git-pack-objects

GIT-PACK-OBJECTS(1)               Git Manual               GIT-PACK-OBJECTS(1)



NAME
       git-pack-objects - Create a packed archive of objects

SYNOPSIS
       git pack-objects [-q | --progress | --all-progress] [--all-progress-implied]
               [--no-reuse-delta] [--delta-base-offset] [--non-empty]
               [--local] [--incremental] [--window=N] [--depth=N]
               [--revs [--unpacked | --all]*] [--stdout | base-name]
               [--keep-true-parents] < object-list


DESCRIPTION
       Reads list of objects from the standard input, and writes a packed
       archive with specified base-name, or to the standard output.

       A packed archive is an efficient way to transfer a set of objects
       between two repositories as well as an access efficient archival
       format. In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a compressed
       whole or as a difference from some other object. The latter is often
       called a delta.

       The packed archive format (.pack) is designed to be self-contained so
       that it can be unpacked without any further information. Therefore,
       each object that a delta depends upon must be present within the pack.

       A pack index file (.idx) is generated for fast, random access to the
       objects in the pack. Placing both the index file (.idx) and the packed
       archive (.pack) in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
       any of the directories on $GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES) enables
       git to read from the pack archive.

       The git unpack-objects command can read the packed archive and expand
       the objects contained in the pack into "one-file one-object" format;
       this is typically done by the smart-pull commands when a pack is
       created on-the-fly for efficient network transport by their peers.

OPTIONS
       base-name
           Write into a pair of files (.pack and .idx), using  to
           determine the name of the created file. When this option is used,
           the two files are written in -.{pack,idx} files.
            is a hash of the sorted object names to make the resulting
           filename based on the pack content, and written to the standard
           output of the command.

       --stdout
           Write the pack contents (what would have been written to .pack
           file) out to the standard output.

       --revs
           Read the revision arguments from the standard input, instead of
           individual object names. The revision arguments are processed the
           same way as git rev-list with the --objects flag uses its commit
           arguments to build the list of objects it outputs. The objects on
           the resulting list are packed.

       --unpacked
           This implies --revs. When processing the list of revision arguments
           read from the standard input, limit the objects packed to those
           that are not already packed.

       --all
           This implies --revs. In addition to the list of revision arguments
           read from the standard input, pretend as if all refs under refs/
           are specified to be included.

       --include-tag
           Include unasked-for annotated tags if the object they reference was
           included in the resulting packfile. This can be useful to send new
           tags to native git clients.

       --window=[N], --depth=[N]
           These two options affect how the objects contained in the pack are
           stored using delta compression. The objects are first internally
           sorted by type, size and optionally names and compared against the
           other objects within --window to see if using delta compression
           saves space. --depth limits the maximum delta depth; making it too
           deep affects the performance on the unpacker side, because delta
           data needs to be applied that many times to get to the necessary
           object. The default value for --window is 10 and --depth is 50.

       --window-memory=[N]
           This option provides an additional limit on top of --window; the
           window size will dynamically scale down so as to not take up more
           than N bytes in memory. This is useful in repositories with a mix
           of large and small objects to not run out of memory with a large
           window, but still be able to take advantage of the large window for
           the smaller objects. The size can be suffixed with "k", "m", or
           "g".  --window-memory=0 makes memory usage unlimited, which is the
           default.

       --max-pack-size=[N]
           Maximum size of each output pack file. The size can be suffixed
           with "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1
           MiB. If specified, multiple packfiles may be created. The default
           is unlimited, unless the config variable pack.packSizeLimit is set.

       --honor-pack-keep
           This flag causes an object already in a local pack that has a .keep
           file to be ignored, even if it it would have otherwise been packed.

       --incremental
           This flag causes an object already in a pack to be ignored even if
           it would have otherwise been packed.

       --local
           This flag causes an object that is borrowed from an alternate
           object store to be ignored even if it would have otherwise been
           packed.

       --non-empty
           Only create a packed archive if it would contain at least one
           object.

       --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.

       -q
           This flag makes the command not to report its progress on the
           standard error stream.

       --no-reuse-delta
           When creating a packed archive in a repository that has existing
           packs, the command reuses existing deltas. This sometimes results
           in a slightly suboptimal pack. This flag tells the command not to
           reuse existing deltas but compute them from scratch.

       --no-reuse-object
           This flag tells the command not to reuse existing object data at
           all, including non deltified object, forcing recompression of
           everything. This implies --no-reuse-delta. Useful only in the
           obscure case where wholesale enforcement of a different compression
           level on the packed data is desired.

       --compression=[N]
           Specifies compression level for newly-compressed data in the
           generated pack. If not specified, pack compression level is
           determined first by pack.compression, then by core.compression, and
           defaults to -1, the zlib default, if neither is set. Add
           --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression level
           on all data no matter the source.

       --thin
           Create a "thin" pack by omitting the common objects between a
           sender and a receiver in order to reduce network transfer. This
           option only makes sense in conjunction with --stdout.

           Note: A thin pack violates the packed archive format by omitting
           required objects and is thus unusable by git without making it
           self-contained. Use git index-pack --fix-thin (see git-index-
           pack(1)) to restore the self-contained property.

       --delta-base-offset
           A packed archive can express base object of a delta as either
           20-byte object name or as an offset in the stream, but older
           version of git does not understand the latter. By default, git
           pack-objects only uses the former format for better compatibility.
           This option allows the command to use the latter format for
           compactness. Depending on the average delta chain length, this
           option typically shrinks the resulting packfile by 3-5 per-cent.

       --threads=
           Specifies the number of threads to spawn when searching for best
           delta matches. This requires that pack-objects be compiled with
           pthreads otherwise this option is ignored with a warning. This is
           meant to reduce packing time on multiprocessor machines. The
           required amount of memory for the delta search window is however
           multiplied by the number of threads. Specifying 0 will cause git to
           auto-detect the number of CPU’s and set the number of threads
           accordingly.

       --index-version=[,]
           This is intended to be used by the test suite only. It allows to
           force the version for the generated pack index, and to force 64-bit
           index entries on objects located above the given offset.

       --keep-true-parents
           With this option, parents that are hidden by grafts are packed
           nevertheless.

AUTHOR
       Written by Linus Torvalds 

DOCUMENTATION
       Documentation by Junio C Hamano

SEE ALSO
       git-rev-list(1) git-repack(1) git-prune-packed(1)

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite

NOTES
        1. torvalds@osdl.org
           mailto:torvalds@osdl.org



Git 1.7.0.4                       12/03/2010               GIT-PACK-OBJECTS(1)