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GIT-BUNDLE(1)                                         Git Manual                                        GIT-BUNDLE(1)



NAME
       git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive

SYNOPSIS
       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-args 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 (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).

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
       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. 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 basis, 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 basis based on time:

           $ git bundle create mybundle --since=10.days master


       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



Git 1.8.3.1                                           03/23/2016                                        GIT-BUNDLE(1)