6 git-repack - Pack unpacked objects in a repository
12 'git repack' [-a] [-A] [-d] [-f] [-F] [-l] [-n] [-q] [-b] [-m] [--window=<n>] [--depth=<n>] [--threads=<n>] [--keep-pack=<pack-name>] [--write-midx]
17 This command is used to combine all objects that do not currently
18 reside in a "pack", into a pack. It can also be used to re-organize
19 existing packs into a single, more efficient pack.
21 A pack is a collection of objects, individually compressed, with
22 delta compression applied, stored in a single file, with an
23 associated index file.
25 Packs are used to reduce the load on mirror systems, backup
26 engines, disk storage, etc.
32 Instead of incrementally packing the unpacked objects,
33 pack everything referenced into a single pack.
34 Especially useful when packing a repository that is used
35 for private development. Use
36 with `-d`. This will clean up the objects that `git prune`
37 leaves behind, but `git fsck --full --dangling` shows as
40 Note that users fetching over dumb protocols will have to fetch the
41 whole new pack in order to get any contained object, no matter how many
42 other objects in that pack they already have locally.
44 Promisor packfiles are repacked separately: if there are packfiles that
45 have an associated ".promisor" file, these packfiles will be repacked
46 into another separate pack, and an empty ".promisor" file corresponding
47 to the new separate pack will be written.
50 Same as `-a`, unless `-d` is used. Then any unreachable
51 objects in a previous pack become loose, unpacked objects,
52 instead of being left in the old pack. Unreachable objects
53 are never intentionally added to a pack, even when repacking.
54 This option prevents unreachable objects from being immediately
55 deleted by way of being left in the old pack and then
56 removed. Instead, the loose unreachable objects
57 will be pruned according to normal expiry rules
58 with the next 'git gc' invocation. See linkgit:git-gc[1].
61 After packing, if the newly created packs make some
62 existing packs redundant, remove the redundant packs.
63 Also run 'git prune-packed' to remove redundant
67 Same as `-a`, unless `-d` is used. Then any unreachable objects
68 are packed into a separate cruft pack. Unreachable objects can
69 be pruned using the normal expiry rules with the next `git gc`
70 invocation (see linkgit:git-gc[1]). Incompatible with `-k`.
72 --cruft-expiration=<approxidate>::
73 Expire unreachable objects older than `<approxidate>`
74 immediately instead of waiting for the next `git gc` invocation.
75 Only useful with `--cruft -d`.
77 --max-cruft-size=<n>::
78 Repack cruft objects into packs as large as `<n>` bytes before
79 creating new packs. As long as there are enough cruft packs
80 smaller than `<n>`, repacking will cause a new cruft pack to
81 be created containing objects from any combined cruft packs,
82 along with any new unreachable objects. Cruft packs larger than
83 `<n>` will not be modified. When the new cruft pack is larger
84 than `<n>` bytes, it will be split into multiple packs, all of
85 which are guaranteed to be at most `<n>` bytes in size. Only
86 useful with `--cruft -d`.
89 Write a cruft pack containing pruned objects (if any) to the
90 directory `<dir>`. This option is useful for keeping a copy of
91 any pruned objects in a separate directory as a backup. Only
92 useful with `--cruft -d`.
95 Pass the `--local` option to 'git pack-objects'. See
96 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
99 Pass the `--no-reuse-delta` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
100 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
103 Pass the `--no-reuse-object` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
104 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
108 Show no progress over the standard error stream and pass the `-q`
109 option to 'git pack-objects'. See linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
112 Do not update the server information with
113 'git update-server-info'. This option skips
114 updating local catalog files needed to publish
115 this repository (or a direct copy of it)
116 over HTTP or FTP. See linkgit:git-update-server-info[1].
120 These two options affect how the objects contained in the pack are
121 stored using delta compression. The objects are first internally
122 sorted by type, size and optionally names and compared against the
123 other objects within `--window` to see if using delta compression saves
124 space. `--depth` limits the maximum delta depth; making it too deep
125 affects the performance on the unpacker side, because delta data needs
126 to be applied that many times to get to the necessary object.
128 The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50. The maximum
132 This option is passed through to `git pack-objects`.
134 --window-memory=<n>::
135 This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
136 the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
137 up more than '<n>' bytes in memory. This is useful in
138 repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
139 out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
140 advantage of the large window for the smaller objects. The
141 size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
142 `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited. The default
143 is taken from the `pack.windowMemory` configuration variable.
144 Note that the actual memory usage will be the limit multiplied
145 by the number of threads used by linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
147 --max-pack-size=<n>::
148 Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed with
149 "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
150 If specified, multiple packfiles may be created, which also
151 prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
152 The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
153 `pack.packSizeLimit` is set. Note that this option may result in
154 a larger and slower repository; see the discussion in
155 `pack.packSizeLimit`.
158 --write-bitmap-index::
159 Write a reachability bitmap index as part of the repack. This
160 only makes sense when used with `-a`, `-A` or `-m`, as the bitmaps
161 must be able to refer to all reachable objects. This option
162 overrides the setting of `repack.writeBitmaps`. This option
163 has no effect if multiple packfiles are created, unless writing a
164 MIDX (in which case a multi-pack bitmap is created).
166 --pack-kept-objects::
167 Include objects in `.keep` files when repacking. Note that we
168 still do not delete `.keep` packs after `pack-objects` finishes.
169 This means that we may duplicate objects, but this makes the
170 option safe to use when there are concurrent pushes or fetches.
171 This option is generally only useful if you are writing bitmaps
172 with `-b` or `repack.writeBitmaps`, as it ensures that the
173 bitmapped packfile has the necessary objects.
175 --keep-pack=<pack-name>::
176 Exclude the given pack from repacking. This is the equivalent
177 of having `.keep` file on the pack. `<pack-name>` is the
178 pack file name without leading directory (e.g. `pack-123.pack`).
179 The option could be specified multiple times to keep multiple
182 --unpack-unreachable=<when>::
183 When loosening unreachable objects, do not bother loosening any
184 objects older than `<when>`. This can be used to optimize out
185 the write of any objects that would be immediately pruned by
186 a follow-up `git prune`.
190 When used with `-ad`, any unreachable objects from existing
191 packs will be appended to the end of the packfile instead of
192 being removed. In addition, any unreachable loose objects will
193 be packed (and their loose counterparts removed).
197 Pass the `--delta-islands` option to `git-pack-objects`, see
198 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1].
201 --geometric=<factor>::
202 Arrange resulting pack structure so that each successive pack
203 contains at least `<factor>` times the number of objects as the
206 `git repack` ensures this by determining a "cut" of packfiles that need
207 to be repacked into one in order to ensure a geometric progression. It
208 picks the smallest set of packfiles such that as many of the larger
209 packfiles (by count of objects contained in that pack) may be left
212 Unlike other repack modes, the set of objects to pack is determined
213 uniquely by the set of packs being "rolled-up"; in other words, the
214 packs determined to need to be combined in order to restore a geometric
217 When `--unpacked` is specified, loose objects are implicitly included in
218 this "roll-up", without respect to their reachability. This is subject
219 to change in the future. This option (implying a drastically different
220 repack mode) is not guaranteed to work with all other combinations of
221 option to `git repack`.
223 When writing a multi-pack bitmap, `git repack` selects the largest resulting
224 pack as the preferred pack for object selection by the MIDX (see
225 linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1]).
229 Write a multi-pack index (see linkgit:git-multi-pack-index[1])
230 containing the non-redundant packs.
235 Various configuration variables affect packing, see
236 linkgit:git-config[1] (search for "pack" and "delta").
238 By default, the command passes `--delta-base-offset` option to
239 'git pack-objects'; this typically results in slightly smaller packs,
240 but the generated packs are incompatible with versions of Git older than
241 version 1.4.4. If you need to share your repository with such ancient Git
242 versions, either directly or via the dumb http protocol, then you
243 need to set the configuration variable `repack.UseDeltaBaseOffset` to
244 "false" and repack. Access from old Git versions over the native protocol
245 is unaffected by this option as the conversion is performed on the fly
246 as needed in that case.
248 Delta compression is not used on objects larger than the
249 `core.bigFileThreshold` configuration variable and on files with the
250 attribute `delta` set to false.
254 linkgit:git-pack-objects[1]
255 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
259 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite