# git-clone

## NAME



           git-clone - Clone a repository into a new directory
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **git clone**[**--template=**_< template-directory>_]
                     [**-l**] [**-s**] [**--no-hardlinks**] [**-q**] [**-n**] [**--bare**] [**--mirror**]
                     [**-o** _< name>_] [**-b** _< name>_] [**-u** _< upload-pack>_] [**--reference** _< repository>_]
                     [**--dissociate**] [**--separate-git-dir** _< git-dir>_]
                     [**--depth** _< depth>_] [**--**[**no-**]**single-branch**] [**--**[**no-**]**tags**]
                     [**--recurse-submodules**[**=**_< pathspec>_]] [**--**[**no-**]**shallow-submodules**]
                     [**--**[**no-**]**remote-submodules**] [**--jobs** _< n>_] [**--sparse**] [**--**[**no-**]**reject-shallow**]
                     [**--filter=**_< filter-spec>_] [**--also-filter-submodules**]] [**--**] _< repository>_
                     [_< directory>_]
    


## DESCRIPTION



           Clones a repository into a newly created directory, creates
           remote-tracking branches for each branch in the cloned repository
           (visible using **git branch --remotes**), and creates and checks out
           an initial branch that is forked from the cloned repository’s
           currently active branch.
    
           After the clone, a plain **git fetch** without arguments will update
           all the remote-tracking branches, and a **git pull** without arguments
           will in addition merge the remote master branch into the current
           master branch, if any (this is untrue when **--single-branch** is
           given; see below).
    
           This default configuration is achieved by creating references to
           the remote branch heads under **refs/remotes/origin** and by
           initializing **remote.origin.url** and **remote.origin.fetch**
           configuration variables.
    


## OPTIONS



           **-l** , **--local**
               When the repository to clone from is on a local machine, this
               flag bypasses the normal "Git aware" transport mechanism and
               clones the repository by making a copy of **HEAD** and everything
               under objects and refs directories. The files under
               **.git/objects/** directory are hardlinked to save space when
               possible.
    
               If the repository is specified as a local path (e.g.,
               **/path/to/repo**), this is the default, and **--local** is
               essentially a no-op. If the repository is specified as a URL,
               then this flag is ignored (and we never use the local
               optimizations). Specifying **--no-local** will override the
               default when **/path/to/repo** is given, using the regular Git
               transport instead.
    
               If the repository’s **$GIT_DIR/objects** has symbolic links or is
               a symbolic link, the clone will fail. This is a security
               measure to prevent the unintentional copying of files by
               dereferencing the symbolic links.
    
               This option does not work with repositories owned by other
               users for security reasons, and **--no-local** must be specified
               for the clone to succeed.
    
               **NOTE** : this operation can race with concurrent modification to
               the source repository, similar to running **cp -r** _< src> <dst>_
               while modifying _< src>_.
    
           **--no-hardlinks**
               Force the cloning process from a repository on a local
               filesystem to copy the files under the **.git/objects** directory
               instead of using hardlinks. This may be desirable if you are
               trying to make a back-up of your repository.
    
           **-s** , **--shared**
               When the repository to clone is on the local machine, instead
               of using hard links, automatically setup
               **.git/objects/info/alternates** to share the objects with the
               source repository. The resulting repository starts out without
               any object of its own.
    
               **NOTE** : this is a possibly dangerous operation; do **not** use it
               unless you understand what it does. If you clone your
               repository using this option and then delete branches (or use
               any other Git command that makes any existing commit
               unreferenced) in the source repository, some objects may
               become unreferenced (or dangling). These objects may be
               removed by normal Git operations (such as **git commit**) which
               automatically call **git maintenance run --auto**. (See
               git-maintenance(1).) If these objects are removed and were
               referenced by the cloned repository, then the cloned
               repository will become corrupt.
    
               Note that running **git repack** without the **--local** option in a
               repository cloned with **--shared** will copy objects from the
               source repository into a pack in the cloned repository,
               removing the disk space savings of **clone --shared**. It is safe,
               however, to run **git gc** , which uses the **--local** option by
               default.
    
