Clone with local alternates?
Often I want to clone a remote repository but would like to use an existing local source tree as 'alternates'.
One way of doing this is to clone the local tree with 'git-clone -l -s', find the latest common commit shared with the remote tree to be fetched, revert to that with 'git-reset --head $last' and then pulling from the remote.
Is that _really_ the best way of doing it though? It would be better if we just had a '--local-alternates=/foo' option to git-clone when cloning a remote repository.
Signature · 1 line
dwmw2
Quoted 11 lines · David Woodhouse
Often I want to clone a remote repository but would like to use an existing local source tree as 'alternates'.
One way of doing this is to clone the local tree with 'git-clone -l -s', find the latest common commit shared with the remote tree to be fetched, revert to that with 'git-reset --head $last' and then pulling from the remote.
Is that _really_ the best way of doing it though? It would be better if we just had a '--local-alternates=/foo' option to git-clone when cloning a remote repository.
git clone --reference=/foo git://remote/foo
would do the trick. This is new in 1.3.0. I just noticed its also not documented in 1.3.0. :-)
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Shawn.
Quoted 4 lines · Shawn Pearce
git clone --reference=/foo git://remote/foowould do the trick. This is new in 1.3.0. I just noticed its also not documented in 1.3.0. :-)
Aha. Thanks.
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dwmw2
Quoted 1 line · Shawn Pearce
git clone --reference=/foo git://remote/foo
That's nice. What would be even _nicer_ is if I could enforce its usage on the server. I keep a clean copy of Linus' kernel tree on the machine with the git dæmon, so I'd like to make it refuse to send any objects which are in that tree and which people should already have fetched from elsewhere anyway.
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dwmw2
Quoted 8 lines · David Woodhouse
Quoted 1 line · Shawn Pearce
git clone --reference=/foo git://remote/fooThat's nice. What would be even _nicer_ is if I could enforce its usage on the server. I keep a clean copy of Linus' kernel tree on the machine with the git dæmon, so I'd like to make it refuse to send any objects which are in that tree and which people should already have fetched from elsewhere anyway.
Given how large the linux kernel archive is I can see the desire.
At git startup there is an exchange of common commits. to find the best place to build the pack from so what you want is possible. I haven't a clue how you would describe it though in the face of multiple branches, coming off the trunk at different times.
Eric
PATCH 1/1 Document git-clone --reference
In reply to Shawn PearceThe new --reference flag introduced to git-clone in GIT 1.3.0 was not documented but is rather handy. So document it.
Also corrected a minor issue with the documentation for the -s flag; the info/alternates file name was spelled wrong.
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Quoted 4 lines · Shawn Pearce
git clone --reference=/foo git://remote/foowould do the trick. This is new in 1.3.0. I just noticed its also not documented in 1.3.0. :-)
Documentation/git-clone.txt | 21 ++++++++++++++++++++- 1 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
base 6625864c8ce9868ba4ab41165d97084f3f04bbed
last 66a5bd88d2a8d9d64d86733852fbaba9caa756b0
Documentation/git-clone.txt +20 -1
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ SYNOPSIS -------- [verse] 'git-clone' [-l [-s]] [-q] [-n] [--bare] [-o <name>] [-u <upload-pack>] + [--reference <repository>] <repository> [<directory>] DESCRIPTION
@@ -46,10 +47,18 @@ OPTIONS -s:: When the repository to clone is on the local machine, instead of using hard links, automatically setup - .git/objects/info/alternatives to share the objects + .git/objects/info/alternates to share the objects with the source repository. The resulting repository starts out without any object of its own. +--reference <repository>:: + If the reference repository is on the local machine + automatically setup .git/objects/info/alternates to + obtain objects from the reference repository. Using + an already existing repository as an alternate will + require less objects to be copied from the repository + being cloned, reducing network and local storage costs. + --quiet:: -q:: Operate quietly. This flag is passed to "rsync" and
@@ -112,6 +121,16 @@ Make a local clone that borrows from the ------------ +Clone from upstream while borrowing from an existing local directory:: ++ +------------ +$ git clone --reference my2.6 \ + git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/.../linux-2.7 \ + my2.7 +$ cd my2.7 +------------ + + Create a bare repository to publish your changes to the public:: + ------------
Signature · 1 line
1.3.0.rc4.g8060
Quoted 7 lines · David Woodhouse
Often I want to clone a remote repository but would like to use an existing local source tree as 'alternates'.
One way of doing this is to clone the local tree with 'git-clone -l -s', find the latest common commit shared with the remote tree to be fetched, revert to that with 'git-reset --head $last' and then pulling from the remote.
Simpler than the git-reset you can simply do
git-fetch remote branch:branch and git will find common ancestor for you and create a new branch that mirrors the old one.
I mention this because it can be interesting to have branches from several remote repositories all in one local repository.
Eric