bundle format itself as well as checking that the prerequisite
44 commits exist and are fully linked in the current repository.
45 'git bundle' prints a list of missing commits, if any, and exits
46 with a non-zero status.
49 Lists the references defined in the bundle. If followed by a
50 list of references, only references matching those given are
54 Passes the objects in the bundle to 'git index-pack'
55 for storage in the repository, then prints the names of all
56 defined references. If a list of references is given, only
57 references matching those in the list are printed. This command is
58 really plumbing, intended to be called only by 'git fetch'.
61 A list of arguments, acceptable to 'git rev-parse' and
62 'git rev-list' (and containing a named ref, see SPECIFYING REFERENCES
63 below), that specifies the specific objects and references
64 to transport. For example, `master~10..master` causes the
65 current master reference to be packaged along with all objects
66 added since its 10th ancestor commit. There is no explicit
67 limit to the number of references and objects that may be
72 A list of references used to limit the references reported as
73 available. This is principally of use to 'git fetch', which
74 expects to receive only those references asked for and not
75 necessarily everything in the pack (in this case, 'git bundle' acts
76 like 'git fetch-pack').
81 'git bundle' will only package references that are shown by
82 'git show-ref': this includes heads, tags, and remote heads. References
83 such as `master~1` cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for
84 defining the basis. More than one reference may be packaged, and more
85 than one basis can be specified. The objects packaged are those not
86 contained in the union of the given bases. Each basis can be
87 specified explicitly (e.g. `^master~10`), or implicitly (e.g.
88 `master~10..master`, `--since=10.days.ago master`).
90 It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination.
91 It is okay to err on the side of caution, causing the bundle file
92 to contain objects already in the destination, as these are ignored
93 when unpacking at the destination.
98 Assume you want to transfer the history from a repository R1 on machine A
99 to another repository R2 on machine B.
100 For whatever reason, direct connection between A and B is not allowed,
101 but we can move data from A to B via some mechanism (CD, email, etc.).
102 We want to update R2 with development made on the branch master in R1.
104 To bootstrap the process, you can first create a bundle that does not have
105 any basis. You can use a tag to remember up to what commit you last
106 processed, in order to make it easy to later update the other repository
107 with an incremental bundle:
111 machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle master
112 machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
115 Then you transfer file.bundle to the target machine B. Because this
116 bundle does not require any existing object to be extracted, you can
117 create a new repository on machine B by cloning from it:
120 machineB$ git clone -b master /home/me/tmp/file.bundle R2
123 This will define a remote called "origin" in the resulting repository that
124 lets you fetch and pull from the bundle. The $GIT_DIR/config file in R2 will
125 have an entry like this:
127 ------------------------
129 url = /home/me/tmp/file.bundle
130 fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
131 ------------------------
133 To update the resulting mine.git repository, you can fetch or pull after
134 replacing the bundle stored at /home/me/tmp/file.bundle with incremental
137 After working some more in the original repository, you can create an
138 incremental bundle to update the other repository:
142 machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle lastR2bundle..master
143 machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master
146 You then transfer the bundle to the other machine to replace
147 /home/me/tmp/file.bundle, and pull from it.
154 If you know up to what commit the intended recipient repository should
155 have the necessary objects, you can use that knowledge to specify the
156 basis, giving a cut-off point to limit the revisions and objects that go
157 in the resulting bundle. The previous example used the lastR2bundle tag
158 for this purpose, but you can use any other options that you would give to
159 the linkgit:git-log[1] command. Here are more examples:
161 You can use a tag that is present in both:
164 $ git bundle create mybundle v1.0.0..master
167 You can use a basis based on time:
170 $ git bundle create mybundle --since=10.days master
173 You can use the number of commits:
176 $ git bundle create mybundle -10 master
179 You can run `git-bundle verify` to see if you can extract from a bundle
180 that was created with a basis:
183 $ git bundle verify mybundle
186 This will list what commits you must have in order to extract from the
187 bundle and will error out if you do not have them.
189 A bundle from a recipient repository's point of view is just like a
190 regular repository which it fetches or pulls from. You can, for example, map
191 references when fetching:
194 $ git fetch mybundle master:localRef
197 You can also see what references it offers:
200 $ git ls-remote mybundle
205 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite