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<body class="manpage">
<div id="header">
<h1>
git-fast-import(1) Manual Page
</h1>
<h2>NAME</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<p>git-fast-import -
   Backend for fast Git data importers
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="content">
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_synopsis">SYNOPSIS</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="verseblock">
<pre class="content">frontend | <em>git fast-import</em> [options]</pre>
<div class="attribution">
</div></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_description">DESCRIPTION</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>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 <em>git fast-import</em>.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>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.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The fast-import backend itself can import into an empty repository (one that
has already been initialized by <em>git init</em>) 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.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_options">OPTIONS</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--force
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        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).
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--quiet
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Disable all non-fatal output, making fast-import silent when it
        is successful.  This option disables the output shown by
        --stats.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--stats
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        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.
</p>
</dd>
</dl></div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_options_for_frontends">Options for Frontends</h3>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--cat-blob-fd=&lt;fd&gt;
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Write responses to <code>cat-blob</code> and <code>ls</code> queries to the
        file descriptor &lt;fd&gt; instead of <code>stdout</code>.  Allows <code>progress</code>
        output intended for the end-user to be separated from other
        output.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--date-format=&lt;fmt&gt;
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Specify the type of dates the frontend will supply to
        fast-import within <code>author</code>, <code>committer</code> and <code>tagger</code> commands.
        See &#8220;Date Formats&#8221; below for details about which formats
        are supported, and their syntax.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--done
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Terminate with error if there is no <code>done</code> 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.
</p>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_locations_of_marks_files">Locations of Marks Files</h3>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--export-marks=&lt;file&gt;
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Dumps the internal marks table to &lt;file&gt; when complete.
        Marks are written one per line as <code>:markid SHA-1</code>.
        Frontends can use this file to validate imports after they
        have been completed, or to save the marks table across
        incremental runs.  As &lt;file&gt; is only opened and truncated
        at checkpoint (or completion) the same path can also be
        safely given to --import-marks.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--import-marks=&lt;file&gt;
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Before processing any input, load the marks specified in
        &lt;file&gt;.  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.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--import-marks-if-exists=&lt;file&gt;
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Like --import-marks but instead of erroring out, silently
        skips the file if it does not exist.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--[no-]relative-marks
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        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.
</p>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Relative and non-relative marks may be combined by interweaving
--(no-)-relative-marks with the --(import|export)-marks= options.</p></div>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_performance_and_compression_tuning">Performance and Compression Tuning</h3>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--active-branches=&lt;n&gt;
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Maximum number of branches to maintain active at once.
        See &#8220;Memory Utilization&#8221; below for details.  Default is 5.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--big-file-threshold=&lt;n&gt;
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        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.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--depth=&lt;n&gt;
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Maximum delta depth, for blob and tree deltification.
        Default is 10.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--export-pack-edges=&lt;file&gt;
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        After creating a packfile, print a line of data to
        &lt;file&gt; listing the filename of the packfile and the last
        commit on each branch that was written to that packfile.
        This information may be useful after importing projects
        whose total object set exceeds the 4 GiB packfile limit,
        as these commits can be used as edge points during calls
        to <em>git pack-objects</em>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
--max-pack-size=&lt;n&gt;
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Maximum size of each output packfile.
        The default is unlimited.
</p>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_performance">Performance</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>The design of fast-import allows it to import large projects in a minimum
amount of memory usage and processing time.  Assuming the frontend
is able to keep up with fast-import and feed it a constant stream of data,
import times for projects holding 10+ years of history and containing
100,000+ individual commits are generally completed in just 1-2
hours on quite modest (~$2,000 USD) hardware.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Most bottlenecks appear to be in foreign source data access (the
source just cannot extract revisions fast enough) or disk IO (fast-import
writes as fast as the disk will take the data).  Imports will run
faster if the source data is stored on a different drive than the
destination Git repository (due to less IO contention).</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_development_cost">Development Cost</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>A typical frontend for fast-import tends to weigh in at approximately 200
lines of Perl/Python/Ruby code.  Most developers have been able to
create working importers in just a couple of hours, even though it
is their first exposure to fast-import, and sometimes even to Git.  This is
an ideal situation, given that most conversion tools are throw-away
(use once, and never look back).</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_parallel_operation">Parallel Operation</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>Like <em>git push</em> or <em>git fetch</em>, imports handled by fast-import are safe to
run alongside parallel <code>git repack -a -d</code> or <code>git gc</code> invocations,
or any other Git operation (including <em>git prune</em>, as loose objects
are never used by fast-import).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>fast-import does not lock the branch or tag refs it is actively importing.
After the import, during its ref update phase, fast-import tests each
existing branch ref to verify the update will be a fast-forward
update (the commit stored in the ref is contained in the new
history of the commit to be written).  If the update is not a
fast-forward update, fast-import will skip updating that ref and instead
prints a warning message.  fast-import will always attempt to update all
branch refs, and does not stop on the first failure.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Branch updates can be forced with --force, but it&#8217;s recommended that
this only be used on an otherwise quiet repository.  Using --force
is not necessary for an initial import into an empty repository.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_technical_discussion">Technical Discussion</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>fast-import tracks a set of branches in memory.  Any branch can be created
or modified at any point during the import process by sending a
<code>commit</code> command on the input stream.  This design allows a frontend
program to process an unlimited number of branches simultaneously,
generating commits in the order they are available from the source
data.  It also simplifies the frontend programs considerably.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>fast-import does not use or alter the current working directory, or any
file within it.  (It does however update the current Git repository,
as referenced by <code>GIT_DIR</code>.)  Therefore an import frontend may use
the working directory for its own purposes, such as extracting file
revisions from the foreign source.  This ignorance of the working
directory also allows fast-import to run very quickly, as it does not
need to perform any costly file update operations when switching
between branches.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_input_format">Input Format</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>With the exception of raw file data (which Git does not interpret)
the fast-import input format is text (ASCII) based.  This text based
format simplifies development and debugging of frontend programs,
especially when a higher level language such as Perl, Python or
Ruby is being used.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>fast-import is very strict about its input.  Where we say SP below we mean
<strong>exactly</strong> one space.  Likewise LF means one (and only one) linefeed
and HT one (and only one) horizontal tab.
Supplying additional whitespace characters will cause unexpected
results, such as branch names or file names with leading or trailing
spaces in their name, or early termination of fast-import when it encounters
unexpected input.</p></div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_stream_comments">Stream Comments</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>To aid in debugging frontends fast-import ignores any line that
begins with <code>#</code> (ASCII pound/hash) up to and including the line
ending <code>LF</code>.  A comment line may contain any sequence of bytes
that does not contain an LF and therefore may be used to include
any detailed debugging information that might be specific to the
frontend and useful when inspecting a fast-import data stream.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_date_formats">Date Formats</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The following date formats are supported.  A frontend should select
the format it will use for this import by passing the format name
in the --date-format=&lt;fmt&gt; command line option.</p></div>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>raw</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        This is the Git native format and is <code>&lt;time&gt; SP &lt;offutc&gt;</code>.
        It is also fast-import&#8217;s default format, if --date-format was
        not specified.
</p>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The time of the event is specified by <code>&lt;time&gt;</code> as the number of
seconds since the UNIX epoch (midnight, Jan 1, 1970, UTC) and is
written as an ASCII decimal integer.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The local offset is specified by <code>&lt;offutc&gt;</code> as a positive or negative
offset from UTC.  For example EST (which is 5 hours behind UTC)
would be expressed in <code>&lt;tz&gt;</code> by &#8220;-0500&#8221; while UTC is &#8220;+0000&#8221;.
The local offset does not affect <code>&lt;time&gt;</code>; it is used only as an
advisement to help formatting routines display the timestamp.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>If the local offset is not available in the source material, use
&#8220;+0000&#8221;, or the most common local offset.  For example many
organizations have a CVS repository which has only ever been accessed
by users who are located in the same location and timezone.  In this
case a reasonable offset from UTC could be assumed.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Unlike the <code>rfc2822</code> format, this format is very strict.  Any
variation in formatting will cause fast-import to reject the value.</p></div>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>rfc2822</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        This is the standard email format as described by RFC 2822.
</p>
<div class="paragraph"><p>An example value is &#8220;Tue Feb 6 11:22:18 2007 -0500&#8221;.  The Git
parser is accurate, but a little on the lenient side.  It is the
same parser used by <em>git am</em> when applying patches
received from email.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Some malformed strings may be accepted as valid dates.  In some of
these cases Git will still be able to obtain the correct date from
the malformed string.  There are also some types of malformed
strings which Git will parse wrong, and yet consider valid.
Seriously malformed strings will be rejected.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Unlike the <code>raw</code> format above, the timezone/UTC offset information
contained in an RFC 2822 date string is used to adjust the date
value to UTC prior to storage.  Therefore it is important that
this information be as accurate as possible.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>If the source material uses RFC 2822 style dates,
the frontend should let fast-import handle the parsing and conversion
(rather than attempting to do it itself) as the Git parser has
been well tested in the wild.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Frontends should prefer the <code>raw</code> format if the source material
already uses UNIX-epoch format, can be coaxed to give dates in that
format, or its format is easily convertible to it, as there is no
ambiguity in parsing.</p></div>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>now</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Always use the current time and timezone.  The literal
        <code>now</code> must always be supplied for <code>&lt;when&gt;</code>.
</p>
<div class="paragraph"><p>This is a toy format.  The current time and timezone of this system
is always copied into the identity string at the time it is being
created by fast-import.  There is no way to specify a different time or
timezone.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>This particular format is supplied as it&#8217;s short to implement and
may be useful to a process that wants to create a new commit
right now, without needing to use a working directory or
<em>git update-index</em>.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>If separate <code>author</code> and <code>committer</code> commands are used in a <code>commit</code>
the timestamps may not match, as the system clock will be polled
twice (once for each command).  The only way to ensure that both
author and committer identity information has the same timestamp
is to omit <code>author</code> (thus copying from <code>committer</code>) or to use a
date format other than <code>now</code>.</p></div>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_commands">Commands</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>fast-import accepts several commands to update the current repository
and control the current import process.  More detailed discussion
(with examples) of each command follows later.</p></div>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>commit</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Creates a new branch or updates an existing branch by
        creating a new commit and updating the branch to point at
        the newly created commit.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>tag</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Creates an annotated tag object from an existing commit or
        branch.  Lightweight tags are not supported by this command,
        as they are not recommended for recording meaningful points
        in time.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>reset</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Reset an existing branch (or a new branch) to a specific
        revision.  This command must be used to change a branch to
        a specific revision without making a commit on it.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>blob</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Convert raw file data into a blob, for future use in a
        <code>commit</code> command.  This command is optional and is not
        needed to perform an import.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>checkpoint</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Forces fast-import to close the current packfile, generate its
        unique SHA-1 checksum and index, and start a new packfile.
        This command is optional and is not needed to perform
        an import.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>progress</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Causes fast-import to echo the entire line to its own
        standard output.  This command is optional and is not needed
        to perform an import.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>done</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Marks the end of the stream. This command is optional
        unless the <code>done</code> feature was requested using the
        <code>--done</code> command line option or <code>feature done</code> command.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>cat-blob</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Causes fast-import to print a blob in <em>cat-file --batch</em>
        format to the file descriptor set with <code>--cat-blob-fd</code> or
        <code>stdout</code> if unspecified.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>ls</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Causes fast-import to print a line describing a directory
        entry in <em>ls-tree</em> format to the file descriptor set with
        <code>--cat-blob-fd</code> or <code>stdout</code> if unspecified.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>feature</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Require that fast-import supports the specified feature, or
        abort if it does not.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
<code>option</code>
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Specify any of the options listed under OPTIONS that do not
        change stream semantic to suit the frontend&#8217;s needs. This
        command is optional and is not needed to perform an import.
</p>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_commit_code"><code>commit</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Create or update a branch with a new commit, recording one logical
change to the project.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'commit' SP &lt;ref&gt; LF
        mark?
        ('author' (SP &lt;name&gt;)? SP LT &lt;email&gt; GT SP &lt;when&gt; LF)?
        'committer' (SP &lt;name&gt;)? SP LT &lt;email&gt; GT SP &lt;when&gt; LF
        data
        ('from' SP &lt;committish&gt; LF)?
        ('merge' SP &lt;committish&gt; LF)?
        (filemodify | filedelete | filecopy | filerename | filedeleteall | notemodify)*
        LF?</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>where <code>&lt;ref&gt;</code> is the name of the branch to make the commit on.
