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 404 <div id="header">
 405 <h1>
 406 git-pack-objects(1) Manual Page
 407 </h1>
 408 <h2>NAME</h2>
 409 <div class="sectionbody">
 410 <p>git-pack-objects -
 411    Create a packed archive of objects
 412 </p>
 413 </div>
 414 </div>
 415 <h2 id="_synopsis">SYNOPSIS</h2>
 416 <div class="sectionbody">
 417 <div class="verseblock">
 418 <div class="verseblock-content"><em>git pack-objects</em> [-q | --progress | --all-progress] [--all-progress-implied]
 419         [--no-reuse-delta] [--delta-base-offset] [--non-empty]
 420         [--local] [--incremental] [--window=&lt;n&gt;] [--depth=&lt;n&gt;]
 421         [--revs [--unpacked | --all]] [--stdout | base-name]
 422         [--keep-true-parents] &lt; object-list</div>
 423 <div class="verseblock-attribution">
 424 </div></div>
 425 </div>
 426 <h2 id="_description">DESCRIPTION</h2>
 427 <div class="sectionbody">
 428 <div class="paragraph"><p>Reads list of objects from the standard input, and writes a packed
 429 archive with specified base-name, or to the standard output.</p></div>
 430 <div class="paragraph"><p>A packed archive is an efficient way to transfer a set of objects
 431 between two repositories as well as an access efficient archival
 432 format.  In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a
 433 compressed whole or as a difference from some other object.
 434 The latter is often called a delta.</p></div>
 435 <div class="paragraph"><p>The packed archive format (.pack) is designed to be self-contained
 436 so that it can be unpacked without any further information. Therefore,
 437 each object that a delta depends upon must be present within the pack.</p></div>
 438 <div class="paragraph"><p>A pack index file (.idx) is generated for fast, random access to the
 439 objects in the pack. Placing both the index file (.idx) and the packed
 440 archive (.pack) in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
 441 any of the directories on $GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES)
 442 enables git to read from the pack archive.</p></div>
 443 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <em>git unpack-objects</em> command can read the packed archive and
 444 expand the objects contained in the pack into "one-file
 445 one-object" format; this is typically done by the smart-pull
 446 commands when a pack is created on-the-fly for efficient network
 447 transport by their peers.</p></div>
 448 </div>
 449 <h2 id="_options">OPTIONS</h2>
 450 <div class="sectionbody">
 451 <div class="dlist"><dl>
 452 <dt class="hdlist1">
 453 base-name
 454 </dt>
 455 <dd>
 456 <p>
 457         Write into a pair of files (.pack and .idx), using
 458         &lt;base-name&gt; to determine the name of the created file.
 459         When this option is used, the two files are written in
 460         &lt;base-name&gt;-&lt;SHA1&gt;.{pack,idx} files.  &lt;SHA1&gt; is a hash
 461         of the sorted object names to make the resulting filename
 462         based on the pack content, and written to the standard
 463         output of the command.
 464 </p>
 465 </dd>
 466 <dt class="hdlist1">
 467 --stdout
 468 </dt>
 469 <dd>
 470 <p>
 471         Write the pack contents (what would have been written to
 472         .pack file) out to the standard output.
 473 </p>
 474 </dd>
 475 <dt class="hdlist1">
 476 --revs
 477 </dt>
 478 <dd>
 479 <p>
 480         Read the revision arguments from the standard input, instead of
 481         individual object names.  The revision arguments are processed
 482         the same way as <em>git rev-list</em> with the <tt>--objects</tt> flag
 483         uses its <tt>commit</tt> arguments to build the list of objects it
 484         outputs.  The objects on the resulting list are packed.
 485 </p>
 486 </dd>
 487 <dt class="hdlist1">
 488 --unpacked
 489 </dt>
 490 <dd>
 491 <p>
 492         This implies <tt>--revs</tt>.  When processing the list of
 493         revision arguments read from the standard input, limit
 494         the objects packed to those that are not already packed.
 495 </p>
 496 </dd>
 497 <dt class="hdlist1">
 498 --all
 499 </dt>
 500 <dd>
 501 <p>
 502         This implies <tt>--revs</tt>.  In addition to the list of
 503         revision arguments read from the standard input, pretend
 504         as if all refs under <tt>refs/</tt> are specified to be
 505         included.
 506 </p>
 507 </dd>
 508 <dt class="hdlist1">
 509 --include-tag
 510 </dt>
 511 <dd>
 512 <p>
 513         Include unasked-for annotated tags if the object they
 514         reference was included in the resulting packfile.  This
 515         can be useful to send new tags to native git clients.
 516 </p>
 517 </dd>
 518 <dt class="hdlist1">
 519 --window=&lt;n&gt;
 520 </dt>
 521 <dt class="hdlist1">
 522 --depth=&lt;n&gt;
 523 </dt>
 524 <dd>
 525 <p>
 526         These two options affect how the objects contained in
 527         the pack are stored using delta compression.  The
 528         objects are first internally sorted by type, size and
 529         optionally names and compared against the other objects
 530         within --window to see if using delta compression saves
 531         space.  --depth limits the maximum delta depth; making
 532         it too deep affects the performance on the unpacker
 533         side, because delta data needs to be applied that many
 534         times to get to the necessary object.
 535         The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50.
 536 </p>
 537 </dd>
 538 <dt class="hdlist1">
 539 --window-memory=&lt;n&gt;
 540 </dt>
 541 <dd>
 542 <p>
 543         This option provides an additional limit on top of <tt>--window</tt>;
 544         the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
 545         up more than <em>&lt;n&gt;</em> bytes in memory.  This is useful in
 546         repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
 547         out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
 548         advantage of the large window for the smaller objects.  The
 549         size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
 550         <tt>--window-memory=0</tt> makes memory usage unlimited, which is the
 551         default.
 552 </p>
 553 </dd>
 554 <dt class="hdlist1">
 555 --max-pack-size=&lt;n&gt;
 556 </dt>
 557 <dd>
 558 <p>
 559         Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed with
 560         "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
 561         If specified,  multiple packfiles may be created.
 562         The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
 563         <tt>pack.packSizeLimit</tt> is set.
 564 </p>
 565 </dd>
 566 <dt class="hdlist1">
 567 --honor-pack-keep
 568 </dt>
 569 <dd>
 570 <p>
 571         This flag causes an object already in a local pack that
 572         has a .keep file to be ignored, even if it would have
 573         otherwise been packed.
 574 </p>
 575 </dd>
 576 <dt class="hdlist1">
 577 --incremental
 578 </dt>
 579 <dd>
 580 <p>
 581         This flag causes an object already in a pack to be ignored
 582         even if it would have otherwise been packed.
 583 </p>
 584 </dd>
 585 <dt class="hdlist1">
 586 --local
 587 </dt>
 588 <dd>
 589 <p>
 590         This flag causes an object that is borrowed from an alternate
 591         object store to be ignored even if it would have otherwise been
 592         packed.
 593 </p>
 594 </dd>
 595 <dt class="hdlist1">
 596 --non-empty
 597 </dt>
 598 <dd>
 599 <p>
 600         Only create a packed archive if it would contain at
 601         least one object.
 602 </p>
 603 </dd>
 604 <dt class="hdlist1">
 605 --progress
 606 </dt>
 607 <dd>
 608 <p>
 609         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
 610         by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
 611         is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
 612         the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
 613 </p>
 614 </dd>
 615 <dt class="hdlist1">
 616 --all-progress
 617 </dt>
 618 <dd>
 619 <p>
 620         When --stdout is specified then progress report is
 621         displayed during the object count and compression phases
 622         but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is
 623         that in some cases the output stream is directly linked
 624         to another command which may wish to display progress
 625         status of its own as it processes incoming pack data.
 626         This flag is like --progress except that it forces progress
 627         report for the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is
 628         used.
 629 </p>
 630 </dd>
 631 <dt class="hdlist1">
 632 --all-progress-implied
 633 </dt>
 634 <dd>
 635 <p>
 636         This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display
 637         is activated.  Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn&#8217;t actually
 638         force any progress display by itself.
 639 </p>
 640 </dd>
 641 <dt class="hdlist1">
 642 -q
 643 </dt>
 644 <dd>
 645 <p>
 646         This flag makes the command not to report its progress
 647         on the standard error stream.
 648 </p>
 649 </dd>
 650 <dt class="hdlist1">
 651 --no-reuse-delta
 652 </dt>
 653 <dd>
 654 <p>
 655         When creating a packed archive in a repository that
 656         has existing packs, the command reuses existing deltas.
 657         This sometimes results in a slightly suboptimal pack.
 658         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing deltas
 659         but compute them from scratch.
 660 </p>
 661 </dd>
 662 <dt class="hdlist1">
 663 --no-reuse-object
 664 </dt>
 665 <dd>
 666 <p>
 667         This flag tells the command not to reuse existing object data at all,
 668         including non deltified object, forcing recompression of everything.
 669         This implies --no-reuse-delta. Useful only in the obscure case where
 670         wholesale enforcement of a different compression level on the
 671         packed data is desired.
 672 </p>
 673 </dd>
 674 <dt class="hdlist1">
 675 --compression=&lt;n&gt;
 676 </dt>
 677 <dd>
 678 <p>
 679         Specifies compression level for newly-compressed data in the
 680         generated pack.  If not specified,  pack compression level is
 681         determined first by pack.compression,  then by core.compression,
 682         and defaults to -1,  the zlib default,  if neither is set.
 683         Add --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression
 684         level on all data no matter the source.
 685 </p>
 686 </dd>
 687 <dt class="hdlist1">
 688 --thin
 689 </dt>
 690 <dd>
 691 <p>
 692         Create a "thin" pack by omitting the common objects between a
 693         sender and a receiver in order to reduce network transfer. This
 694         option only makes sense in conjunction with --stdout.
 695 </p>
 696 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note: A thin pack violates the packed archive format by omitting
 697 required objects and is thus unusable by git without making it
 698 self-contained. Use <tt>git index-pack --fix-thin</tt>
 699 (see <a href="git-index-pack.html">git-index-pack(1)</a>) to restore the self-contained property.</p></div>
 700 </dd>
 701 <dt class="hdlist1">
 702 --delta-base-offset
 703 </dt>
 704 <dd>
 705 <p>
 706         A packed archive can express the base object of a delta as
 707         either a 20-byte object name or as an offset in the
 708         stream, but ancient versions of git don&#8217;t understand the
 709         latter.  By default, <em>git pack-objects</em> only uses the
 710         former format for better compatibility.  This option
 711         allows the command to use the latter format for
 712         compactness.  Depending on the average delta chain
 713         length, this option typically shrinks the resulting
 714         packfile by 3-5 per-cent.
 715 </p>
 716 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note: Porcelain commands such as <tt>git gc</tt> (see <a href="git-gc.html">git-gc(1)</a>),
 717 <tt>git repack</tt> (see <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a>) pass this option by default
 718 in modern git when they put objects in your repository into pack files.
 719 So does <tt>git bundle</tt> (see <a href="git-bundle.html">git-bundle(1)</a>) when it creates a bundle.</p></div>
 720 </dd>
 721 <dt class="hdlist1">
 722 --threads=&lt;n&gt;
 723 </dt>
 724 <dd>
 725 <p>
 726         Specifies the number of threads to spawn when searching for best
 727         delta matches.  This requires that pack-objects be compiled with
 728         pthreads otherwise this option is ignored with a warning.
 729         This is meant to reduce packing time on multiprocessor machines.
 730         The required amount of memory for the delta search window is
 731         however multiplied by the number of threads.
 732         Specifying 0 will cause git to auto-detect the number of CPU&#8217;s
 733         and set the number of threads accordingly.
 734 </p>
 735 </dd>
 736 <dt class="hdlist1">
 737 --index-version=&lt;version&gt;[,&lt;offset&gt;]
 738 </dt>
 739 <dd>
 740 <p>
 741         This is intended to be used by the test suite only. It allows
 742         to force the version for the generated pack index, and to force
 743         64-bit index entries on objects located above the given offset.
 744 </p>
 745 </dd>
 746 <dt class="hdlist1">
 747 --keep-true-parents
 748 </dt>
 749 <dd>
 750 <p>
 751         With this option, parents that are hidden by grafts are packed
 752         nevertheless.
 753 </p>
 754 </dd>
 755 </dl></div>
 756 </div>
 757 <h2 id="_see_also">SEE ALSO</h2>
 758 <div class="sectionbody">
 759 <div class="paragraph"><p><a href="git-rev-list.html">git-rev-list(1)</a>
 760 <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a>
 761 <a href="git-prune-packed.html">git-prune-packed(1)</a></p></div>
 762 </div>
 763 <h2 id="_git">GIT</h2>
 764 <div class="sectionbody">
 765 <div class="paragraph"><p>Part of the <a href="git.html">git(1)</a> suite</p></div>
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 769 Last updated 2011-04-13 22:40:02 UTC
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