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<article lang="en" id="git-index-pack(1)">
<articleinfo>
    <title>git-index-pack(1)</title>
        <indexterm>
                <primary>git-index-pack(1)</primary>
        </indexterm>
</articleinfo>
<simplesect id="_name">
<title>NAME</title>
<simpara>git-index-pack - Build pack index file for an existing packed archive</simpara>
</simplesect>
<simplesect id="_synopsis">
<title>SYNOPSIS</title>
<blockquote>
<literallayout><emphasis>git index-pack</emphasis> [-v] [-o &lt;index-file&gt;] &lt;pack-file&gt;
<emphasis>git index-pack</emphasis> --stdin [--fix-thin] [--keep] [-v] [-o &lt;index-file&gt;]
                 [&lt;pack-file&gt;]</literallayout>
</blockquote>
</simplesect>
<simplesect id="_description">
<title>DESCRIPTION</title>
<simpara>Reads a packed archive (.pack) from the specified file, and
builds a pack index file (.idx) for it.  The packed archive
together with the pack index can then be placed in the
objects/pack/ directory of a git repository.</simpara>
</simplesect>
<simplesect id="_options">
<title>OPTIONS</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-v
</term>
<listitem>
<simpara>
        Be verbose about what is going on, including progress status.
</simpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-o &lt;index-file&gt;
</term>
<listitem>
<simpara>
        Write the generated pack index into the specified
        file.  Without this option the name of pack index
        file is constructed from the name of packed archive
        file by replacing .pack with .idx (and the program
        fails if the name of packed archive does not end
        with .pack).
</simpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
--stdin
</term>
<listitem>
<simpara>
        When this flag is provided, the pack is read from stdin
        instead and a copy is then written to &lt;pack-file&gt;. If
        &lt;pack-file&gt; is not specified, the pack is written to
        objects/pack/ directory of the current git repository with
        a default name determined from the pack content.  If
        &lt;pack-file&gt; is not specified consider using --keep to
        prevent a race condition between this process and
        <emphasis>git-repack</emphasis>.
</simpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
--fix-thin
</term>
<listitem>
<simpara>
        It is possible for <emphasis>git-pack-objects</emphasis> to build
        "thin" pack, which records objects in deltified form based on
        objects not included in the pack to reduce network traffic.
        Those objects are expected to be present on the receiving end
        and they must be included in the pack for that pack to be self
        contained and indexable. Without this option any attempt to
        index a thin pack will fail. This option only makes sense in
        conjunction with --stdin.
</simpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
--keep
</term>
<listitem>
<simpara>
        Before moving the index into its final destination
        create an empty .keep file for the associated pack file.
        This option is usually necessary with --stdin to prevent a
        simultaneous <emphasis>git-repack</emphasis> process from deleting
        the newly constructed pack and index before refs can be
        updated to use objects contained in the pack.
</simpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
--keep=<emphasis>why</emphasis>
</term>
<listitem>
<simpara>
        Like --keep create a .keep file before moving the index into
        its final destination, but rather than creating an empty file
        place <emphasis>why</emphasis> followed by an LF into the .keep file.  The <emphasis>why</emphasis>
        message can later be searched for within all .keep files to
        locate any which have outlived their usefulness.
</simpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
--index-version=&lt;version&gt;[,&lt;offset&gt;]
</term>
<listitem>
<simpara>
        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.
</simpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
--strict
</term>
<listitem>
<simpara>
        Die, if the pack contains broken objects or links.
</simpara>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</simplesect>
<simplesect id="_note">
<title>Note</title>
<simpara>Once the index has been created, the list of object names is sorted
and the SHA1 hash of that list is printed to stdout. If --stdin was
also used then this is prefixed by either "pack\t", or "keep\t" if a
new .keep file was successfully created. This is useful to remove a
.keep file used as a lock to prevent the race with <emphasis>git-repack</emphasis>
mentioned above.</simpara>
</simplesect>
<simplesect id="_author">
<title>Author</title>
<simpara>Written by Sergey Vlasov &lt;<ulink url="mailto:vsu@altlinux.ru">vsu@altlinux.ru</ulink>&gt;</simpara>
</simplesect>
<simplesect id="_documentation">
<title>Documentation</title>
<simpara>Documentation by Sergey Vlasov</simpara>
</simplesect>
<simplesect id="_git">
<title>GIT</title>
<simpara>Part of the <xref linkend="git(1)"/> suite</simpara>
</simplesect>
</article>