Typically branch names are prefixed with <code>refs/heads/</code> in
Git, so importing the CVS branch symbol <code>RELENG-1_0</code> would use
<code>refs/heads/RELENG-1_0</code> for the value of <code>&lt;ref&gt;</code>.  The value of
<code>&lt;ref&gt;</code> must be a valid refname in Git.  As <code>LF</code> is not valid in
a Git refname, no quoting or escaping syntax is supported here.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A <code>mark</code> command may optionally appear, requesting fast-import to save a
reference to the newly created commit for future use by the frontend
(see below for format).  It is very common for frontends to mark
every commit they create, thereby allowing future branch creation
from any imported commit.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>data</code> command following <code>committer</code> must supply the commit
message (see below for <code>data</code> command syntax).  To import an empty
commit message use a 0 length data.  Commit messages are free-form
and are not interpreted by Git.  Currently they must be encoded in
UTF-8, as fast-import does not permit other encodings to be specified.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Zero or more <code>filemodify</code>, <code>filedelete</code>, <code>filecopy</code>, <code>filerename</code>,
<code>filedeleteall</code> and <code>notemodify</code> commands
may be included to update the contents of the branch prior to
creating the commit.  These commands may be supplied in any order.
However it is recommended that a <code>filedeleteall</code> command precede
all <code>filemodify</code>, <code>filecopy</code>, <code>filerename</code> and <code>notemodify</code> commands in
the same commit, as <code>filedeleteall</code> wipes the branch clean (see below).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>LF</code> after the command is optional (it used to be required).</p></div>
<div class="sect3">
<h4 id="_code_author_code"><code>author</code></h4>
<div class="paragraph"><p>An <code>author</code> command may optionally appear, if the author information
might differ from the committer information.  If <code>author</code> is omitted
then fast-import will automatically use the committer&#8217;s information for
the author portion of the commit.  See below for a description of
the fields in <code>author</code>, as they are identical to <code>committer</code>.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect3">
<h4 id="_code_committer_code"><code>committer</code></h4>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>committer</code> command indicates who made this commit, and when
they made it.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Here <code>&lt;name&gt;</code> is the person&#8217;s display name (for example
&#8220;Com M Itter&#8221;) and <code>&lt;email&gt;</code> is the person&#8217;s email address
(&#8220;cm@example.com&#8221;).  <code>LT</code> and <code>GT</code> are the literal less-than (\x3c)
and greater-than (\x3e) symbols.  These are required to delimit
the email address from the other fields in the line.  Note that
<code>&lt;name&gt;</code> and <code>&lt;email&gt;</code> are free-form and may contain any sequence
of bytes, except <code>LT</code>, <code>GT</code> and <code>LF</code>.  <code>&lt;name&gt;</code> is typically UTF-8 encoded.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The time of the change is specified by <code>&lt;when&gt;</code> using the date format
that was selected by the --date-format=&lt;fmt&gt; command line option.
See &#8220;Date Formats&#8221; above for the set of supported formats, and
their syntax.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect3">
<h4 id="_code_from_code"><code>from</code></h4>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>from</code> command is used to specify the commit to initialize
this branch from.  This revision will be the first ancestor of the
new commit.  The state of the tree built at this commit will begin
with the state at the <code>from</code> commit, and be altered by the content
modifications in this commit.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Omitting the <code>from</code> command in the first commit of a new branch
will cause fast-import to create that commit with no ancestor. This
tends to be desired only for the initial commit of a project.
If the frontend creates all files from scratch when making a new
branch, a <code>merge</code> command may be used instead of <code>from</code> to start
the commit with an empty tree.
Omitting the <code>from</code> command on existing branches is usually desired,
as the current commit on that branch is automatically assumed to
be the first ancestor of the new commit.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>As <code>LF</code> is not valid in a Git refname or SHA-1 expression, no
quoting or escaping syntax is supported within <code>&lt;committish&gt;</code>.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Here <code>&lt;committish&gt;</code> is any of the following:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
The name of an existing branch already in fast-import&#8217;s internal branch
  table.  If fast-import doesn&#8217;t know the name, it&#8217;s treated as a SHA-1
  expression.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
A mark reference, <code>:&lt;idnum&gt;</code>, where <code>&lt;idnum&gt;</code> is the mark number.
</p>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The reason fast-import uses <code>:</code> to denote a mark reference is this character
is not legal in a Git branch name.  The leading <code>:</code> makes it easy
to distinguish between the mark 42 (<code>:42</code>) and the branch 42 (<code>42</code>
or <code>refs/heads/42</code>), or an abbreviated SHA-1 which happened to
consist only of base-10 digits.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Marks must be declared (via <code>mark</code>) before they can be used.</p></div>
</li>
<li>
<p>
A complete 40 byte or abbreviated commit SHA-1 in hex.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Any valid Git SHA-1 expression that resolves to a commit.  See
  &#8220;SPECIFYING REVISIONS&#8221; in <a href="gitrevisions.html">gitrevisions(7)</a> for details.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The special case of restarting an incremental import from the
current branch value should be written as:</p></div>
<div class="listingblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        from refs/heads/branch^0</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>^0</code> suffix is necessary as fast-import does not permit a branch to
start from itself, and the branch is created in memory before the
<code>from</code> command is even read from the input.  Adding <code>^0</code> will force
fast-import to resolve the commit through Git&#8217;s revision parsing library,
rather than its internal branch table, thereby loading in the
existing value of the branch.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect3">
<h4 id="_code_merge_code"><code>merge</code></h4>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Includes one additional ancestor commit.  The additional ancestry
link does not change the way the tree state is built at this commit.
If the <code>from</code> command is
omitted when creating a new branch, the first <code>merge</code> commit will be
the first ancestor of the current commit, and the branch will start
out with no files.  An unlimited number of <code>merge</code> commands per
commit are permitted by fast-import, thereby establishing an n-way merge.
However Git&#8217;s other tools never create commits with more than 15
additional ancestors (forming a 16-way merge).  For this reason
it is suggested that frontends do not use more than 15 <code>merge</code>
commands per commit; 16, if starting a new, empty branch.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Here <code>&lt;committish&gt;</code> is any of the commit specification expressions
also accepted by <code>from</code> (see above).</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect3">
<h4 id="_code_filemodify_code"><code>filemodify</code></h4>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Included in a <code>commit</code> command to add a new file or change the
content of an existing file.  This command has two different means
of specifying the content of the file.</p></div>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
External data format
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        The data content for the file was already supplied by a prior
        <code>blob</code> command.  The frontend just needs to connect it.
</p>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'M' SP &lt;mode&gt; SP &lt;dataref&gt; SP &lt;path&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Here usually <code>&lt;dataref&gt;</code> must be either a mark reference (<code>:&lt;idnum&gt;</code>)
set by a prior <code>blob</code> command, or a full 40-byte SHA-1 of an
existing Git blob object.  If <code>&lt;mode&gt;</code> is <code>040000`</code> then
<code>&lt;dataref&gt;</code> must be the full 40-byte SHA-1 of an existing
Git tree object or a mark reference set with <code>--import-marks</code>.</p></div>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
Inline data format
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        The data content for the file has not been supplied yet.
        The frontend wants to supply it as part of this modify
        command.
</p>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'M' SP &lt;mode&gt; SP 'inline' SP &lt;path&gt; LF
        data</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>See below for a detailed description of the <code>data</code> command.</p></div>
</dd>
</dl></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In both formats <code>&lt;mode&gt;</code> is the type of file entry, specified
in octal.  Git only supports the following modes:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
<code>100644</code> or <code>644</code>: A normal (not-executable) file.  The majority
  of files in most projects use this mode.  If in doubt, this is
  what you want.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<code>100755</code> or <code>755</code>: A normal, but executable, file.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<code>120000</code>: A symlink, the content of the file will be the link target.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<code>160000</code>: A gitlink, SHA-1 of the object refers to a commit in
  another repository. Git links can only be specified by SHA or through
  a commit mark. They are used to implement submodules.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
<code>040000</code>: A subdirectory.  Subdirectories can only be specified by
  SHA or through a tree mark set with <code>--import-marks</code>.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In both formats <code>&lt;path&gt;</code> is the complete path of the file to be added
(if not already existing) or modified (if already existing).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A <code>&lt;path&gt;</code> string must use UNIX-style directory separators (forward
slash <code>/</code>), may contain any byte other than <code>LF</code>, and must not
start with double quote (<code>"</code>).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A path can use C-style string quoting; this is accepted in all cases
and mandatory if the filename starts with double quote or contains
<code>LF</code>. In C-style quoting, the complete name should be surrounded with
double quotes, and any <code>LF</code>, backslash, or double quote characters
must be escaped by preceding them with a backslash (e.g.,
<code>"path/with\n, \\ and \" in it"</code>).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The value of <code>&lt;path&gt;</code> must be in canonical form. That is it must not:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
contain an empty directory component (e.g. <code>foo//bar</code> is invalid),
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
end with a directory separator (e.g. <code>foo/</code> is invalid),
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
start with a directory separator (e.g. <code>/foo</code> is invalid),
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
contain the special component <code>.</code> or <code>..</code> (e.g. <code>foo/./bar</code> and
  <code>foo/../bar</code> are invalid).
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The root of the tree can be represented by an empty string as <code>&lt;path&gt;</code>.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>It is recommended that <code>&lt;path&gt;</code> always be encoded using UTF-8.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect3">
<h4 id="_code_filedelete_code"><code>filedelete</code></h4>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Included in a <code>commit</code> command to remove a file or recursively
delete an entire directory from the branch.  If the file or directory
removal makes its parent directory empty, the parent directory will
be automatically removed too.  This cascades up the tree until the
first non-empty directory or the root is reached.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'D' SP &lt;path&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>here <code>&lt;path&gt;</code> is the complete path of the file or subdirectory to
be removed from the branch.
See <code>filemodify</code> above for a detailed description of <code>&lt;path&gt;</code>.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect3">
<h4 id="_code_filecopy_code"><code>filecopy</code></h4>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Recursively copies an existing file or subdirectory to a different
location within the branch.  The existing file or directory must
exist.  If the destination exists it will be completely replaced
by the content copied from the source.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'C' SP &lt;path&gt; SP &lt;path&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>here the first <code>&lt;path&gt;</code> is the source location and the second
<code>&lt;path&gt;</code> is the destination.  See <code>filemodify</code> above for a detailed
description of what <code>&lt;path&gt;</code> may look like.  To use a source path
that contains SP the path must be quoted.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A <code>filecopy</code> command takes effect immediately.  Once the source
location has been copied to the destination any future commands
applied to the source location will not impact the destination of
the copy.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect3">
<h4 id="_code_filerename_code"><code>filerename</code></h4>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Renames an existing file or subdirectory to a different location
within the branch.  The existing file or directory must exist. If
the destination exists it will be replaced by the source directory.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'R' SP &lt;path&gt; SP &lt;path&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>here the first <code>&lt;path&gt;</code> is the source location and the second
<code>&lt;path&gt;</code> is the destination.  See <code>filemodify</code> above for a detailed
description of what <code>&lt;path&gt;</code> may look like.  To use a source path
that contains SP the path must be quoted.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A <code>filerename</code> command takes effect immediately.  Once the source
location has been renamed to the destination any future commands
applied to the source location will create new files there and not
impact the destination of the rename.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Note that a <code>filerename</code> is the same as a <code>filecopy</code> followed by a
<code>filedelete</code> of the source location.  There is a slight performance
advantage to using <code>filerename</code>, but the advantage is so small
that it is never worth trying to convert a delete/add pair in
source material into a rename for fast-import.  This <code>filerename</code>
command is provided just to simplify frontends that already have
rename information and don&#8217;t want bother with decomposing it into a
<code>filecopy</code> followed by a <code>filedelete</code>.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect3">
<h4 id="_code_filedeleteall_code"><code>filedeleteall</code></h4>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Included in a <code>commit</code> command to remove all files (and also all
directories) from the branch.  This command resets the internal
branch structure to have no files in it, allowing the frontend
to subsequently add all interesting files from scratch.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'deleteall' LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>This command is extremely useful if the frontend does not know
(or does not care to know) what files are currently on the branch,
and therefore cannot generate the proper <code>filedelete</code> commands to
update the content.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Issuing a <code>filedeleteall</code> followed by the needed <code>filemodify</code>
commands to set the correct content will produce the same results
as sending only the needed <code>filemodify</code> and <code>filedelete</code> commands.
The <code>filedeleteall</code> approach may however require fast-import to use slightly
more memory per active branch (less than 1 MiB for even most large
projects); so frontends that can easily obtain only the affected
paths for a commit are encouraged to do so.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect3">
<h4 id="_code_notemodify_code"><code>notemodify</code></h4>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Included in a <code>commit</code> <code>&lt;notes_ref&gt;</code> command to add a new note
annotating a <code>&lt;committish&gt;</code> or change this annotation contents.
Internally it is similar to filemodify 100644 on <code>&lt;committish&gt;</code>
path (maybe split into subdirectories). It&#8217;s not advised to
use any other commands to write to the <code>&lt;notes_ref&gt;</code> tree except
<code>filedeleteall</code> to delete all existing notes in this tree.
This command has two different means of specifying the content
of the note.</p></div>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
External data format
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        The data content for the note was already supplied by a prior
        <code>blob</code> command.  The frontend just needs to connect it to the
        commit that is to be annotated.
</p>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'N' SP &lt;dataref&gt; SP &lt;committish&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Here <code>&lt;dataref&gt;</code> can be either a mark reference (<code>:&lt;idnum&gt;</code>)
set by a prior <code>blob</code> command, or a full 40-byte SHA-1 of an
existing Git blob object.</p></div>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
Inline data format
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        The data content for the note has not been supplied yet.
        The frontend wants to supply it as part of this modify
        command.
</p>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'N' SP 'inline' SP &lt;committish&gt; LF
        data</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>See below for a detailed description of the <code>data</code> command.</p></div>
</dd>
</dl></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In both formats <code>&lt;committish&gt;</code> is any of the commit specification
expressions also accepted by <code>from</code> (see above).</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_mark_code"><code>mark</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Arranges for fast-import to save a reference to the current object, allowing
the frontend to recall this object at a future point in time, without
knowing its SHA-1.  Here the current object is the object creation
command the <code>mark</code> command appears within.  This can be <code>commit</code>,
<code>tag</code>, and <code>blob</code>, but <code>commit</code> is the most common usage.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'mark' SP ':' &lt;idnum&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>where <code>&lt;idnum&gt;</code> is the number assigned by the frontend to this mark.
The value of <code>&lt;idnum&gt;</code> is expressed as an ASCII decimal integer.
The value 0 is reserved and cannot be used as
a mark.  Only values greater than or equal to 1 may be used as marks.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>New marks are created automatically.  Existing marks can be moved
to another object simply by reusing the same <code>&lt;idnum&gt;</code> in another
<code>mark</code> command.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_tag_code"><code>tag</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Creates an annotated tag referring to a specific commit.  To create
lightweight (non-annotated) tags see the <code>reset</code> command below.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'tag' SP &lt;name&gt; LF
        'from' SP &lt;committish&gt; LF
        'tagger' (SP &lt;name&gt;)? SP LT &lt;email&gt; GT SP &lt;when&gt; LF
        data</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>where <code>&lt;name&gt;</code> is the name of the tag to create.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Tag names are automatically prefixed with <code>refs/tags/</code> when stored
in Git, so importing the CVS branch symbol <code>RELENG-1_0-FINAL</code> would
use just <code>RELENG-1_0-FINAL</code> for <code>&lt;name&gt;</code>, and fast-import will write the
corresponding ref as <code>refs/tags/RELENG-1_0-FINAL</code>.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The value of <code>&lt;name&gt;</code> must be a valid refname in Git and therefore
may contain forward slashes.  As <code>LF</code> is not valid in a Git refname,
no quoting or escaping syntax is supported here.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>from</code> command is the same as in the <code>commit</code> command; see
above for details.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>tagger</code> command uses the same format as <code>committer</code> within
<code>commit</code>; again see above for details.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>data</code> command following <code>tagger</code> must supply the annotated tag
message (see below for <code>data</code> command syntax).  To import an empty
tag message use a 0 length data.  Tag messages are free-form and are
not interpreted by Git.  Currently they must be encoded in UTF-8,
as fast-import does not permit other encodings to be specified.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Signing annotated tags during import from within fast-import is not
supported.  Trying to include your own PGP/GPG signature is not
recommended, as the frontend does not (easily) have access to the
complete set of bytes which normally goes into such a signature.
If signing is required, create lightweight tags from within fast-import with
<code>reset</code>, then create the annotated versions of those tags offline
with the standard <em>git tag</em> process.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_reset_code"><code>reset</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Creates (or recreates) the named branch, optionally starting from
a specific revision.  The reset command allows a frontend to issue
a new <code>from</code> command for an existing branch, or to create a new
branch from an existing commit without creating a new commit.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'reset' SP &lt;ref&gt; LF
        ('from' SP &lt;committish&gt; LF)?
        LF?</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>For a detailed description of <code>&lt;ref&gt;</code> and <code>&lt;committish&gt;</code> see above
under <code>commit</code> and <code>from</code>.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>LF</code> after the command is optional (it used to be required).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>reset</code> command can also be used to create lightweight
(non-annotated) tags.  For example:</p></div>
<div class="exampleblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>reset refs/tags/938
from :938</code></pre>
</div></div>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>would create the lightweight tag <code>refs/tags/938</code> referring to
whatever commit mark <code>:938</code> references.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_blob_code"><code>blob</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Requests writing one file revision to the packfile.  The revision
is not connected to any commit; this connection must be formed in
a subsequent <code>commit</code> command by referencing the blob through an
assigned mark.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'blob' LF
        mark?
        data</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The mark command is optional here as some frontends have chosen
to generate the Git SHA-1 for the blob on their own, and feed that
directly to <code>commit</code>.  This is typically more work than it&#8217;s worth
however, as marks are inexpensive to store and easy to use.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_data_code"><code>data</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Supplies raw data (for use as blob/file content, commit messages, or
annotated tag messages) to fast-import.  Data can be supplied using an exact
byte count or delimited with a terminating line.  Real frontends
intended for production-quality conversions should always use the
exact byte count format, as it is more robust and performs better.
The delimited format is intended primarily for testing fast-import.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Comment lines appearing within the <code>&lt;raw&gt;</code> part of <code>data</code> commands
are always taken to be part of the body of the data and are therefore
never ignored by fast-import.  This makes it safe to import any
file/message content whose lines might start with <code>#</code>.</p></div>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
Exact byte count format
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        The frontend must specify the number of bytes of data.
</p>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'data' SP &lt;count&gt; LF
        &lt;raw&gt; LF?</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>where <code>&lt;count&gt;</code> is the exact number of bytes appearing within
<code>&lt;raw&gt;</code>.  The value of <code>&lt;count&gt;</code> is expressed as an ASCII decimal
integer.  The <code>LF</code> on either side of <code>&lt;raw&gt;</code> is not
included in <code>&lt;count&gt;</code> and will not be included in the imported data.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>LF</code> after <code>&lt;raw&gt;</code> is optional (it used to be required) but
recommended.  Always including it makes debugging a fast-import
stream easier as the next command always starts in column 0
of the next line, even if <code>&lt;raw&gt;</code> did not end with an <code>LF</code>.</p></div>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
Delimited format
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        A delimiter string is used to mark the end of the data.
        fast-import will compute the length by searching for the delimiter.
        This format is primarily useful for testing and is not
        recommended for real data.
</p>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'data' SP '&lt;&lt;' &lt;delim&gt; LF
        &lt;raw&gt; LF
        &lt;delim&gt; LF
        LF?</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>where <code>&lt;delim&gt;</code> is the chosen delimiter string.  The string <code>&lt;delim&gt;</code>
must not appear on a line by itself within <code>&lt;raw&gt;</code>, as otherwise
fast-import will think the data ends earlier than it really does.  The <code>LF</code>
immediately trailing <code>&lt;raw&gt;</code> is part of <code>&lt;raw&gt;</code>.  This is one of
the limitations of the delimited format, it is impossible to supply
a data chunk which does not have an LF as its last byte.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>LF</code> after <code>&lt;delim&gt; LF</code> is optional (it used to be required).</p></div>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_checkpoint_code"><code>checkpoint</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Forces fast-import to close the current packfile, start a new one, and to
save out all current branch refs, tags and marks.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'checkpoint' LF
        LF?</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Note that fast-import automatically switches packfiles when the current
packfile reaches --max-pack-size, or 4 GiB, whichever limit is
smaller.  During an automatic packfile switch fast-import does not update
the branch refs, tags or marks.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>As a <code>checkpoint</code> can require a significant amount of CPU time and
disk IO (to compute the overall pack SHA-1 checksum, generate the
corresponding index file, and update the refs) it can easily take
several minutes for a single <code>checkpoint</code> command to complete.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Frontends may choose to issue checkpoints during extremely large
and long running imports, or when they need to allow another Git
process access to a branch.  However given that a 30 GiB Subversion
repository can be loaded into Git through fast-import in about 3 hours,
explicit checkpointing may not be necessary.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>LF</code> after the command is optional (it used to be required).</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_progress_code"><code>progress</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Causes fast-import to print the entire <code>progress</code> line unmodified to
its standard output channel (file descriptor 1) when the command is
processed from the input stream.  The command otherwise has no impact
on the current import, or on any of fast-import&#8217;s internal state.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'progress' SP &lt;any&gt; LF
        LF?</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>&lt;any&gt;</code> part of the command may contain any sequence of bytes
that does not contain <code>LF</code>.  The <code>LF</code> after the command is optional.
Callers may wish to process the output through a tool such as sed to
remove the leading part of the line, for example:</p></div>
<div class="exampleblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>frontend | git fast-import | sed 's/^progress //'</code></pre>
</div></div>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Placing a <code>progress</code> command immediately after a <code>checkpoint</code> will
inform the reader when the <code>checkpoint</code> has been completed and it
can safely access the refs that fast-import updated.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_cat_blob_code"><code>cat-blob</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Causes fast-import to print a blob to a file descriptor previously
arranged with the <code>--cat-blob-fd</code> argument.  The command otherwise
has no impact on the current import; its main purpose is to
retrieve blobs that may be in fast-import&#8217;s memory but not
accessible from the target repository.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'cat-blob' SP &lt;dataref&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>&lt;dataref&gt;</code> can be either a mark reference (<code>:&lt;idnum&gt;</code>)
set previously or a full 40-byte SHA-1 of a Git blob, preexisting or
ready to be written.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Output uses the same format as <code>git cat-file --batch</code>:</p></div>
<div class="exampleblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>&lt;sha1&gt; SP 'blob' SP &lt;size&gt; LF
&lt;contents&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>This command can be used anywhere in the stream that comments are
accepted.  In particular, the <code>cat-blob</code> command can be used in the
middle of a commit but not in the middle of a <code>data</code> command.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>See &#8220;Responses To Commands&#8221; below for details about how to read
this output safely.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_ls_code"><code>ls</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Prints information about the object at a path to a file descriptor
previously arranged with the <code>--cat-blob-fd</code> argument.  This allows
printing a blob from the active commit (with <code>cat-blob</code>) or copying a
blob or tree from a previous commit for use in the current one (with
<code>filemodify</code>).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>ls</code> command can be used anywhere in the stream that comments are
accepted, including the middle of a commit.</p></div>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
Reading from the active commit
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        This form can only be used in the middle of a <code>commit</code>.
        The path names a directory entry within fast-import&#8217;s
        active commit.  The path must be quoted in this case.
</p>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'ls' SP &lt;path&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
Reading from a named tree
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        The <code>&lt;dataref&gt;</code> can be a mark reference (<code>:&lt;idnum&gt;</code>) or the
        full 40-byte SHA-1 of a Git tag, commit, or tree object,
        preexisting or waiting to be written.
        The path is relative to the top level of the tree
        named by <code>&lt;dataref&gt;</code>.
</p>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'ls' SP &lt;dataref&gt; SP &lt;path&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
</dd>
</dl></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>See <code>filemodify</code> above for a detailed description of <code>&lt;path&gt;</code>.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Output uses the same format as <code>git ls-tree &lt;tree&gt; -- &lt;path&gt;</code>:</p></div>
<div class="exampleblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>&lt;mode&gt; SP ('blob' | 'tree' | 'commit') SP &lt;dataref&gt; HT &lt;path&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The &lt;dataref&gt; represents the blob, tree, or commit object at &lt;path&gt;
and can be used in later <em>cat-blob</em>, <em>filemodify</em>, or <em>ls</em> commands.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>If there is no file or subtree at that path, <em>git fast-import</em> will
instead report</p></div>
<div class="exampleblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>missing SP &lt;path&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>See &#8220;Responses To Commands&#8221; below for details about how to read
this output safely.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_feature_code"><code>feature</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Require that fast-import supports the specified feature, or abort if
it does not.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>        'feature' SP &lt;feature&gt; ('=' &lt;argument&gt;)? LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The &lt;feature&gt; part of the command may be any one of the following:</p></div>
<div class="dlist"><dl>
<dt class="hdlist1">
date-format
</dt>
<dt class="hdlist1">
export-marks
</dt>
<dt class="hdlist1">
relative-marks
</dt>
<dt class="hdlist1">
no-relative-marks
</dt>
<dt class="hdlist1">
force
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Act as though the corresponding command-line option with
        a leading <em>--</em> was passed on the command line
        (see OPTIONS, above).
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
import-marks
</dt>
<dt class="hdlist1">
import-marks-if-exists
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Like --import-marks except in two respects: first, only one
        "feature import-marks" or "feature import-marks-if-exists"
        command is allowed per stream; second, an --import-marks=
        or --import-marks-if-exists command-line option overrides
        any of these "feature" commands in the stream; third,
        "feature import-marks-if-exists" like a corresponding
        command-line option silently skips a nonexistent file.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
cat-blob
</dt>
<dt class="hdlist1">
ls
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Require that the backend support the <em>cat-blob</em> or <em>ls</em> command.
        Versions of fast-import not supporting the specified command
        will exit with a message indicating so.
        This lets the import error out early with a clear message,
        rather than wasting time on the early part of an import
        before the unsupported command is detected.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
notes
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Require that the backend support the <em>notemodify</em> (N)
        subcommand to the <em>commit</em> command.
        Versions of fast-import not supporting notes will exit
        with a message indicating so.
</p>
</dd>
<dt class="hdlist1">
done
</dt>
<dd>
<p>
        Error out if the stream ends without a <em>done</em> command.
        Without this feature, errors causing the frontend to end
        abruptly at a convenient point in the stream can go
        undetected.  This may occur, for example, if an import
        front end dies in mid-operation without emitting SIGTERM
        or SIGKILL at its subordinate git fast-import instance.
</p>
</dd>
</dl></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_option_code"><code>option</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Processes the specified option so that git fast-import behaves in a
way that suits the frontend&#8217;s needs.
Note that options specified by the frontend are overridden by any
options the user may specify to git fast-import itself.</p></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>    'option' SP &lt;option&gt; LF</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>&lt;option&gt;</code> part of the command may contain any of the options
listed in the OPTIONS section that do not change import semantics,
without the leading <em>--</em> and is treated in the same way.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Option commands must be the first commands on the input (not counting
feature commands), to give an option command after any non-option
command is an error.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The following commandline options change import semantics and may therefore
not be passed as option:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
date-format
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
import-marks
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
export-marks
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
cat-blob-fd
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
force
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_code_done_code"><code>done</code></h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>If the <code>done</code> feature is not in use, treated as if EOF was read.
This can be used to tell fast-import to finish early.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>If the <code>--done</code> command line option or <code>feature done</code> command is
in use, the <code>done</code> command is mandatory and marks the end of the
stream.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_responses_to_commands">Responses To Commands</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>New objects written by fast-import are not available immediately.
Most fast-import commands have no visible effect until the next
checkpoint (or completion).  The frontend can send commands to
fill fast-import&#8217;s input pipe without worrying about how quickly
they will take effect, which improves performance by simplifying
scheduling.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>For some frontends, though, it is useful to be able to read back
data from the current repository as it is being updated (for
example when the source material describes objects in terms of
patches to be applied to previously imported objects).  This can
be accomplished by connecting the frontend and fast-import via
bidirectional pipes:</p></div>
<div class="exampleblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>mkfifo fast-import-output
frontend &lt;fast-import-output |
git fast-import &gt;fast-import-output</code></pre>
</div></div>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A frontend set up this way can use <code>progress</code>, <code>ls</code>, and <code>cat-blob</code>
commands to read information from the import in progress.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>To avoid deadlock, such frontends must completely consume any
pending output from <code>progress</code>, <code>ls</code>, and <code>cat-blob</code> before
performing writes to fast-import that might block.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_crash_reports">Crash Reports</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>If fast-import is supplied invalid input it will terminate with a
non-zero exit status and create a crash report in the top level of
the Git repository it was importing into.  Crash reports contain
a snapshot of the internal fast-import state as well as the most
recent commands that lead up to the crash.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>All recent commands (including stream comments, file changes and
progress commands) are shown in the command history within the crash
report, but raw file data and commit messages are excluded from the
crash report.  This exclusion saves space within the report file
and reduces the amount of buffering that fast-import must perform
during execution.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>After writing a crash report fast-import will close the current
packfile and export the marks table.  This allows the frontend
developer to inspect the repository state and resume the import from
the point where it crashed.  The modified branches and tags are not
updated during a crash, as the import did not complete successfully.
Branch and tag information can be found in the crash report and
must be applied manually if the update is needed.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>An example crash:</p></div>
<div class="exampleblock">
<div class="content">
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>$ cat &gt;in &lt;&lt;END_OF_INPUT
# my very first test commit
commit refs/heads/master
committer Shawn O. Pearce &lt;spearce&gt; 19283 -0400
# who is that guy anyway?
data &lt;&lt;EOF
this is my commit
EOF
M 644 inline .gitignore
data &lt;&lt;EOF
.gitignore
EOF
M 777 inline bob
END_OF_INPUT</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>$ git fast-import &lt;in
fatal: Corrupt mode: M 777 inline bob
fast-import: dumping crash report to .git/fast_import_crash_8434</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>$ cat .git/fast_import_crash_8434
fast-import crash report:
    fast-import process: 8434
    parent process     : 1391
    at Sat Sep 1 00:58:12 2007</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>fatal: Corrupt mode: M 777 inline bob</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>Most Recent Commands Before Crash
---------------------------------
  # my very first test commit
  commit refs/heads/master
  committer Shawn O. Pearce &lt;spearce&gt; 19283 -0400
  # who is that guy anyway?
  data &lt;&lt;EOF
  M 644 inline .gitignore
  data &lt;&lt;EOF
* M 777 inline bob</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>Active Branch LRU
-----------------
    active_branches = 1 cur, 5 max</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>pos  clock name
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 1)      0 refs/heads/master</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>Inactive Branches
-----------------
refs/heads/master:
  status      : active loaded dirty
  tip commit  : 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
  old tree    : 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
  cur tree    : 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
  commit clock: 0
  last pack   :</code></pre>
</div></div>
<div class="literalblock">
<div class="content">
<pre><code>-------------------
END OF CRASH REPORT</code></pre>
</div></div>
</div></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_tips_and_tricks">Tips and Tricks</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>The following tips and tricks have been collected from various
users of fast-import, and are offered here as suggestions.</p></div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_use_one_mark_per_commit">Use One Mark Per Commit</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>When doing a repository conversion, use a unique mark per commit
(<code>mark :&lt;n&gt;</code>) and supply the --export-marks option on the command
line.  fast-import will dump a file which lists every mark and the Git
object SHA-1 that corresponds to it.  If the frontend can tie
the marks back to the source repository, it is easy to verify the
accuracy and completeness of the import by comparing each Git
commit to the corresponding source revision.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Coming from a system such as Perforce or Subversion this should be
quite simple, as the fast-import mark can also be the Perforce changeset
number or the Subversion revision number.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_freely_skip_around_branches">Freely Skip Around Branches</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Don&#8217;t bother trying to optimize the frontend to stick to one branch
at a time during an import.  Although doing so might be slightly
faster for fast-import, it tends to increase the complexity of the frontend
code considerably.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The branch LRU builtin to fast-import tends to behave very well, and the
cost of activating an inactive branch is so low that bouncing around
between branches has virtually no impact on import performance.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_handling_renames">Handling Renames</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>When importing a renamed file or directory, simply delete the old
name(s) and modify the new name(s) during the corresponding commit.
