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



NAME
       git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive

SYNOPSIS
       git bundle create [-q | --quiet | --progress | --all-progress] [--all-progress-implied]
			   [--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, and to relay the state of the references in one repository
       to another.

       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.

       See the "EXAMPLES" section below for examples of how to use bundles.

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.

       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.

       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).

       --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.

       --all-progress
	   When --stdout is specified then progress report is displayed during
	   the object count and compression phases but inhibited during the
	   write-out phase. The reason is that in some cases the output stream
	   is directly linked to another command which may wish to display
	   progress status of its own as it processes incoming pack data. This
	   flag is like --progress except that it forces progress report for
	   the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is used.

       --all-progress-implied
	   This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display is
	   activated. Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn't actually force
	   any progress display by itself.

       --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.

       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 match git clone --mirror, which would include your refs
       such as refs/remotes/*, use --all. 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
       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


FILE FORMAT
       See gitformat-bundle(5).

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite



Git 2.38.4			  05/16/2024			 GIT-BUNDLE(1)