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+git-bundle(1)
+=============
+
+NAME
+----
+git-bundle - Move objects and refs by archive
+
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+[verse]
+'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, and therefore 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 (e.g., by sneakernet). As no
+direct connection between the 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-args' 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 a 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 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{tilde}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').
+
+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{tilde}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{tilde}10`), or implicitly (e.g.
+`master{tilde}10..master`, `--since=10.days.ago master`).
+
+It is very important that the basis used be held by the destination.
+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.
+
+EXAMPLE
+-------
+
+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 basis. 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. If you are creating
+the repository on machine B, then you can clone from the bundle as if it
+were a remote repository instead of creating an empty repository and then
+pulling or fetching objects from the bundle:
+
+----------------
+machineB$ git clone /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
+basis, 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 linkgit: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 basis 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 basis:
+
+----------------
+$ 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
+----------------
+
+GIT
+---
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite