GIT-ARCHIVE(1) Git Manual GIT-ARCHIVE(1)
NAME
git-archive - Create an archive of files from a named tree
SYNOPSIS
git archive [--format=<fmt>] [--list] [--prefix=<prefix>/] [<extra>]
[-o <file> | --output=<file>] [--worktree-attributes]
[--remote=<repo> [--exec=<git-upload-archive>]] <tree-ish>
[<path>...]
DESCRIPTION
Creates an archive of the specified format containing the tree structure for the named tree, and writes it out to the
standard output. If <prefix> is specified it is prepended to the filenames in the archive.
git archive behaves differently when given a tree ID versus when given a commit ID or tag ID. In the first case the current
time is used as the modification time of each file in the archive. In the latter case the commit time as recorded in the
referenced commit object is used instead. Additionally the commit ID is stored in a global extended pax header if the tar
format is used; it can be extracted using git get-tar-commit-id. In ZIP files it is stored as a file comment.
OPTIONS
--format=<fmt>
Format of the resulting archive. Possible values are tar, zip, tar.gz, tgz, and any format defined using the
configuration option tar.<format>.command. If --format is not given, and the output file is specified, the format is
inferred from the filename if possible (e.g. writing to foo.zip makes the output to be in the zip format). Otherwise the
output format is tar.
-l, --list
Show all available formats.
-v, --verbose
Report progress to stderr.
--prefix=<prefix>/
Prepend <prefix>/ to paths in the archive. Can be repeated; its rightmost value is used for all tracked files. See below
which value gets used by --add-file and --add-virtual-file.
-o <file>, --output=<file>
Write the archive to <file> instead of stdout.
--add-file=<file>
Add a non-tracked file to the archive. Can be repeated to add multiple files. The path of the file in the archive is
built by concatenating the value of the last --prefix option (if any) before this --add-file and the basename of <file>.
--add-virtual-file=<path>:<content>
Add the specified contents to the archive. Can be repeated to add multiple files. The path of the file in the archive is
built by concatenating the value of the last --prefix option (if any) before this --add-virtual-file and <path>.
The <path> argument can start and end with a literal double-quote character; the contained file name is interpreted as a
C-style string, i.e. the backslash is interpreted as escape character. The path must be quoted if it contains a colon,
to avoid the colon from being misinterpreted as the separator between the path and the contents, or if the path begins
or ends with a double-quote character.
The file mode is limited to a regular file, and the option may be subject to platform-dependent command-line limits. For
non-trivial cases, write an untracked file and use --add-file instead.
--worktree-attributes
Look for attributes in .gitattributes files in the working tree as well (see the section called “ATTRIBUTES”).
<extra>
This can be any options that the archiver backend understands. See next section.
--remote=<repo>
Instead of making a tar archive from the local repository, retrieve a tar archive from a remote repository. Note that
the remote repository may place restrictions on which sha1 expressions may be allowed in <tree-ish>. See git-upload-
archive(1) for details.
--exec=<git-upload-archive>
Used with --remote to specify the path to the git-upload-archive on the remote side.
<tree-ish>
The tree or commit to produce an archive for.
<path>
Without an optional path parameter, all files and subdirectories of the current working directory are included in the
archive. If one or more paths are specified, only these are included.
BACKEND EXTRA OPTIONS
zip
-<digit>
Specify compression level. Larger values allow the command to spend more time to compress to smaller size. Supported
values are from -0 (store-only) to -9 (best ratio). Default is -6 if not given.
tar
-<number>
Specify compression level. The value will be passed to the compression command configured in tar.<format>.command. See
manual page of the configured command for the list of supported levels and the default level if this option isn’t
specified.
CONFIGURATION
tar.umask
This variable can be used to restrict the permission bits of tar archive entries. The default is 0002, which turns off
the world write bit. The special value "user" indicates that the archiving user’s umask will be used instead. See
umask(2) for details. If --remote is used then only the configuration of the remote repository takes effect.
tar.<format>.command
This variable specifies a shell command through which the tar output generated by git archive should be piped. The
command is executed using the shell with the generated tar file on its standard input, and should produce the final
output on its standard output. Any compression-level options will be passed to the command (e.g., -9).
The tar.gz and tgz formats are defined automatically and use the magic command git archive gzip by default, which
invokes an internal implementation of gzip.
tar.<format>.remote
If true, enable the format for use by remote clients via git-upload-archive(1). Defaults to false for user-defined
formats, but true for the tar.gz and tgz formats.
ATTRIBUTES
export-ignore
Files and directories with the attribute export-ignore won’t be added to archive files. See gitattributes(5) for
details.
export-subst
If the attribute export-subst is set for a file then Git will expand several placeholders when adding this file to an
archive. See gitattributes(5) for details.
Note that attributes are by default taken from the .gitattributes files in the tree that is being archived. If you want to
tweak the way the output is generated after the fact (e.g. you committed without adding an appropriate export-ignore in its
.gitattributes), adjust the checked out .gitattributes file as necessary and use --worktree-attributes option. Alternatively
you can keep necessary attributes that should apply while archiving any tree in your $GIT_DIR/info/attributes file.
EXAMPLES
git archive --format=tar --prefix=junk/ HEAD | (cd /var/tmp/ && tar xf -)
Create a tar archive that contains the contents of the latest commit on the current branch, and extract it in the
/var/tmp/junk directory.
git archive --format=tar --prefix=git-1.4.0/ v1.4.0 | gzip >git-1.4.0.tar.gz
Create a compressed tarball for v1.4.0 release.
git archive --format=tar.gz --prefix=git-1.4.0/ v1.4.0 >git-1.4.0.tar.gz
Same as above, but using the builtin tar.gz handling.
git archive --prefix=git-1.4.0/ -o git-1.4.0.tar.gz v1.4.0
Same as above, but the format is inferred from the output file.
git archive --format=tar --prefix=git-1.4.0/ v1.4.0^{tree} | gzip >git-1.4.0.tar.gz
Create a compressed tarball for v1.4.0 release, but without a global extended pax header.
git archive --format=zip --prefix=git-docs/ HEAD:Documentation/ > git-1.4.0-docs.zip
Put everything in the current head’s Documentation/ directory into git-1.4.0-docs.zip, with the prefix git-docs/.
git archive -o latest.zip HEAD
Create a Zip archive that contains the contents of the latest commit on the current branch. Note that the output format
is inferred by the extension of the output file.
git archive -o latest.tar --prefix=build/ --add-file=configure --prefix= HEAD
Creates a tar archive that contains the contents of the latest commit on the current branch with no prefix and the
untracked file configure with the prefix build/.
git config tar.tar.xz.command "xz -c"
Configure a "tar.xz" format for making LZMA-compressed tarfiles. You can use it specifying --format=tar.xz, or by
creating an output file like -o foo.tar.xz.
SEE ALSO
gitattributes(5)
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 2.39.2 04/24/2023 GIT-ARCHIVE(1)