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 as opposed to a
commit ID or tag ID. When a tree ID is provided, the current time is
used as the modification time of each file in the archive. On the
other hand, when a commit ID or tag ID is provided, 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.

-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> 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.

Note that unlike --add-file the path created in the archive is
not affected by the --prefix option, as a full <path> can be
given as the value of the option.

--worktree-attributes
Look for attributes in .gitattributes files in the working tree
as well (see the section called "ATTRIBUTES").

--mtime=<time>
Set modification time of archive entries. Without this option the
committer time is used if <tree-ish> is a commit or tag, and the
current time if it is a tree.

<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 2.48.1 2025-01-13 GIT-ARCHIVE(1)