git-fast-import(1)
==================
NAME
----
git-fast-import - Backend for fast Git data importers
SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
frontend | 'git fast-import' [options]
DESCRIPTION
-----------
This program is usually not what the end user wants to run directly.
Most end users want to use one of the existing frontend programs,
which parses a specific type of foreign source and feeds the contents
stored there to 'git fast-import'.
fast-import reads a mixed command/data stream from standard input and
writes one or more packfiles directly into the current repository.
When EOF is received on standard input, fast import writes out
updated branch and tag refs, fully updating the current repository
with the newly imported data.
The fast-import backend itself can import into an empty repository (one that
has already been initialized by 'git init') or incrementally
update an existing populated repository. Whether or not incremental
imports are supported from a particular foreign source depends on
the frontend program in use.
OPTIONS
-------
--force::
Force updating modified existing branches, even if doing
so would cause commits to be lost (as the new commit does
not contain the old commit).
--quiet::
Disable all non-fatal output, making fast-import silent when it
is successful. This option disables the output shown by
--stats.
--stats::
Display some basic statistics about the objects fast-import has
created, the packfiles they were stored into, and the
memory used by fast-import during this run. Showing this output
is currently the default, but can be disabled with --quiet.
Options for Frontends
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--cat-blob-fd=<fd>::
Write responses to `get-mark`, `cat-blob`, and `ls` queries to the
file descriptor <fd> instead of `stdout`. Allows `progress`
output intended for the end-user to be separated from other
output.
--date-format=<fmt>::
Specify the type of dates the frontend will supply to
fast-import within `author`, `committer` and `tagger` commands.
See ``Date Formats'' below for details about which formats
are supported, and their syntax.
--done::
Terminate with error if there is no `done` command at the end of
the stream. This option might be useful for detecting errors
that cause the frontend to terminate before it has started to
write a stream.
Locations of Marks Files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--export-marks=<file>::
Dumps the internal marks table to <file> when complete.
Marks are written one per line as `:markid SHA-1`.
Frontends can use this file to validate imports after they
have been completed, or to save the marks table across
incremental runs. As <file> is only opened and truncated
at checkpoint (or completion) the same path can also be
safely given to --import-marks.
--import-marks=<file>::
Before processing any input, load the marks specified in
<file>. The input file must exist, must be readable, and
must use the same format as produced by --export-marks.
Multiple options may be supplied to import more than one
set of marks. If a mark is defined to different values,
the last file wins.
--import-marks-if-exists=<file>::
Like --import-marks but instead of erroring out, silently
skips the file if it does not exist.
--[no-]relative-marks::
After specifying --relative-marks the paths specified
with --import-marks= and --export-marks= are relative
to an internal directory in the current repository.
In git-fast-import this means that the paths are relative
to the .git/info/fast-import directory. However, other
importers may use a different location.
+
Relative and non-relative marks may be combined by interweaving
--(no-)-relative-marks with the --(import|export)-marks= options.
Performance and Compression Tuning
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--active-branches=<n>::
Maximum number of branches to maintain active at once.
See ``Memory Utilization'' below for details. Default is 5.
--big-file-threshold=<n>::
Maximum size of a blob that fast-import will attempt to
create a delta for, expressed in bytes. The default is 512m
(512 MiB). Some importers may wish to lower this on systems
with constrained memory.
--depth=<n>::
Maximum delta depth, for blob and tree deltification.
Default is 10.
--export-pack-edges=<file>::
After creating a packfile, print a line of data to
<file> listing the filename of the packfile and the last
commit on each branch that was written to that packfile.
This information may be usefu
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