| gitrepository-layout(5) |
| ======================= |
| |
| NAME |
| ---- |
| gitrepository-layout - Git Repository Layout |
| |
| SYNOPSIS |
| -------- |
| $GIT_DIR/* |
| |
| DESCRIPTION |
| ----------- |
| |
| A Git repository comes in two different flavours: |
| |
| * a `.git` directory at the root of the working tree; |
| |
| * a `<project>.git` directory that is a 'bare' repository |
| (i.e. without its own working tree), that is typically used for |
| exchanging histories with others by pushing into it and fetching |
| from it. |
| |
| *Note*: Also you can have a plain text file `.git` at the root of |
| your working tree, containing `gitdir: <path>` to point at the real |
| directory that has the repository. This mechanism is often used for |
| a working tree of a submodule checkout, to allow you in the |
| containing superproject to `git checkout` a branch that does not |
| have the submodule. The `checkout` has to remove the entire |
| submodule working tree, without losing the submodule repository. |
| |
| These things may exist in a Git repository. |
| |
| objects:: |
| Object store associated with this repository. Usually |
| an object store is self sufficient (i.e. all the objects |
| that are referred to by an object found in it are also |
| found in it), but there are a few ways to violate it. |
| + |
| . You could have an incomplete but locally usable repository |
| by creating a shallow clone. See linkgit:git-clone[1]. |
| . You could be using the `objects/info/alternates` or |
| `$GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES` mechanisms to 'borrow' |
| objects from other object stores. A repository with this kind |
| of incomplete object store is not suitable to be published for |
| use with dumb transports but otherwise is OK as long as |
| `objects/info/alternates` points at the object stores it |
| borrows from. |
| |
| objects/[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]:: |
| A newly created object is stored in its own file. |
| The objects are splayed over 256 subdirectories using |
| the first two characters of the sha1 object name to |
| keep the number of directory entries in `objects` |
| itself to a manageable number. Objects found |
| here are often called 'unpacked' (or 'loose') objects. |
| |
| objects/pack:: |
| Packs (files that store many object in compressed form, |
| along with index files to allow them to be randomly |
| accessed) are found in this directory. |
| |
| objects/info:: |
| Additional information about the object store is |
| recorded in this directory. |
| |
| objects/info/packs:: |
| This file is to help dumb transports discover what packs |
| are available in this object store. Whenever a pack is |
| added or removed, `git update-server-info` should be run |
| to keep this file up-to-date if the repository is |
| published for dumb transports. 'git repack' does this |
| by default. |
| |
| objects/info/alternates:: |
| This file records paths to alternate object stores that |
| this object store borrows objects from, one pathname per |
| line. Note that not only native Git tools use it locally, |
| but the HTTP fetcher also tries to use it remotely; this |
| will usually work if you have relative paths (relative |
| to the object database, not to the repository!) in your |
| alternates file, but it will not work if you use absolute |
| paths unless the absolute path in filesystem and web URL |
| is the same. See also 'objects/info/http-alternates'. |
| |
| objects/info/http-alternates:: |
| This file records URLs to alternate object stores that |
| this object store borrows objects from, to be used when |
| the repository is fetched over HTTP. |
| |
| refs:: |
| References are stored in subdirectories of this |
| directory. The 'git prune' command knows to preserve |
| objects reachable from refs found in this directory and |
| its subdirectories. |
| |
| refs/heads/`name`:: |
| records tip-of-the-tree commit objects of branch `name` |
| |
| refs/tags/`name`:: |
| records any object name (not necessarily a commit |
| object, or a tag object that points at a commit object). |
| |
| refs/remotes/`name`:: |
| records tip-of-the-tree commit objects of branches copied |
| from a remote repository. |
| |
| refs/replace/`<obj-sha1>`:: |
| records the SHA1 of the object that replaces `<obj-sha1>`. |
| This is similar to info/grafts and is internally used and |
| maintained by linkgit:git-replace[1]. Such refs can be exchanged |
| between repositories while grafts are not. |
| |
| packed-refs:: |
| records the same information as refs/heads/, refs/tags/, |
| and friends record in a more efficient way. See |
| linkgit:git-pack-refs[1]. |
| |
| HEAD:: |
| A symref (see glossary) to the `refs/heads/` namespace |
| describing the currently active branch. It does not mean |
| much if the repository is not associated with any working tree |
| (i.e. a 'bare' repository), but a valid Git repository |
| *must* have the HEAD file; some porcelains may use it to |
| guess the designated "default" branch of the repository |
| (usually 'master'). It is legal if the named branch |
| 'name' does not (yet) exist. In some legacy setups, it is |
| a symbolic link instead of a symref that points at the current |
| branch. |
| + |
| HEAD can also record a specific commit directly, instead of |
| being a symref to point at the current branch. Such a state |
| is often called 'detached HEAD.' See linkgit:git-checkout[1] |
| for details. |
| |
| branches:: |
| A slightly deprecated way to store shorthands to be used |
| to specify a URL to 'git fetch', 'git pull' and 'git push'. |
| A file can be stored as `branches/<name>` and then |
| 'name' can be given to these commands in place of |
| 'repository' argument. See the REMOTES section in |
| linkgit:git-fetch[1] for details. This mechanism is legacy |
| and not likely to be found in modern repositories. |
| |
| hooks:: |
| Hooks are customization scripts used by various Git |
| commands. A handful of sample hooks are installed when |
| 'git init' is run, but all of them are disabled by |
| default. To enable, the `.sample` suffix has to be |
| removed from the filename by renaming. |
| Read linkgit:githooks[5] for more details about |
| each hook. |
| |
| index:: |
| The current index file for the repository. It is |
| usually not found in a bare repository. |
| |
| info:: |
| Additional information about the repository is recorded |
| in this directory. |
| |
| info/refs:: |
| This file helps dumb transports discover what refs are |
| available in this repository. If the repository is |
| published for dumb transports, this file should be |
| regenerated by 'git update-server-info' every time a tag |
| or branch is created or modified. This is normally done |
| from the `hooks/update` hook, which is run by the |
| 'git-receive-pack' command when you 'git push' into the |
| repository. |
| |
| info/grafts:: |
| This file records fake commit ancestry information, to |
| pretend the set of parents a commit has is different |
| from how the commit was actually created. One record |
| per line describes a commit and its fake parents by |
| listing their 40-byte hexadecimal object names separated |
| by a space and terminated by a newline. |
| |
| info/exclude:: |
| This file, by convention among Porcelains, stores the |
| exclude pattern list. `.gitignore` is the per-directory |
| ignore file. 'git status', 'git add', 'git rm' and |
| 'git clean' look at it but the core Git commands do not look |
| at it. See also: linkgit:gitignore[5]. |
| |
| remotes:: |
| Stores shorthands for URL and default refnames for use |
| when interacting with remote repositories via 'git fetch', |
| 'git pull' and 'git push' commands. See the REMOTES section |
| in linkgit:git-fetch[1] for details. This mechanism is legacy |
| and not likely to be found in modern repositories. |
| |
| logs:: |
| Records of changes made to refs are stored in this |
| directory. See linkgit:git-update-ref[1] |
| for more information. |
| |
| logs/refs/heads/`name`:: |
| Records all changes made to the branch tip named `name`. |
| |
| logs/refs/tags/`name`:: |
| Records all changes made to the tag named `name`. |
| |
| shallow:: |
| This is similar to `info/grafts` but is internally used |
| and maintained by shallow clone mechanism. See `--depth` |
| option to linkgit:git-clone[1] and linkgit:git-fetch[1]. |
| |
| SEE ALSO |
| -------- |
| linkgit:git-init[1], |
| linkgit:git-clone[1], |
| linkgit:git-fetch[1], |
| linkgit:git-pack-refs[1], |
| linkgit:git-gc[1], |
| linkgit:git-checkout[1], |
| linkgit:gitglossary[7], |
| link:user-manual.html[The Git User's Manual] |
| |
| GIT |
| --- |
| Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite. |