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736 <div id="header">
737 <h1>
738 git-gc(1) Manual Page
739 </h1>
740 <h2>NAME</h2>
741 <div class="sectionbody">
742 <p>git-gc -
743 Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository
744 </p>
745 </div>
746 </div>
747 <div id="content">
748 <div class="sect1">
749 <h2 id="_synopsis">SYNOPSIS</h2>
750 <div class="sectionbody">
751 <div class="verseblock">
752 <pre class="content"><em>git gc</em> [--aggressive] [--auto] [--quiet] [--prune=&lt;date&gt; | --no-prune] [--force] [--keep-largest-pack]</pre>
753 <div class="attribution">
754 </div></div>
755 </div>
756 </div>
757 <div class="sect1">
758 <h2 id="_description">DESCRIPTION</h2>
759 <div class="sectionbody">
760 <div class="paragraph"><p>Runs a number of housekeeping tasks within the current repository,
761 such as compressing file revisions (to reduce disk space and increase
762 performance), removing unreachable objects which may have been
763 created from prior invocations of <em>git add</em>, packing refs, pruning
764 reflog, rerere metadata or stale working trees. May also update ancillary
765 indexes such as the commit-graph.</p></div>
766 <div class="paragraph"><p>When common porcelain operations that create objects are run, they
767 will check whether the repository has grown substantially since the
768 last maintenance, and if so run <code>git gc</code> automatically. See <code>gc.auto</code>
769 below for how to disable this behavior.</p></div>
770 <div class="paragraph"><p>Running <code>git gc</code> manually should only be needed when adding objects to
771 a repository without regularly running such porcelain commands, to do
772 a one-off repository optimization, or e.g. to clean up a suboptimal
773 mass-import. See the "PACKFILE OPTIMIZATION" section in
774 <a href="git-fast-import.html">git-fast-import(1)</a> for more details on the import case.</p></div>
775 </div>
776 </div>
777 <div class="sect1">
778 <h2 id="_options">OPTIONS</h2>
779 <div class="sectionbody">
780 <div class="dlist"><dl>
781 <dt class="hdlist1">
782 --aggressive
783 </dt>
784 <dd>
786 Usually <em>git gc</em> runs very quickly while providing good disk
787 space utilization and performance. This option will cause
788 <em>git gc</em> to more aggressively optimize the repository at the expense
789 of taking much more time. The effects of this optimization are
790 mostly persistent. See the "AGGRESSIVE" section below for details.
791 </p>
792 </dd>
793 <dt class="hdlist1">
794 --auto
795 </dt>
796 <dd>
798 With this option, <em>git gc</em> checks whether any housekeeping is
799 required; if not, it exits without performing any work.
800 </p>
801 <div class="paragraph"><p>See the <code>gc.auto</code> option in the "CONFIGURATION" section below for how
802 this heuristic works.</p></div>
803 <div class="paragraph"><p>Once housekeeping is triggered by exceeding the limits of
804 configuration options such as <code>gc.auto</code> and <code>gc.autoPackLimit</code>, all
805 other housekeeping tasks (e.g. rerere, working trees, reflog&#8230;) will
806 be performed as well.</p></div>
807 </dd>
808 <dt class="hdlist1">
809 --[no-]cruft
810 </dt>
811 <dd>
813 When expiring unreachable objects, pack them separately into a
814 cruft pack instead of storing them as loose objects. <code>--cruft</code>
815 is on by default.
816 </p>
817 </dd>
818 <dt class="hdlist1">
819 --max-cruft-size=&lt;n&gt;
820 </dt>
821 <dd>
823 When packing unreachable objects into a cruft pack, limit the
824 size of new cruft packs to be at most <code>&lt;n&gt;</code> bytes. Overrides any
825 value specified via the <code>gc.maxCruftSize</code> configuration. See
826 the <code>--max-cruft-size</code> option of <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a> for
827 more.
828 </p>
829 </dd>
830 <dt class="hdlist1">
831 --prune=&lt;date&gt;
832 </dt>
833 <dd>
835 Prune loose objects older than date (default is 2 weeks ago,
836 overridable by the config variable <code>gc.pruneExpire</code>).
837 --prune=now prunes loose objects regardless of their age and
838 increases the risk of corruption if another process is writing to
839 the repository concurrently; see "NOTES" below. --prune is on by
840 default.
841 </p>
842 </dd>
843 <dt class="hdlist1">
844 --no-prune
845 </dt>
846 <dd>
848 Do not prune any loose objects.
849 </p>
850 </dd>
851 <dt class="hdlist1">
852 --quiet
853 </dt>
854 <dd>
856 Suppress all progress reports.
857 </p>
858 </dd>
859 <dt class="hdlist1">
860 --force
861 </dt>
862 <dd>
864 Force <code>git gc</code> to run even if there may be another <code>git gc</code>
865 instance running on this repository.
866 </p>
867 </dd>
868 <dt class="hdlist1">
869 --keep-largest-pack
870 </dt>
871 <dd>
873 All packs except the largest non-cruft pack, any packs marked
874 with a <code>.keep</code> file, and any cruft pack(s) are consolidated into
875 a single pack. When this option is used, <code>gc.bigPackThreshold</code>
876 is ignored.
877 </p>
878 </dd>
879 </dl></div>
880 </div>
881 </div>
882 <div class="sect1">
883 <h2 id="_aggressive">AGGRESSIVE</h2>
884 <div class="sectionbody">
885 <div class="paragraph"><p>When the <code>--aggressive</code> option is supplied, <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a> will
886 be invoked with the <code>-f</code> flag, which in turn will pass
887 <code>--no-reuse-delta</code> to <a href="git-pack-objects.html">git-pack-objects(1)</a>. This will throw
888 away any existing deltas and re-compute them, at the expense of
889 spending much more time on the repacking.</p></div>
890 <div class="paragraph"><p>The effects of this are mostly persistent, e.g. when packs and loose
891 objects are coalesced into one another pack the existing deltas in
892 that pack might get re-used, but there are also various cases where we
893 might pick a sub-optimal delta from a newer pack instead.</p></div>
894 <div class="paragraph"><p>Furthermore, supplying <code>--aggressive</code> will tweak the <code>--depth</code> and
895 <code>--window</code> options passed to <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a>. See the
896 <code>gc.aggressiveDepth</code> and <code>gc.aggressiveWindow</code> settings below. By
897 using a larger window size we&#8217;re more likely to find more optimal
898 deltas.</p></div>
899 <div class="paragraph"><p>It&#8217;s probably not worth it to use this option on a given repository
900 without running tailored performance benchmarks on it. It takes a lot
901 more time, and the resulting space/delta optimization may or may not
902 be worth it. Not using this at all is the right trade-off for most
903 users and their repositories.</p></div>
904 </div>
905 </div>
906 <div class="sect1">
907 <h2 id="_configuration">CONFIGURATION</h2>
908 <div class="sectionbody">
909 <div class="paragraph"><p>Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
910 from the <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a> documentation. The content is the same
911 as what&#8217;s found there:</p></div>
912 <div class="dlist"><dl>
913 <dt class="hdlist1">
914 gc.aggressiveDepth
915 </dt>
916 <dd>
918 The depth parameter used in the delta compression
919 algorithm used by <em>git gc --aggressive</em>. This defaults
920 to 50, which is the default for the <code>--depth</code> option when
921 <code>--aggressive</code> isn&#8217;t in use.
922 </p>
923 <div class="paragraph"><p>See the documentation for the <code>--depth</code> option in
924 <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a> for more details.</p></div>
925 </dd>
926 <dt class="hdlist1">
927 gc.aggressiveWindow
928 </dt>
929 <dd>
931 The window size parameter used in the delta compression
932 algorithm used by <em>git gc --aggressive</em>. This defaults
933 to 250, which is a much more aggressive window size than
934 the default <code>--window</code> of 10.
935 </p>
936 <div class="paragraph"><p>See the documentation for the <code>--window</code> option in
937 <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a> for more details.</p></div>
938 </dd>
939 <dt class="hdlist1">
940 gc.auto
941 </dt>
942 <dd>
944 When there are approximately more than this many loose
945 objects in the repository, <code>git gc --auto</code> will pack them.
946 Some Porcelain commands use this command to perform a
947 light-weight garbage collection from time to time. The
948 default value is 6700.
949 </p>
950 <div class="paragraph"><p>Setting this to 0 disables not only automatic packing based on the
951 number of loose objects, but also any other heuristic <code>git gc --auto</code> will
952 otherwise use to determine if there&#8217;s work to do, such as
953 <code>gc.autoPackLimit</code>.</p></div>
954 </dd>
955 <dt class="hdlist1">
956 gc.autoPackLimit
957 </dt>
958 <dd>
960 When there are more than this many packs that are not
961 marked with <code>*.keep</code> file in the repository, <code>git gc
962 --auto</code> consolidates them into one larger pack. The
963 default value is 50. Setting this to 0 disables it.
964 Setting <code>gc.auto</code> to 0 will also disable this.
965 </p>
966 <div class="paragraph"><p>See the <code>gc.bigPackThreshold</code> configuration variable below. When in
967 use, it&#8217;ll affect how the auto pack limit works.</p></div>
968 </dd>
969 <dt class="hdlist1">
970 gc.autoDetach
971 </dt>
972 <dd>
974 Make <code>git gc --auto</code> return immediately and run in the background
975 if the system supports it. Default is true.
976 </p>
977 </dd>
978 <dt class="hdlist1">
979 gc.bigPackThreshold
980 </dt>
981 <dd>
983 If non-zero, all non-cruft packs larger than this limit are kept
984 when <code>git gc</code> is run. This is very similar to
985 <code>--keep-largest-pack</code> except that all non-cruft packs that meet
986 the threshold are kept, not just the largest pack. Defaults to
987 zero. Common unit suffixes of <em>k</em>, <em>m</em>, or <em>g</em> are supported.
988 </p>
989 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that if the number of kept packs is more than gc.autoPackLimit,
990 this configuration variable is ignored, all packs except the base pack
991 will be repacked. After this the number of packs should go below
992 gc.autoPackLimit and gc.bigPackThreshold should be respected again.</p></div>
993 <div class="paragraph"><p>If the amount of memory estimated for <code>git repack</code> to run smoothly is
994 not available and <code>gc.bigPackThreshold</code> is not set, the largest pack
995 will also be excluded (this is the equivalent of running <code>git gc</code> with
996 <code>--keep-largest-pack</code>).</p></div>
997 </dd>
998 <dt class="hdlist1">
999 gc.writeCommitGraph
1000 </dt>
1001 <dd>
1003 If true, then gc will rewrite the commit-graph file when
1004 <a href="git-gc.html">git-gc(1)</a> is run. When using <code>git gc --auto</code>
1005 the commit-graph will be updated if housekeeping is
1006 required. Default is true. See <a href="git-commit-graph.html">git-commit-graph(1)</a>
1007 for details.
1008 </p>
1009 </dd>
1010 <dt class="hdlist1">
1011 gc.logExpiry
1012 </dt>
1013 <dd>
1015 If the file gc.log exists, then <code>git gc --auto</code> will print
1016 its content and exit with status zero instead of running
1017 unless that file is more than <em>gc.logExpiry</em> old. Default is
1018 "1.day". See <code>gc.pruneExpire</code> for more ways to specify its
1019 value.
1020 </p>
1021 </dd>
1022 <dt class="hdlist1">
1023 gc.packRefs
1024 </dt>
1025 <dd>
1027 Running <code>git pack-refs</code> in a repository renders it
1028 unclonable by Git versions prior to 1.5.1.2 over dumb
1029 transports such as HTTP. This variable determines whether
1030 <em>git gc</em> runs <code>git pack-refs</code>. This can be set to <code>notbare</code>
1031 to enable it within all non-bare repos or it can be set to a
1032 boolean value. The default is <code>true</code>.
1033 </p>
1034 </dd>
1035 <dt class="hdlist1">
1036 gc.cruftPacks
1037 </dt>
1038 <dd>
1040 Store unreachable objects in a cruft pack (see
1041 <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a>) instead of as loose objects. The default
1042 is <code>true</code>.
1043 </p>
1044 </dd>
1045 <dt class="hdlist1">
1046 gc.maxCruftSize
1047 </dt>
1048 <dd>
1050 Limit the size of new cruft packs when repacking. When
1051 specified in addition to <code>--max-cruft-size</code>, the command line
1052 option takes priority. See the <code>--max-cruft-size</code> option of
1053 <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a>.
1054 </p>
1055 </dd>
1056 <dt class="hdlist1">
1057 gc.pruneExpire
1058 </dt>
1059 <dd>
1061 When <em>git gc</em> is run, it will call <em>prune --expire 2.weeks.ago</em>
1062 (and <em>repack --cruft --cruft-expiration 2.weeks.ago</em> if using
1063 cruft packs via <code>gc.cruftPacks</code> or <code>--cruft</code>). Override the
1064 grace period with this config variable. The value "now" may be
1065 used to disable this grace period and always prune unreachable
1066 objects immediately, or "never" may be used to suppress pruning.
1067 This feature helps prevent corruption when <em>git gc</em> runs
1068 concurrently with another process writing to the repository; see
1069 the "NOTES" section of <a href="git-gc.html">git-gc(1)</a>.
1070 </p>
1071 </dd>
1072 <dt class="hdlist1">
1073 gc.worktreePruneExpire
1074 </dt>
1075 <dd>
1077 When <em>git gc</em> is run, it calls
1078 <em>git worktree prune --expire 3.months.ago</em>.
1079 This config variable can be used to set a different grace
1080 period. The value "now" may be used to disable the grace
1081 period and prune <code>$GIT_DIR/worktrees</code> immediately, or "never"
1082 may be used to suppress pruning.
1083 </p>
1084 </dd>
1085 <dt class="hdlist1">
1086 gc.reflogExpire
1087 </dt>
1088 <dt class="hdlist1">
1089 gc.&lt;pattern&gt;.reflogExpire
1090 </dt>
1091 <dd>
1093 <em>git reflog expire</em> removes reflog entries older than
1094 this time; defaults to 90 days. The value "now" expires all
1095 entries immediately, and "never" suppresses expiration
1096 altogether. With "&lt;pattern&gt;" (e.g.
1097 "refs/stash") in the middle the setting applies only to
1098 the refs that match the &lt;pattern&gt;.
1099 </p>
1100 </dd>
1101 <dt class="hdlist1">
1102 gc.reflogExpireUnreachable
1103 </dt>
1104 <dt class="hdlist1">
1105 gc.&lt;pattern&gt;.reflogExpireUnreachable
1106 </dt>
1107 <dd>
1109 <em>git reflog expire</em> removes reflog entries older than
1110 this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
1111 defaults to 30 days. The value "now" expires all entries
1112 immediately, and "never" suppresses expiration altogether.
1113 With "&lt;pattern&gt;" (e.g. "refs/stash")
1114 in the middle, the setting applies only to the refs that
1115 match the &lt;pattern&gt;.
1116 </p>
1117 <div class="paragraph"><p>These types of entries are generally created as a result of using <code>git
1118 commit --amend</code> or <code>git rebase</code> and are the commits prior to the amend
1119 or rebase occurring. Since these changes are not part of the current
1120 project most users will want to expire them sooner, which is why the
1121 default is more aggressive than <code>gc.reflogExpire</code>.</p></div>
1122 </dd>
1123 <dt class="hdlist1">
1124 gc.recentObjectsHook
1125 </dt>
1126 <dd>
1128 When considering whether or not to remove an object (either when
1129 generating a cruft pack or storing unreachable objects as
1130 loose), use the shell to execute the specified command(s).
1131 Interpret their output as object IDs which Git will consider as
1132 "recent", regardless of their age. By treating their mtimes as
1133 "now", any objects (and their descendants) mentioned in the
1134 output will be kept regardless of their true age.
1135 </p>
1136 <div class="paragraph"><p>Output must contain exactly one hex object ID per line, and nothing
1137 else. Objects which cannot be found in the repository are ignored.
1138 Multiple hooks are supported, but all must exit successfully, else the
1139 operation (either generating a cruft pack or unpacking unreachable
1140 objects) will be halted.</p></div>
1141 </dd>
1142 <dt class="hdlist1">
1143 gc.repackFilter
1144 </dt>
1145 <dd>
1147 When repacking, use the specified filter to move certain
1148 objects into a separate packfile. See the
1149 <code>--filter=&lt;filter-spec&gt;</code> option of <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a>.
