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+git-pack-objects(1)
+===================
+
+NAME
+----
+git-pack-objects - Create a packed archive of objects
+
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+[verse]
+'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]
+ [--shallow] [--keep-true-parents] < object-list
+
+
+DESCRIPTION
+-----------
+Reads list of objects from the standard input, and writes either one or
+more packed archives with the specified base-name to disk, or a packed
+archive 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 pairs of files (.pack and .idx), using
+ <base-name> to determine the name of the created file.
+ When this option is used, the two files in a pair are written in
+ <base-name>-<SHA-1>.{pack,idx} files. <SHA-1> is a hash
+ based on the pack content and is 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.
+ Besides revisions, `--not` or `--shallow <SHA-1>` lines are
+ also accepted.
+
+--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. The default
+ is taken from the `pack.windowMemory` configuration variable.
+
+--max-pack-size=<n>::
+ In unusual scenarios, you may not be able to create files
+ larger than a certain size on your filesystem, and this option
+ can be used to tell the command to split the output packfile
+ into multiple independent packfiles, each not larger than the
+ given size. The size can be suffixed with
+ "k", "m", or "g". The minimum size allowed is limited to 1 MiB.
+ This option
+ prevents the creation of a bitmap index.
+ 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 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 linkgit:git-index-pack[1]) to restore the self-contained property.
+
+--shallow::
+ Optimize a pack that will be provided to a client with a shallow
+ repository. This option, combined with --thin, can result in a
+ smaller pack at the cost of speed.
+
+--delta-base-offset::
+ A packed archive can express the base object of a delta as
+ either a 20-byte object name or as an offset in the
+ stream, but ancient versions of Git don't 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.
++
+Note: Porcelain commands such as `git gc` (see linkgit:git-gc[1]),
+`git repack` (see linkgit:git-repack[1]) pass this option by default
+in modern Git when they put objects in your repository into pack files.
+So does `git bundle` (see linkgit:git-bundle[1]) when it creates a bundle.
+
+--threads=<n>::
+ 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=<version>[,<offset>]::
+ 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.
+
+SEE ALSO
+--------
+linkgit:git-rev-list[1]
+linkgit:git-repack[1]
+linkgit:git-prune-packed[1]
+
+GIT
+---
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite