# git-repack

## NAME



           git-repack - Pack unpacked objects in a repository
    


## SYNOPSIS



           _git repack_ [-a] [-A] [-d] [-f] [-F] [-l] [-n] [-q] [-b] [-m]
                   [--window=<n>] [--depth=<n>] [--threads=<n>] [--keep-pack=<pack-name>]
                   [--write-midx] [--name-hash-version=<n>] [--path-walk]
    


## DESCRIPTION



           This command is used to combine all objects that do not currently
           reside in a "pack", into a pack. It can also be used to
           re-organize existing packs into a single, more efficient pack.
    
           A pack is a collection of objects, individually compressed, with
           delta compression applied, stored in a single file, with an
           associated index file.
    
           Packs are used to reduce the load on mirror systems, backup
           engines, disk storage, etc.
    


## OPTIONS



           -a
               Instead of incrementally packing the unpacked objects, pack
               everything referenced into a single pack. Especially useful
               when packing a repository that is used for private
               development. Use with **-d**. This will clean up the objects that
               **git prune** leaves behind, but **git fsck --full --dangling** shows
               as dangling.
    
               Note that users fetching over dumb protocols will have to
               fetch the whole new pack in order to get any contained object,
               no matter how many other objects in that pack they already
               have locally.
    
               Promisor packfiles are repacked separately: if there are
               packfiles that have an associated ".promisor" file, these
               packfiles will be repacked into another separate pack, and an
               empty ".promisor" file corresponding to the new separate pack
               will be written.
    
           -A
               Same as **-a** , unless **-d** is used. Then any unreachable objects in
               a previous pack become loose, unpacked objects, instead of
               being left in the old pack. Unreachable objects are never
               intentionally added to a pack, even when repacking. This
               option prevents unreachable objects from being immediately
               deleted by way of being left in the old pack and then removed.
               Instead, the loose unreachable objects will be pruned
               according to normal expiry rules with the next _git gc_
               invocation. See git-gc(1).
    
           -d
               After packing, if the newly created packs make some existing
               packs redundant, remove the redundant packs. Also run _git_
               _prune-packed_ to remove redundant loose object files.
    
           --cruft
               Same as **-a** , unless **-d** is used. Then any unreachable objects
               are packed into a separate cruft pack. Unreachable objects can
               be pruned using the normal expiry rules with the next **git gc**
               invocation (see git-gc(1)). Incompatible with **-k**.
    
           --cruft-expiration=<approxidate>
               Expire unreachable objects older than _< approxidate>_
               immediately instead of waiting for the next **git gc** invocation.
               Only useful with **--cruft -d**.
    
           --max-cruft-size=<n>
               Overrides **--max-pack-size** for cruft packs. Inherits the value
               of **--max-pack-size**(if any) by default. See the documentation
               for **--max-pack-size** for more details.
    
           --combine-cruft-below-size=<n>
               When generating cruft packs without pruning, only repack
               existing cruft packs whose size is strictly less than _< n>_,
               where _< n>_ represents a number of bytes, which can optionally
               be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g". Cruft packs whose size is
               greater than or equal to _< n>_ are left as-is and not repacked.
               Useful when you want to avoid repacking large cruft pack(s) in
               repositories that have many and/or large unreachable objects.
    
           --expire-to=<dir>
               Write a cruft pack containing pruned objects (if any) to the
               directory _< dir>_. This option is useful for keeping a copy of
               any pruned objects in a separate directory as a backup. Only
               useful with **--cruft -d**.
    
           -l
               Pass the **--local** option to _git pack-objects_. See
               git-pack-objects(1).
    
           -f
               Pass the **--no-reuse-delta** option to **git-pack-objects** , see
               git-pack-objects(1).
    
           -F
               Pass the **--no-reuse-object** option to **git-pack-objects** , see
               git-pack-objects(1).
    
           -q, --quiet
               Show no progress over the standard error stream and pass the
               **-q** option to _git pack-objects_. See git-pack-objects(1).
    
           -n
               Do not update the server information with _git_
               _update-server-info_. This option skips updating local catalog
               files needed to publish this repository (or a direct copy of
               it) over HTTP or FTP. See git-update-server-info(1).
    
           --window=<n>, --depth=<n>
               These two options affect how the objects contained in the pack
               are stored using delta compression. The objects are first
               internally sorted by type, size and optionally names and
               compared against the other objects within **--window** to see if
               using delta compression saves space.  **--depth** limits the
               maximum delta depth; making it too deep affects the
               performance on the unpacker side, because delta data needs to
               be applied that many times to get to the necessary object.
    
               The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50. The
               maximum depth is 4095.
    
           --threads=<n>
               This option is passed through to **git pack-objects**.
    
           --window-memory=<n>
               This option provides an additional limit on top of **--window** ;
               the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
               up more than _< n>_ bytes in memory. This is useful in
               repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
               out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
               advantage of the large window for the smaller objects. The
               size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".  **--window-memory=0**
               makes memory usage unlimited. The default is taken from the
               **pack.windowMemory** configuration variable. Note that the actual
               memory usage will be the limit multiplied by the number of
               threads used by git-pack-objects(1).
    
           --max-pack-size=<n>
               Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be
               suffixed with "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is
               limited to 1 MiB. If specified, multiple packfiles may be
               created, which also prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
               The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
               **pack.packSizeLimit** is set. Note that this option may result in
               a larger and slower repository; see the discussion in
               **pack.packSizeLimit**.
    
           --filter=<filter-spec>
               Remove objects matching the filter specification from the
               resulting packfile and put them into a separate packfile. Note
               that objects used in the working directory are not filtered
               out. So for the split to fully work, it’s best to perform it
               in a bare repo and to use the **-a** and **-d** options along with
               this option. Also **--no-write-bitmap-index**(or the
               **repack.writebitmaps** config option set to **false**) should be used
               otherwise writing bitmap index will fail, as it supposes a
               single packfile containing all the objects. See
               git-rev-list(1) for valid _< filter-spec>_ forms.
    
           --filter-to=<dir>
               Write the pack containing filtered out objects to the
               directory _< dir>_. Only useful with **--filter**. This can be used
               for putting the pack on a separate object directory that is
               accessed through the Git alternates mechanism.  **WARNING:** If
               the packfile containing the filtered out objects is not
               accessible, the repo can become corrupt as it might not be
               possible to access the objects in that packfile. See the
               **objects** and **objects/info/alternates** sections of
               gitrepository-layout(5).
    
           -b, --write-bitmap-index
               Write a reachability bitmap index as part of the repack. This
               only makes sense when used with **-a** , **-A** or **-m** , as the bitmaps
               must be able to refer to all reachable objects. This option
               overrides the setting of **repack.writeBitmaps**. This option has
               no effect if multiple packfiles are created, unless writing a
               MIDX (in which case a multi-pack bitmap is created).
    
           --pack-kept-objects
               Include objects in **.keep** files when repacking. Note that we
               still do not delete **.keep** packs after **pack-objects** finishes.
               This means that we may duplicate objects, but this makes the
               option safe to use when there are concurrent pushes or
               fetches. This option is generally only useful if you are
               writing bitmaps with **-b** or **repack.writeBitmaps** , as it ensures
               that the bitmapped packfile has the necessary objects.
    
           --keep-pack=<pack-name>
               Exclude the given pack from repacking. This is the equivalent
               of having **.keep** file on the pack.  _< pack-name>_ is the pack
               file name without leading directory (e.g.  **pack-123.pack**). The
               option can be specified multiple times to keep multiple packs.
    
           --unpack-unreachable=<when>
               When loosening unreachable objects, do not bother loosening
               any objects older than _< when>_. This can be used to optimize
               out the write of any objects that would be immediately pruned
               by a follow-up **git prune**.
    
           -k, --keep-unreachable
               When used with **-ad** , any unreachable objects from existing
               packs will be appended to the end of the packfile instead of
               being removed. In addition, any unreachable loose objects will
               be packed (and their loose counterparts removed).
    
           -i, --delta-islands
               Pass the **--delta-islands** option to **git-pack-objects** , see
               git-pack-objects(1).
    
           -g<factor>, --geometric=<factor>
               Arrange resulting pack structure so that each successive pack
               contains at least _< factor>_ times the number of objects as the
               next-largest pack.
    
               **git repack** ensures this by determining a "cut" of packfiles
               that need to be repacked into one in order to ensure a
               geometric progression. It picks the smallest set of packfiles
               such that as many of the larger packfiles (by count of objects
               contained in that pack) may be left intact.
    
               Unlike other repack modes, the set of objects to pack is
               determined uniquely by the set of packs being "rolled-up"; in
               other words, the packs determined to need to be combined in
               order to restore a geometric progression.
    
               Loose objects are implicitly included in this "roll-up",
               without respect to their reachability. This is subject to
               change in the future.
    
               When writing a multi-pack bitmap, **git repack** selects the
               largest resulting pack as the preferred pack for object
               selection by the MIDX (see git-multi-pack-index(1)).
    
           -m, --write-midx
               Write a multi-pack index (see git-multi-pack-index(1))
               containing the non-redundant packs.
    
           --name-hash-version=<n>
               Provide this argument to the underlying **git pack-objects**
               process. See git-pack-objects(1) for full details.
    
           --path-walk
               Pass the **--path-walk** option to the underlying **git pack-objects**
               process. See git-pack-objects(1) for full details.
    


## CONFIGURATION



           Various configuration variables affect packing, see git-config(1)
           (search for "pack" and "delta").
    
           By default, the command passes **--delta-base-offset** option to _git_
           _pack-objects_ ; this typically results in slightly smaller packs,
           but the generated packs are incompatible with versions of Git
           older than version 1.4.4. If you need to share your repository
           with such ancient Git versions, either directly or via the dumb
           http protocol, then you need to set the configuration variable
           **repack.UseDeltaBaseOffset** to "false" and repack. Access from old
           Git versions over the native protocol is unaffected by this option
           as the conversion is performed on the fly as needed in that case.
    
           Delta compression is not used on objects larger than the
           **core.bigFileThreshold** configuration variable and on files with the
           attribute **delta** set to false.
    


## GIT



           Part of the git(1) suite
    


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