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NAME
git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive
SYNOPSIS
git bundle create [-q | --quiet | --progress | --all-progress] [--all-progress-implied]
[--version=<version>] <file> <git-rev-list-args>
git bundle verify [-q | --quiet] <file>
git bundle list-heads <file> [<refname>...]
git bundle unbundle [--progress] <file> [<refname>...]
DESCRIPTION
Create, unpack, and manipulate "bundle" files. Bundles are used for the "offline" transfer
of Git objects without an active "server" sitting on the other side of the network
connection.
They can be used to create both incremental and full backups of a repository, and to relay
the state of the references in one repository to another.
Git commands that fetch or otherwise "read" via protocols such as ssh:// and https:// can
also operate on bundle files. It is possible git-clone(1) a new repository from a bundle,
to use git-fetch(1) to fetch from one, and to list the references contained within it with
git-ls-remote(1). There’s no corresponding "write" support, i.e.a git push into a bundle
is not supported.
See the "EXAMPLES" section below for examples of how to use bundles.
BUNDLE FORMAT
Bundles are .pack files (see git-pack-objects(1)) with a header indicating what references
are contained within the bundle.
Like the the packed archive format itself bundles can either be self-contained, or be
created using exclusions. See the "OBJECT PREREQUISITES" section below.
Bundles created using revision exclusions are "thin packs" created using the --thin option
to git-pack-objects(1), and unbundled using the --fix-thin option to git-index-pack(1).
There is no option to create a "thick pack" when using revision exclusions, and users
should not be concerned about the difference. By using "thin packs", bundles created using
exclusions are smaller in size. That they’re "thin" under the hood is merely noted here as
a curiosity, and as a reference to other documentation.
See the bundle-format documentation[1] for more details and the discussion of "thin pack"
in the pack format documentation[2] for further details.
OPTIONS
create [options] <file> <git-rev-list-args>
Used to create a bundle named file. This requires the <git-rev-list-args> arguments to
define the bundle contents. options contains the options specific to the git bundle
create subcommand.
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. Then,
git bundle prints a list of missing commits, if any. Finally, information about
additional capabilities, such as "object filter", is printed. See "Capabilities" in
link:technical/bundle-format.html for more information. The exit code is zero for
success, but will be nonzero if the bundle file is invalid.
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 (and containing a
named ref, see SPECIFYING REFERENCES below), 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).
--progress
Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default when it is
attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This flag forces progress status even
if the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
--all-progress
When --stdout is specified then progress report is displayed during the object count
and compression phases but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is that in
some cases the output stream is directly linked to another command which may wish to
display progress status of its own as it processes incoming pack data. This flag is
like --progress except that it forces progress report for the write-out phase as well
even if --stdout is used.
--all-progress-implied
This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display is activated. Unlike
--all-progress this flag doesn’t actually force any progress display by itself.
--version=<version>
Specify the bundle version. Version 2 is the older format and can only be used with
SHA-1 repositories; the newer version 3 contains capabilities that permit extensions.
The default is the oldest supported format, based on the hash algorithm in use.
-q, --quiet
This flag makes the command not to report its progress on the standard error stream.
SPECIFYING REFERENCES
Revisions must be accompanied by reference names to be packaged in a bundle.
More than one reference may be packaged, and more than one set of prerequisite objects can
be specified. The objects packaged are those not contained in the union of the
prerequisites.
The git bundle create command resolves the reference names for you using the same rules as
git rev-parse --abbrev-ref=loose. Each prerequisite can be specified explicitly (e.g.
^master~10), or implicitly (e.g. master~10..master, --since=10.days.ago master).
All of these simple cases are OK (assuming we have a "master" and "next" branch):
$ git bundle create master.bundle master
$ echo master | git bundle create master.bundle --stdin
$ git bundle create master-and-next.bundle master next
$ (echo master; echo next) | git bundle create master-and-next.bundle --stdin
And so are these (and the same but omitted --stdin examples):
$ git bundle create recent-master.bundle master~10..master
$ git bundle create recent-updates.bundle master~10..master next~5..next
A revision name or a range whose right-hand-side cannot be resolved to a reference is not
accepted:
$ git bundle create HEAD.bundle $(git rev-parse HEAD)
fatal: Refusing to create empty bundle.
$ git bundle create master-yesterday.bundle master~10..master~5
fatal: Refusing to create empty bundle.
OBJECT PREREQUISITES
When creating bundles it is possible to create a self-contained bundle that can be
unbundled in a repository with no common history, as well as providing negative revisions
to exclude objects needed in the earlier parts of the history.
Feeding a revision such as new to git bundle create will create a bundle file that
contains all the objects reachable from the revision new. That bundle can be unbundled in
any repository to obtain a full history that leads to the revision new:
$ git bundle create full.bundle new
A revision range such as old..new will produce a bundle file that will require the
revision old (and any objects reachable from it) to exist for the bundle to be
"unbundle"-able:
$ git bundle create full.bundle old..new
A self-contained bundle without any prerequisites can be extracted into anywhere, even
into an empty repository, or be cloned from (i.e., new, but not old..new).
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.
If you want to match git clone --mirror, which would include your refs such as
refs/remotes/*, use --all. If you want to provide the same set of refs that a clone
directly from the source repository would get, use --branches --tags for the
<git-rev-list-args>.
The git bundle verify command can be used to check whether your recipient repository has
the required prerequisite commits for a bundle.
EXAMPLES
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
prerequisites. 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. Because this bundle does not
require any existing object to be extracted, you can create a new repository on machine B
by cloning from it:
machineB$ git clone -b master /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 prerequisites, giving a cut-off point
to limit the revisions and objects that go in the resulting bundle. The previous example
used the lastR2bundle tag for this purpose, but you can use any other options that you
would give to the 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 prerequisite 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 prerequisite:
$ 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
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
NOTES
1. the bundle-format documentation
file:///usr/share/doc/git/html/technical/bundle-format.html
2. the pack format documentation
file:///usr/share/doc/git/html/technical/pack-format.html