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 onemachine be replicated on another machine, but the two machines cannotbe directly connected, and therefore the interactive Git protocols (git,ssh, http) cannot be used. This command provides support forgit fetch and git pull to operate by packaging objects and referencesin an archive at the originating machine, then importing those intoanother repository using git fetch and _git pull_after moving the archive by some means (e.g., by sneakernet). As nodirect connection between the repositories exists, the user must specify abasis for the bundle that is held by the destination repository: thebundle assumes that all objects in the basis are already in thedestination repository.

OPTIONS

• create

• Used to create a bundle named file. This requires thegit-rev-list-args arguments to define the bundle contents.

• verify

• Used to check that a bundle file is valid and will applycleanly to the current repository. This includes checks on thebundle format itself as well as checking that the prerequisitecommits exist and are fully linked in the current repository.git bundle prints a list of missing commits, if any, and exitswith a non-zero status.

• list-heads

• Lists the references defined in the bundle. If followed by alist of references, only references matching those given areprinted out.

• unbundle

• Passes the objects in the bundle to git index-pack_for storage in the repository, then prints the names of alldefined references. If a list of references is given, onlyreferences matching those in the list are printed. This command isreally plumbing, intended to be called only by _git fetch.

• A list of arguments, acceptable to git rev-parse andgit rev-list (and containing a named ref, see SPECIFYING REFERENCESbelow), that specifies the specific objects and referencesto transport. For example, master~10..master causes thecurrent master reference to be packaged along with all objectsadded since its 10th ancestor commit. There is no explicitlimit to the number of references and objects that may bepackaged.

• […​]

• A list of references used to limit the references reported asavailable. This is principally of use to git fetch, whichexpects to receive only those references asked for and notnecessarily everything in the pack (in this case, git bundle actslike git fetch-pack).

SPECIFYING REFERENCES

git bundle will only package references that are shown bygit show-ref: this includes heads, tags, and remote heads. Referencessuch as master~1 cannot be packaged, but are perfectly suitable fordefining the basis. More than one reference may be packaged, and morethan one basis can be specified. The objects packaged are those notcontained in the union of the given bases. Each basis can bespecified explicitly (e.g. ^master~10), or implicitly (e.g.master~10..master, —since=10.days.ago master).

It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination.It is okay to err on the side of caution, causing the bundle fileto contain objects already in the destination, as these are ignoredwhen unpacking at the destination.

EXAMPLES

Assume you want to transfer the history from a repository R1 on machine Ato 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 haveany basis. You can use a tag to remember up to what commit you lastprocessed, in order to make it easy to later update the other repositorywith 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 thisbundle does not require any existing object to be extracted, you cancreate 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 thatlets you fetch and pull from the bundle. The $GIT_DIR/config file in R2 willhave 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 afterreplacing the bundle stored at /home/me/tmp/file.bundle with incrementalupdates.

After working some more in the original repository, you can create anincremental 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 shouldhave the necessary objects, you can use that knowledge to specify thebasis, giving a cut-off point to limit the revisions and objects that goin the resulting bundle. The previous example used the lastR2bundle tagfor this purpose, but you can use any other options that you would give tothe 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

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 bundlethat was created with a basis:

$ git bundle verify mybundle

This will list what commits you must have in order to extract from thebundle and will error out if you do not have them.

A bundle from a recipient repository’s point of view is just like aregular repository which it fetches or pulls from. You can, for example, mapreferences 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