               If you want to break the dependency of a repository cloned
               with **--shared** on its source repository, you can simply run **git**
               **repack -a** to copy all objects from the source repository into
               a pack in the cloned repository.
    
           **--reference**[**-if-able**] _< repository>_
               If the reference _< repository>_ is on the local machine,
               automatically setup **.git/objects/info/alternates** to obtain
               objects from the reference _< repository>_. Using an already
               existing repository as an alternate will require fewer objects
               to be copied from the repository being cloned, reducing
               network and local storage costs. When using the
               **--reference-if-able** , a non existing directory is skipped with
               a warning instead of aborting the clone.
    
               **NOTE** : see the NOTE for the **--shared** option, and also the
               **--dissociate** option.
    
           **--dissociate**
               Borrow the objects from reference repositories specified with
               the **--reference** options only to reduce network transfer, and
               stop borrowing from them after a clone is made by making
               necessary local copies of borrowed objects. This option can
               also be used when cloning locally from a repository that
               already borrows objects from another repository—the new
               repository will borrow objects from the same repository, and
               this option can be used to stop the borrowing.
    
           **-q** , **--quiet**
               Operate quietly. Progress is not reported to the standard
               error stream.
    
           **-v** , **--verbose**
               Run verbosely. Does not affect the reporting of progress
               status to the standard error stream.
    
           **--progress**
               Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by
               default when it is attached to a terminal, unless **--quiet** is
               specified. This flag forces progress status even if the
               standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
    
           **--server-option=**_< option>_
               Transmit the given string to the server when communicating
               using protocol version 2. The given string must not contain a
               NUL or LF character. The server’s handling of server options,
               including unknown ones, is server-specific. When multiple
               **--server-option=**_< option>_ are given, they are all sent to the
               other side in the order listed on the command line. When no
               **--server-option=**_< option>_ is given from the command line, the
               values of configuration variable **remote.**_< name>_**.serverOption**
               are used instead.
    
           **-n** , **--no-checkout**
               No checkout of **HEAD** is performed after the clone is complete.
    
           **--**[**no-**]**reject-shallow**
               Fail if the source repository is a shallow repository. The
               **clone.rejectShallow** configuration variable can be used to
               specify the default.
    
           **--bare**
               Make a _bare_ Git repository. That is, instead of creating
               _< directory>_ and placing the administrative files in
               _< directory>_**/.git** , make the _< directory>_ itself the **$GIT_DIR**.
               This obviously implies the **--no-checkout** because there is
               nowhere to check out the working tree. Also the branch heads
               at the remote are copied directly to corresponding local
               branch heads, without mapping them to **refs/remotes/origin/**.
               When this option is used, neither remote-tracking branches nor
               the related configuration variables are created.
    
           **--sparse**
               Employ a sparse-checkout, with only files in the toplevel
               directory initially being present. The git-sparse-checkout(1)
               command can be used to grow the working directory as needed.
    
           **--filter=**_< filter-spec>_
               Use the partial clone feature and request that the server
               sends a subset of reachable objects according to a given
               object filter. When using **--filter** , the supplied _< filter-spec>_
               is used for the partial clone filter. For example,
               **--filter=blob:none** will filter out all blobs (file contents)
               until needed by Git. Also, **--filter=blob:limit=**_< size>_ will
               filter out all blobs of size at least _< size>_. For more details
               on filter specifications, see the **--filter** option in
               git-rev-list(1).
    
           **--also-filter-submodules**
               Also apply the partial clone filter to any submodules in the
               repository. Requires **--filter** and **--recurse-submodules**. This
               can be turned on by default by setting the
               **clone.filterSubmodules** config option.
    
           **--mirror**
               Set up a mirror of the source repository. This implies **--bare**.
               Compared to **--bare** , **--mirror** not only maps local branches of
               the source to local branches of the target, it maps all refs
               (including remote-tracking branches, notes etc.) and sets up a
               refspec configuration such that all these refs are overwritten
               by a **git remote update** in the target repository.
    
           **-o** _< name>_, **--origin** _< name>_
               Instead of using the remote name **origin** to keep track of the
               upstream repository, use _< name>_. Overrides
               **clone.defaultRemoteName** from the config.
    
           **-b** _< name>_, **--branch** _< name>_
               Instead of pointing the newly created **HEAD** to the branch
               pointed to by the cloned repository’s **HEAD** , point to _< name>_
               branch instead. In a non-bare repository, this is the branch
               that will be checked out.  **--branch** can also take tags and
               detaches the **HEAD** at that commit in the resulting repository.
    
           **--revision=**_< rev>_
               Create a new repository, and fetch the history leading to the
               given revision _< rev>_ (and nothing else), without making any
               remote-tracking branch, and without making any local branch,
               and detach **HEAD** to _< rev>_. The argument can be a ref name (e.g.
               **refs/heads/main** or **refs/tags/v1.0**) that peels down to a
               commit, or a hexadecimal object name. This option is
               incompatible with **--branch** and **--mirror**.
    
           **-u** _< upload-pack>_, **--upload-pack** _< upload-pack>_
               When given, and the repository to clone from is accessed via
               ssh, this specifies a non-default path for the command run on
               the other end.
    
           **--template=**_< template-directory>_
               Specify the directory from which templates will be used; (See
               the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of git-init(1).)
    
           **-c** _< key>_**=**_< value>_, **--config** _< key>_**=**_< value>_
               Set a configuration variable in the newly-created repository;
               this takes effect immediately after the repository is
               initialized, but before the remote history is fetched or any
               files checked out. The _< key>_ is in the same format as expected
               by git-config(1) (e.g., **core.eol=true**). If multiple values are
               given for the same key, each value will be written to the
               config file. This makes it safe, for example, to add
               additional fetch refspecs to the origin remote.
    
               Due to limitations of the current implementation, some
               configuration variables do not take effect until after the
               initial fetch and checkout. Configuration variables known to
               not take effect are: **remote.**_< name>_**.mirror** and
               **remote.**_< name>_**.tagOpt**. Use the corresponding **--mirror** and
               **--no-tags** options instead.
    
           **--depth** _< depth>_
               Create a _shallow_ clone with a history truncated to the
               specified number of commits. Implies **--single-branch** unless
               **--no-single-branch** is given to fetch the histories near the
               tips of all branches. If you want to clone submodules
               shallowly, also pass **--shallow-submodules**.
    
           **--shallow-since=**_< date>_
               Create a shallow clone with a history after the specified
               time.
    
           **--shallow-exclude=**_< ref>_
               Create a shallow clone with a history, excluding commits
               reachable from a specified remote branch or tag. This option
               can be specified multiple times.
    
           **--**[**no-**]**single-branch**
               Clone only the history leading to the tip of a single branch,
               either specified by the **--branch** option or the primary branch
               remote’s **HEAD** points at. Further fetches into the resulting
               repository will only update the remote-tracking branch for the
               branch this option was used for the initial cloning. If the
               **HEAD** at the remote did not point at any branch when
               **--single-branch** clone was made, no remote-tracking branch is
               created.
    
           **--**[**no-**]**tags**
               Control whether or not tags will be cloned. When **--no-tags** is
               given, the option will be become permanent by setting the
               **remote.**_< remote>_**.tagOpt=--no-tags** configuration. This ensures
               that future **git pull** and **git fetch** won’t follow any tags.
               Subsequent explicit tag fetches will still work (see
               git-fetch(1)).
    
               By default, tags are cloned and passing **--tags** is thus
               typically a no-op, unless it cancels out a previous **--no-tags**.
    
               Can be used in conjunction with **--single-branch** to clone and
               maintain a branch with no references other than a single
               cloned branch. This is useful e.g. to maintain minimal clones
               of the default branch of some repository for search indexing.
    