1150 </p>
1151 </dd>
1152 <dt class="hdlist1">
1153 gc.repackFilterTo
1154 </dt>
1155 <dd>
1157 When repacking and using a filter, see <code>gc.repackFilter</code>, the
1158 specified location will be used to create the packfile
1159 containing the filtered out objects. <strong>WARNING:</strong> The
1160 specified location should be accessible, using for example the
1161 Git alternates mechanism, otherwise the repo could be
1162 considered corrupt by Git as it migh not be able to access the
1163 objects in that packfile. See the <code>--filter-to=&lt;dir&gt;</code> option
1164 of <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a> and the <code>objects/info/alternates</code>
1165 section of <a href="gitrepository-layout.html">gitrepository-layout(5)</a>.
1166 </p>
1167 </dd>
1168 <dt class="hdlist1">
1169 gc.rerereResolved
1170 </dt>
1171 <dd>
1173 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
1174 kept for this many days when <em>git rerere gc</em> is run.
1175 You can also use more human-readable "1.month.ago", etc.
1176 The default is 60 days. See <a href="git-rerere.html">git-rerere(1)</a>.
1177 </p>
1178 </dd>
1179 <dt class="hdlist1">
1180 gc.rerereUnresolved
1181 </dt>
1182 <dd>
1184 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
1185 kept for this many days when <em>git rerere gc</em> is run.
1186 You can also use more human-readable "1.month.ago", etc.
1187 The default is 15 days. See <a href="git-rerere.html">git-rerere(1)</a>.
1188 </p>
1189 </dd>
1190 </dl></div>
1191 </div>
1192 </div>
1193 <div class="sect1">
1194 <h2 id="_notes">NOTES</h2>
1195 <div class="sectionbody">
1196 <div class="paragraph"><p><em>git gc</em> tries very hard not to delete objects that are referenced
1197 anywhere in your repository. In particular, it will keep not only
1198 objects referenced by your current set of branches and tags, but also
1199 objects referenced by the index, remote-tracking branches, reflogs
1200 (which may reference commits in branches that were later amended or
1201 rewound), and anything else in the refs/* namespace. Note that a note
1202 (of the kind created by <em>git notes</em>) attached to an object does not
1203 contribute in keeping the object alive. If you are expecting some
1204 objects to be deleted and they aren&#8217;t, check all of those locations
1205 and decide whether it makes sense in your case to remove those
1206 references.</p></div>
1207 <div class="paragraph"><p>On the other hand, when <em>git gc</em> runs concurrently with another process,
1208 there is a risk of it deleting an object that the other process is using
1209 but hasn&#8217;t created a reference to. This may just cause the other process
1210 to fail or may corrupt the repository if the other process later adds a
1211 reference to the deleted object. Git has two features that significantly
1212 mitigate this problem:</p></div>
1213 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
1214 <li>
1216 Any object with modification time newer than the <code>--prune</code> date is kept,
1217 along with everything reachable from it.
1218 </p>
1219 </li>
1220 <li>
1222 Most operations that add an object to the database update the
1223 modification time of the object if it is already present so that #1
1224 applies.
1225 </p>
1226 </li>
1227 </ol></div>
1228 <div class="paragraph"><p>However, these features fall short of a complete solution, so users who
1229 run commands concurrently have to live with some risk of corruption (which
1230 seems to be low in practice).</p></div>
1231 </div>
1232 </div>
1233 <div class="sect1">
1234 <h2 id="_hooks">HOOKS</h2>
1235 <div class="sectionbody">
1236 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <em>git gc --auto</em> command will run the <em>pre-auto-gc</em> hook. See
1237 <a href="githooks.html">githooks(5)</a> for more information.</p></div>
1238 </div>
1239 </div>
1240 <div class="sect1">
1241 <h2 id="_see_also">SEE ALSO</h2>
1242 <div class="sectionbody">
1243 <div class="paragraph"><p><a href="git-prune.html">git-prune(1)</a>
1244 <a href="git-reflog.html">git-reflog(1)</a>
1245 <a href="git-repack.html">git-repack(1)</a>
1246 <a href="git-rerere.html">git-rerere(1)</a></p></div>
1247 </div>
1248 </div>
1249 <div class="sect1">
1250 <h2 id="_git">GIT</h2>
1251 <div class="sectionbody">
1252 <div class="paragraph"><p>Part of the <a href="git.html">git(1)</a> suite</p></div>
1253 </div>
1254 </div>
1255 </div>
1256 <div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
1257 <div id="footer">
1258 <div id="footer-text">
1259 Last updated
1260 2023-10-18 13:44:22 PDT
1261 </div>
1262 </div>
1263 </body>
1264 </html>