| git-bundle(1) |
| ============= |
| |
| NAME |
| ---- |
| git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive |
| |
| |
| SYNOPSIS |
| -------- |
| [verse] |
| 'git bundle' create <file> <git-rev-list args> |
| 'git bundle' verify <file> |
| 'git bundle' list-heads <file> [refname...] |
| 'git bundle' unbundle <file> [refname...] |
| |
| DESCRIPTION |
| ----------- |
| |
| Some workflows require that one or more branches of development on one |
| machine be replicated on another machine, but the two machines cannot |
| be directly connected, and therefore the interactive git protocols (git, |
| ssh, rsync, http) cannot be used. This command provides support for |
| 'git fetch' and 'git pull' to operate by packaging objects and references |
| in an archive at the originating machine, then importing those into |
| another repository using 'git fetch' and 'git pull' |
| after moving the archive by some means (e.g., by sneakernet). As no |
| direct connection between the repositories exists, the user must specify a |
| basis for the bundle that is held by the destination repository: the |
| bundle assumes that all objects in the basis are already in the |
| destination repository. |
| |
| OPTIONS |
| ------- |
| |
| create <file>:: |
| Used to create a bundle named 'file'. This requires the |
| 'git rev-list' arguments to define the bundle contents. |
| |
| verify <file>:: |
| Used to check that a bundle file is valid and will apply |
| cleanly to the current repository. This includes checks on the |
| bundle format itself as well as checking that the prerequisite |
| commits exist and are fully linked in the current repository. |
| 'git bundle' prints a list of missing commits, if any, and exits |
| with a non-zero status. |
| |
| list-heads <file>:: |
| Lists the references defined in the bundle. If followed by a |
| list of references, only references matching those given are |
| printed out. |
| |
| unbundle <file>:: |
| Passes the objects in the bundle to 'git index-pack' |
| for storage in the repository, then prints the names of all |
| defined references. If a list of references is given, only |
| references matching those in the list are printed. This command is |
| really plumbing, intended to be called only by 'git fetch'. |
| |
| [git-rev-list-args...]:: |
| A list of arguments, acceptable to 'git rev-parse' and |
| 'git rev-list', that specifies the specific objects and references |
| to transport. For example, `master\~10..master` causes the |
| current master reference to be packaged along with all objects |
| added since its 10th ancestor commit. There is no explicit |
| limit to the number of references and objects that may be |
| packaged. |
| |
| |
| [refname...]:: |
| A list of references used to limit the references reported as |
| available. This is principally of use to 'git fetch', which |
| expects to receive only those references asked for and not |
| necessarily everything in the pack (in this case, 'git bundle' acts |
| like 'git fetch-pack'). |
| |
| SPECIFYING REFERENCES |
| --------------------- |
| |
| 'git bundle' will only package references that are shown by |
| 'git show-ref': this includes heads, tags, and remote heads. References |
| such as `master\~1` cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable for |
| defining the basis. More than one reference may be packaged, and more |
| than one basis can be specified. The objects packaged are those not |
| contained in the union of the given bases. Each basis can be |
| specified explicitly (e.g. `^master\~10`), or implicitly (e.g. |
| `master\~10..master`, `--since=10.days.ago master`). |
| |
| It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination. |
| It is okay to err on the side of caution, causing the bundle file |
| to contain objects already in the destination, as these are ignored |
| when unpacking at the destination. |
| |
| EXAMPLE |
| ------- |
| |
| Assume you want to transfer the history from a repository R1 on machine A |
| to another repository R2 on machine B. |
| For whatever reason, direct connection between A and B is not allowed, |
| but we can move data from A to B via some mechanism (CD, email, etc.). |
| We want to update R2 with development made on the branch master in R1. |
| |
| To bootstrap the process, you can first create a bundle that does not have |
| any basis. You can use a tag to remember up to what commit you last |
| processed, in order to make it easy to later update the other repository |
| with an incremental bundle: |
| |
| ---------------- |
| machineA$ cd R1 |
| machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle master |
| machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master |
| ---------------- |
| |
| Then you transfer file.bundle to the target machine B. If you are creating |
| the repository on machine B, then you can clone from the bundle as if it |
| were a remote repository instead of creating an empty repository and then |
| pulling or fetching objects from the bundle: |
| |
| ---------------- |
| machineB$ git clone /home/me/tmp/file.bundle R2 |
| ---------------- |
| |
| This will define a remote called "origin" in the resulting repository that |
| lets you fetch and pull from the bundle. The $GIT_DIR/config file in R2 will |
| have an entry like this: |
| |
| ------------------------ |
| [remote "origin"] |
| url = /home/me/tmp/file.bundle |
| fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* |
| ------------------------ |
| |
| To update the resulting mine.git repository, you can fetch or pull after |
| replacing the bundle stored at /home/me/tmp/file.bundle with incremental |
| updates. |
| |
| After working some more in the original repository, you can create an |
| incremental bundle to update the other repository: |
| |
| ---------------- |
| machineA$ cd R1 |
| machineA$ git bundle create file.bundle lastR2bundle..master |
| machineA$ git tag -f lastR2bundle master |
| ---------------- |
| |
| You then transfer the bundle to the other machine to replace |
| /home/me/tmp/file.bundle, and pull from it. |
| |
| ---------------- |
| machineB$ cd R2 |
| machineB$ git pull |
| ---------------- |
| |
| If you know up to what commit the intended recipient repository should |
| have the necessary objects, you can use that knowledge to specify the |
| basis, giving a cut-off point to limit the revisions and objects that go |
| in the resulting bundle. The previous example used lastR2bundle tag |
| for this purpose, but you can use any other options that you would give to |
| the linkgit:git-log[1] command. Here are more examples: |
| |
| You can use a tag that is present in both: |
| |
| ---------------- |
| $ git bundle create mybundle v1.0.0..master |
| ---------------- |
| |
| You can use a basis based on time: |
| |
| ---------------- |
| $ git bundle create mybundle --since=10.days master |
| ---------------- |
| |
| You can use the number of commits: |
| |
| ---------------- |
| $ git bundle create mybundle -10 master |
| ---------------- |
| |
| You can run `git-bundle verify` to see if you can extract from a bundle |
| that was created with a basis: |
| |
| ---------------- |
| $ git bundle verify mybundle |
| ---------------- |
| |
| This will list what commits you must have in order to extract from the |
| bundle and will error out if you do not have them. |
| |
| A bundle from a recipient repository's point of view is just like a |
| regular repository which it fetches or pulls from. You can, for example, map |
| references when fetching: |
| |
| ---------------- |
| $ git fetch mybundle master:localRef |
| ---------------- |
| |
| You can also see what references it offers. |
| |
| ---------------- |
| $ git ls-remote mybundle |
| ---------------- |
| |
| Author |
| ------ |
| Written by Mark Levedahl <mdl123@verizon.net> |
| |
| GIT |
| --- |
| Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |
