# git-bundle

## NAME



           git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive
    


## SYNOPSIS



           _git bundle_ create [-q | --quiet | --progress]
                               [--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 (see the "full backup" example in "EXAMPLES"), and to
           relay the state of the references in one repository to another
           (see the second example).
    
           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.
    


## BUNDLE FORMAT



           Bundles are **.pack** files (see git-pack-objects(1)) with a header
           indicating what references are contained within the bundle.
    
           Like 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 gitformat-bundle(5) for more details and the discussion of
           "thin pack" in gitformat-pack(5) 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. If _file_ is **-** , the bundle is written to stdout.
    
           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
               gitformat-bundle(5) for more information. The exit code is
               zero for success, but will be nonzero if the bundle file is
               invalid. If _file_ is **-** , the bundle is read from stdin.
    
           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. If _file_ is **-** , the bundle is read from stdin.
    
           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_. If _file_ is
               **-** , the bundle is read from stdin.
    
           <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.
    
           --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. Alternatively **--all** can be used to package all refs.
    
           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 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



           We’ll discuss two cases:
    
            1. Taking a full backup of a repository
    
            2. Transferring the history of a repository to another machine
               when the two machines have no direct connection
    
           First let’s consider a full backup of the repository. The
           following command will take a full backup of the repository in the
           sense that all refs are included in the bundle:
    
               $ git bundle create backup.bundle --all
    
           But note again that this is only for the refs, i.e. you will only
           include refs and commits reachable from those refs. You will not
           include other local state, such as the contents of the index,
           working tree, the stash, per-repository configuration, hooks, etc.
    
           You can later recover that repository by using for example
           git-clone(1):
    
               $ git clone backup.bundle <new directory>
    
           For the next 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 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
    


## DISCUSSION



           A naive way to make a full backup of a repository is to use
           something to the effect of **cp -r** _< repo> <destination>_. This is
           discouraged since the repository could be written to during the
           copy operation. In turn some files at _< destination>_ could be
           corrupted.
    
           This is why it is recommended to use Git tooling for making
           repository backups, either with this command or with e.g.
           git-clone(1). But keep in mind that these tools will not help you
           backup state other than refs and commits. In other words they will
           not help you backup contents of the index, working tree, the
           stash, per-repository configuration, hooks, etc.
    
           See also gitfaq(7), section "TRANSFERS" for a discussion of the
           problems associated with file syncing across systems.
    


## FILE FORMAT



           See gitformat-bundle(5).
    


## GIT



           Part of the git(1) suite
    


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