6 git-pack-objects - Create a packed archive of objects
12 'git pack-objects' [-q | --progress | --all-progress] [--all-progress-implied]
13 [--no-reuse-delta] [--delta-base-offset] [--non-empty]
14 [--local] [--incremental] [--window=<n>] [--depth=<n>]
15 [--revs [--unpacked | --all]]
16 [--stdout [--filter=<filter-spec>] | base-name]
17 [--shallow] [--keep-true-parents] < object-list
22 Reads list of objects from the standard input, and writes either one or
23 more packed archives with the specified base-name to disk, or a packed
24 archive to the standard output.
26 A packed archive is an efficient way to transfer a set of objects
27 between two repositories as well as an access efficient archival
28 format. In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a
29 compressed whole or as a difference from some other object.
30 The latter is often called a delta.
32 The packed archive format (.pack) is designed to be self-contained
33 so that it can be unpacked without any further information. Therefore,
34 each object that a delta depends upon must be present within the pack.
36 A pack index file (.idx) is generated for fast, random access to the
37 objects in the pack. Placing both the index file (.idx) and the packed
38 archive (.pack) in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
39 any of the directories on $GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES)
40 enables Git to read from the pack archive.
42 The 'git unpack-objects' command can read the packed archive and
43 expand the objects contained in the pack into "one-file
44 one-object" format; this is typically done by the smart-pull
45 commands when a pack is created on-the-fly for efficient network
46 transport by their peers.
52 Write into pairs of files (.pack and .idx), using
53 <base-name> to determine the name of the created file.
54 When this option is used, the two files in a pair are written in
55 <base-name>-<SHA-1>.{pack,idx} files. <SHA-1> is a hash
56 based on the pack content and is written to the standard
57 output of the command.
60 Write the pack contents (what would have been written to
61 .pack file) out to the standard output.
64 Read the revision arguments from the standard input, instead of
65 individual object names. The revision arguments are processed
66 the same way as 'git rev-list' with the `--objects` flag
67 uses its `commit` arguments to build the list of objects it
68 outputs. The objects on the resulting list are packed.
69 Besides revisions, `--not` or `--shallow <SHA-1>` lines are
73 This implies `--revs`. When processing the list of
74 revision arguments read from the standard input, limit
75 the objects packed to those that are not already packed.
78 This implies `--revs`. In addition to the list of
79 revision arguments read from the standard input, pretend
80 as if all refs under `refs/` are specified to be
84 Include unasked-for annotated tags if the object they
85 reference was included in the resulting packfile. This
86 can be useful to send new tags to native Git clients.
90 These two options affect how the objects contained in
91 the pack are stored using delta compression. The
92 objects are first internally sorted by type, size and
93 optionally names and compared against the other objects
94 within --window to see if using delta compression saves
95 space. --depth limits the maximum delta depth; making
96 it too deep affects the performance on the unpacker
97 side, because delta data needs to be applied that many
98 times to get to the necessary object.
100 The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50. The maximum
103 --window-memory=<n>::
104 This option provides an additional limit on top of `--window`;
105 the window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take
106 up more than '<n>' bytes in memory. This is useful in
107 repositories with a mix of large and small objects to not run
108 out of memory with a large window, but still be able to take
109 advantage of the large window for the smaller objects. The
110 size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or "g".
111 `--window-memory=0` makes memory usage unlimited. The default
112 is taken from the `pack.windowMemory` configuration variable.
114 --max-pack-size=<n>::
115 In unusual scenarios, you may not be able to create files
116 larger than a certain size on your filesystem, and this option
117 can be used to tell the command to split the output packfile
118 into multiple independent packfiles, each not larger than the
119 given size. The size can be suffixed with
120 "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
122 prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
123 The default is unlimited, unless the config variable
124 `pack.packSizeLimit` is set.
127 This flag causes an object already in a local pack that
128 has a .keep file to be ignored, even if it would have
129 otherwise been packed.
132 This flag causes an object already in a pack to be ignored
133 even if it would have otherwise been packed.
136 This flag causes an object that is borrowed from an alternate
137 object store to be ignored even if it would have otherwise been
141 Only create a packed archive if it would contain at
145 Progress status is reported on the standard error stream
146 by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q
147 is specified. This flag forces progress status even if
148 the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
151 When --stdout is specified then progress report is
152 displayed during the object count and compression phases
153 but inhibited during the write-out phase. The reason is
154 that in some cases the output stream is directly linked
155 to another command which may wish to display progress
156 status of its own as it processes incoming pack data.
157 This flag is like --progress except that it forces progress
158 report for the write-out phase as well even if --stdout is
161 --all-progress-implied::
162 This is used to imply --all-progress whenever progress display
163 is activated. Unlike --all-progress this flag doesn't actually
164 force any progress display by itself.
167 This flag makes the command not to report its progress
168 on the standard error stream.
171 When creating a packed archive in a repository that
172 has existing packs, the command reuses existing deltas.
173 This sometimes results in a slightly suboptimal pack.
174 This flag tells the command not to reuse existing deltas
175 but compute them from scratch.
178 This flag tells the command not to reuse existing object data at all,
179 including non deltified object, forcing recompression of everything.
180 This implies --no-reuse-delta. Useful only in the obscure case where
181 wholesale enforcement of a different compression level on the
182 packed data is desired.
185 Specifies compression level for newly-compressed data in the
186 generated pack. If not specified, pack compression level is
187 determined first by pack.compression, then by core.compression,
188 and defaults to -1, the zlib default, if neither is set.
189 Add --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression
190 level on all data no matter the source.
193 Create a "thin" pack by omitting the common objects between a
194 sender and a receiver in order to reduce network transfer. This
195 option only makes sense in conjunction with --stdout.
197 Note: A thin pack violates the packed archive format by omitting
198 required objects and is thus unusable by Git without making it
199 self-contained. Use `git index-pack --fix-thin`
200 (see linkgit:git-index-pack[1]) to restore the self-contained property.
203 Optimize a pack that will be provided to a client with a shallow
204 repository. This option, combined with --thin, can result in a
205 smaller pack at the cost of speed.
207 --delta-base-offset::
208 A packed archive can express the base object of a delta as
209 either a 20-byte object name or as an offset in the
210 stream, but ancient versions of Git don't understand the
211 latter. By default, 'git pack-objects' only uses the
212 former format for better compatibility. This option
213 allows the command to use the latter format for
214 compactness. Depending on the average delta chain
215 length, this option typically shrinks the resulting
216 packfile by 3-5 per-cent.
218 Note: Porcelain commands such as `git gc` (see linkgit:git-gc[1]),
219 `git repack` (see linkgit:git-repack[1]) pass this option by default
220 in modern Git when they put objects in your repository into pack files.
221 So does `git bundle` (see linkgit:git-bundle[1]) when it creates a bundle.
224 Specifies the number of threads to spawn when searching for best
225 delta matches. This requires that pack-objects be compiled with
226 pthreads otherwise this option is ignored with a warning.
227 This is meant to reduce packing time on multiprocessor machines.
228 The required amount of memory for the delta search window is
229 however multiplied by the number of threads.
230 Specifying 0 will cause Git to auto-detect the number of CPU's
231 and set the number of threads accordingly.
233 --index-version=<version>[,<offset>]::
234 This is intended to be used by the test suite only. It allows
235 to force the version for the generated pack index, and to force
236 64-bit index entries on objects located above the given offset.
238 --keep-true-parents::
239 With this option, parents that are hidden by grafts are packed
242 --filter=<filter-spec>::
243 Requires `--stdout`. Omits certain objects (usually blobs) from
244 the resulting packfile. See linkgit:git-rev-list[1] for valid
245 `<filter-spec>` forms.
248 Turns off any previous `--filter=` argument.
250 --missing=<missing-action>::
251 A debug option to help with future "partial clone" development.
252 This option specifies how missing objects are handled.
254 The form '--missing=error' requests that pack-objects stop with an error if
255 a missing object is encountered. This is the default action.
257 The form '--missing=allow-any' will allow object traversal to continue
258 if a missing object is encountered. Missing objects will silently be
259 omitted from the results.
261 The form '--missing=allow-promisor' is like 'allow-any', but will only
262 allow object traversal to continue for EXPECTED promisor missing objects.
263 Unexpected missing object will raise an error.
265 --exclude-promisor-objects::
266 Omit objects that are known to be in the promisor remote. (This
267 option has the purpose of operating only on locally created objects,
268 so that when we repack, we still maintain a distinction between
269 locally created objects [without .promisor] and objects from the
270 promisor remote [with .promisor].) This is used with partial clone.
274 linkgit:git-rev-list[1]
275 linkgit:git-repack[1]
276 linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
280 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite