git-bundle(1)

# git-bundle(1) Manual Page

## 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 so 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 (i.e., by sneakernet). As no direct connection between 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 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 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 reflist is given, only references matching those in the given 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, that specify 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 is acting 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 not contained in the union of the given bases. Each basis can be specified explicitly (e.g., ^master~10), or implicitly (e.g., master~10..master, master --since=10.days.ago).

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

## EXAMPLE

Assume two repositories exist as R1 on machine A, and 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 developments made on branch master in R1.

To create the bundle you have to specify the basis. You have some options:

- Without basis.

  This is useful when sending the whole history.

    $ git bundle create mybundle master

- Using temporally tags.

  We set a tag in R1 (lastR2bundle) after the previous such transport, and move it afterwards to help build the bundle.

    $ git bundle create mybundle master ^lastR2bundle
    $ git tag -f lastR2bundle master

- Using a tag present in both repositories

    $ git bundle create mybundle master ^v1.0.0

- A basis based on time.

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

- With a limit on the number of commits

    $ git bundle create mybundle master -n 10

Then you move mybundle from A to B, and in R2 on B:

    $ git bundle verify mybundle
    $ git fetch mybundle master:localRef

With something like this in the config in R2:

    [remote "bundle"]
        url = /home/me/tmp/file.bdl
        fetch = refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

You can first sneakernet the bundle file to ~/tmp/file.bdl and then these commands on machine B:

    $ git ls-remote bundle
    $ git fetch bundle
    $ git pull bundle

would treat it as if it is talking with a remote side over the network.

## Author

Written by Mark Levedahl <mdl123@verizon.net>

## GIT

Part of the git(1) suite