           **--recurse-submodules**[**=**_< pathspec>_]
               After the clone is created, initialize and clone submodules
               within based on the provided _< pathspec>_. If no **=**_< pathspec>_ is
               provided, all submodules are initialized and cloned. This
               option can be given multiple times for pathspecs consisting of
               multiple entries. The resulting clone has **submodule.active** set
               to the provided pathspec, or "." (meaning all submodules) if
               no pathspec is provided.
    
               Submodules are initialized and cloned using their default
               settings. This is equivalent to running **git submodule update**
               **--init --recursive** _< pathspec>_ immediately after the clone is
               finished. This option is ignored if the cloned repository does
               not have a worktree/checkout (i.e. if any of **--no-checkout** /**-n** ,
               **--bare** , or **--mirror** is given)
    
           **--**[**no-**]**shallow-submodules**
               All submodules which are cloned will be shallow with a depth
               of 1.
    
           **--**[**no-**]**remote-submodules**
               All submodules which are cloned will use the status of the
               submodule’s remote-tracking branch to update the submodule,
               rather than the superproject’s recorded SHA-1. Equivalent to
               passing **--remote** to **git submodule update**.
    
           **--separate-git-dir=**_< git-dir>_
               Instead of placing the cloned repository where it is supposed
               to be, place the cloned repository at the specified directory,
               then make a filesystem-agnostic Git symbolic link to there.
               The result is Git repository can be separated from working
               tree.
    
           **--ref-format=**_< ref-format>_
               Specify the given ref storage format for the repository. The
               valid values are:
    
               •   **files** for loose files with packed-refs. This is the
                   default.
    
               •   **reftable** for the reftable format. This format is
                   experimental and its internals are subject to change.
    
           **-j** _< n>_, **--jobs** _< n>_
               The number of submodules fetched at the same time. Defaults to
               the **submodule.fetchJobs** option.
    
           _< repository>_
               The (possibly remote) _< repository>_ to clone from. See the GIT
               URLS section below for more information on specifying
               repositories.
    
           _< directory>_
               The name of a new directory to clone into. The "humanish" part
               of the source repository is used if no _< directory>_ is
               explicitly given (**repo** for **/path/to/repo.git** and **foo** for
               **host.xz:foo/.git**). Cloning into an existing directory is only
               allowed if the directory is empty.
    
           **--bundle-uri=**_< uri>_
               Before fetching from the remote, fetch a bundle from the given
               _< uri>_ and unbundle the data into the local repository. The
               refs in the bundle will be stored under the hidden
               **refs/bundle/*** namespace. This option is incompatible with
               **--depth** , **--shallow-since** , and **--shallow-exclude**.
    


## GIT URLS



           In general, URLs contain information about the transport protocol,
           the address of the remote server, and the path to the repository.
           Depending on the transport protocol, some of this information may
           be absent.
    
           Git supports ssh, git, http, and https protocols (in addition, ftp
           and ftps can be used for fetching, but this is inefficient and
           deprecated; do not use them).
    
           The native transport (i.e. **git://** URL) does no authentication and
           should be used with caution on unsecured networks.
    
           The following syntaxes may be used with them:
    
           •   **ssh://**[_< user>_**@**]_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           •   **git://**_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           •   **http**[**s**]**://**_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           •   **ftp**[**s**]**://**_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           An alternative scp-like syntax may also be used with the ssh
           protocol:
    
           •   [_< user>_**@**]_< host>_**:/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           This syntax is only recognized if there are no slashes before the
           first colon. This helps differentiate a local path that contains a
           colon. For example the local path **foo:bar** could be specified as an
           absolute path or **./foo:bar** to avoid being misinterpreted as an ssh
           url.
    
           The ssh and git protocols additionally support **~**_< username>_
           expansion:
    
           •   **ssh://**[_< user>_**@**]_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/~**_< user>_**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           •   **git://**_< host>_[**:**_< port>_]**/~**_< user>_**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           •   [_< user>_**@**]_< host>_**:~**_< user>_**/**_< path-to-git-repo>_
    
           For local repositories, also supported by Git natively, the
           following syntaxes may be used:
    
           •   **/path/to/repo.git/**
    
           •   **file:///path/to/repo.git/**
    
           These two syntaxes are mostly equivalent, except the former
           implies **--local** option.
    
           **git clone** , **git fetch** and **git pull** , but not **git push** , will also
           accept a suitable bundle file. See git-bundle(1).
    
           When Git doesn’t know how to handle a certain transport protocol,
           it attempts to use the **remote-**_< transport>_ remote helper, if one
           exists. To explicitly request a remote helper, the following
           syntax may be used:
    
           •   _< transport>_**::**_< address>_
    
           where _< address>_ may be a path, a server and path, or an arbitrary
           URL-like string recognized by the specific remote helper being
           invoked. See gitremote-helpers(7) for details.
    
           If there are a large number of similarly-named remote repositories
           and you want to use a different format for them (such that the
           URLs you use will be rewritten into URLs that work), you can
           create a configuration section of the form:
    
                       [url "_< actual-url-base>_"]
                               insteadOf = _< other-url-base>_
    
           For example, with this:
    
                       [url "git://git.host.xz/"]
                               insteadOf = host.xz:/path/to/
                               insteadOf = work:
    
           a URL like "work:repo.git" or like "host.xz:/path/to/repo.git"
           will be rewritten in any context that takes a URL to be
           "git://git.host.xz/repo.git".
    
           If you want to rewrite URLs for push only, you can create a
           configuration section of the form:
    
                       [url "_< actual-url-base>_"]
                               pushInsteadOf = _< other-url-base>_
    
           For example, with this:
    
                       [url "ssh://example.org/"]
                               pushInsteadOf = git://example.org/
    
           a URL like "git://example.org/path/to/repo.git" will be rewritten
           to "ssh://example.org/path/to/repo.git" for pushes, but pulls will
           still use the original URL.
    


## EXAMPLES



           •   Clone from upstream:
    
                   $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git my-linux
                   $ cd my-linux
                   $ make
    
           •   Make a local clone that borrows from the current directory,
               without checking things out:
    
                   $ git clone -l -s -n . ../copy
                   $ cd ../copy
                   $ git show-branch
    
           •   Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local
               directory:
    
                   $ git clone --reference /git/linux.git \
                           git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux.git \
                           my-linux
                   $ cd my-linux
    
           •   Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the
               public:
    
                   $ git clone --bare -l /home/proj/.git /pub/scm/proj.git
    
           •   Clone a local repository from a different user:
    
                   $ git clone --no-local /home/otheruser/proj.git /pub/scm/proj.git
    


## CONFIGURATION



           Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
           from the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as
           what’s found there:
    
           **init.templateDir**
               Specify the directory from which templates will be copied.
               (See the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section of git-init(1).)
    
           **init.defaultBranch**
               Allows overriding the default branch name e.g. when
               initializing a new repository.
    
           **init.defaultObjectFormat**
               Allows overriding the default object format for new
               repositories. See **--object-format=** in git-init(1). Both the
               command line option and the **GIT_DEFAULT_HASH** environment
               variable take precedence over this config.
    
           **init.defaultRefFormat**
               Allows overriding the default ref storage format for new
               repositories. See **--ref-format=** in git-init(1). Both the
               command line option and the **GIT_DEFAULT_REF_FORMAT** environment
               variable take precedence over this config.
    
           **clone.defaultRemoteName**
               The name of the remote to create when cloning a repository.
               Defaults to **origin**. It can be overridden by passing the
               **--origin** command-line option.
    
           **clone.rejectShallow**
               Reject cloning a repository if it is a shallow one; this can
               be overridden by passing the **--reject-shallow** option on the
               command line.
    
           **clone.filterSubmodules**
               If a partial clone filter is provided (see **--filter** in
               git-rev-list(1)) and **--recurse-submodules** is used, also apply
               the filter to submodules.
    


## GIT



           Part of the git(1) suite
    


* * *