Git performs rename detection after-the-fact, rather than explicitly
during a commit.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_use_tag_fixup_branches">Use Tag Fixup Branches</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Some other SCM systems let the user create a tag from multiple
files which are not from the same commit/changeset.  Or to create
tags which are a subset of the files available in the repository.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Importing these tags as-is in Git is impossible without making at
least one commit which &#8220;fixes up&#8221; the files to match the content
of the tag.  Use fast-import&#8217;s <code>reset</code> command to reset a dummy branch
outside of your normal branch space to the base commit for the tag,
then commit one or more file fixup commits, and finally tag the
dummy branch.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>For example since all normal branches are stored under <code>refs/heads/</code>
name the tag fixup branch <code>TAG_FIXUP</code>.  This way it is impossible for
the fixup branch used by the importer to have namespace conflicts
with real branches imported from the source (the name <code>TAG_FIXUP</code>
is not <code>refs/heads/TAG_FIXUP</code>).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>When committing fixups, consider using <code>merge</code> to connect the
commit(s) which are supplying file revisions to the fixup branch.
Doing so will allow tools such as <em>git blame</em> to track
through the real commit history and properly annotate the source
files.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>After fast-import terminates the frontend will need to do <code>rm .git/TAG_FIXUP</code>
to remove the dummy branch.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_import_now_repack_later">Import Now, Repack Later</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>As soon as fast-import completes the Git repository is completely valid
and ready for use.  Typically this takes only a very short time,
even for considerably large projects (100,000+ commits).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>However repacking the repository is necessary to improve data
locality and access performance.  It can also take hours on extremely
large projects (especially if -f and a large --window parameter is
used).  Since repacking is safe to run alongside readers and writers,
run the repack in the background and let it finish when it finishes.
There is no reason to wait to explore your new Git project!</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>If you choose to wait for the repack, don&#8217;t try to run benchmarks
or performance tests until repacking is completed.  fast-import outputs
suboptimal packfiles that are simply never seen in real use
situations.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_repacking_historical_data">Repacking Historical Data</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>If you are repacking very old imported data (e.g. older than the
last year), consider expending some extra CPU time and supplying
--window=50 (or higher) when you run <em>git repack</em>.
This will take longer, but will also produce a smaller packfile.
You only need to expend the effort once, and everyone using your
project will benefit from the smaller repository.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_include_some_progress_messages">Include Some Progress Messages</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Every once in a while have your frontend emit a <code>progress</code> message
to fast-import.  The contents of the messages are entirely free-form,
so one suggestion would be to output the current month and year
each time the current commit date moves into the next month.
Your users will feel better knowing how much of the data stream
has been processed.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_packfile_optimization">Packfile Optimization</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>When packing a blob fast-import always attempts to deltify against the last
blob written.  Unless specifically arranged for by the frontend,
this will probably not be a prior version of the same file, so the
generated delta will not be the smallest possible.  The resulting
packfile will be compressed, but will not be optimal.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Frontends which have efficient access to all revisions of a
single file (for example reading an RCS/CVS ,v file) can choose
to supply all revisions of that file as a sequence of consecutive
<code>blob</code> commands.  This allows fast-import to deltify the different file
revisions against each other, saving space in the final packfile.
Marks can be used to later identify individual file revisions during
a sequence of <code>commit</code> commands.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The packfile(s) created by fast-import do not encourage good disk access
patterns.  This is caused by fast-import writing the data in the order
it is received on standard input, while Git typically organizes
data within packfiles to make the most recent (current tip) data
appear before historical data.  Git also clusters commits together,
speeding up revision traversal through better cache locality.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>For this reason it is strongly recommended that users repack the
repository with <code>git repack -a -d</code> after fast-import completes, allowing
Git to reorganize the packfiles for faster data access.  If blob
deltas are suboptimal (see above) then also adding the <code>-f</code> option
to force recomputation of all deltas can significantly reduce the
final packfile size (30-50% smaller can be quite typical).</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_memory_utilization">Memory Utilization</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>There are a number of factors which affect how much memory fast-import
requires to perform an import.  Like critical sections of core
Git, fast-import uses its own memory allocators to amortize any overheads
associated with malloc.  In practice fast-import tends to amortize any
malloc overheads to 0, due to its use of large block allocations.</p></div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_per_object">per object</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>fast-import maintains an in-memory structure for every object written in
this execution.  On a 32 bit system the structure is 32 bytes,
on a 64 bit system the structure is 40 bytes (due to the larger
pointer sizes).  Objects in the table are not deallocated until
fast-import terminates.  Importing 2 million objects on a 32 bit system
will require approximately 64 MiB of memory.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The object table is actually a hashtable keyed on the object name
(the unique SHA-1).  This storage configuration allows fast-import to reuse
an existing or already written object and avoid writing duplicates
to the output packfile.  Duplicate blobs are surprisingly common
in an import, typically due to branch merges in the source.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_per_mark">per mark</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Marks are stored in a sparse array, using 1 pointer (4 bytes or 8
bytes, depending on pointer size) per mark.  Although the array
is sparse, frontends are still strongly encouraged to use marks
between 1 and n, where n is the total number of marks required for
this import.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_per_branch">per branch</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Branches are classified as active and inactive.  The memory usage
of the two classes is significantly different.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Inactive branches are stored in a structure which uses 96 or 120
bytes (32 bit or 64 bit systems, respectively), plus the length of
the branch name (typically under 200 bytes), per branch.  fast-import will
easily handle as many as 10,000 inactive branches in under 2 MiB
of memory.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Active branches have the same overhead as inactive branches, but
also contain copies of every tree that has been recently modified on
that branch.  If subtree <code>include</code> has not been modified since the
branch became active, its contents will not be loaded into memory,
but if subtree <code>src</code> has been modified by a commit since the branch
became active, then its contents will be loaded in memory.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>As active branches store metadata about the files contained on that
branch, their in-memory storage size can grow to a considerable size
(see below).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>fast-import automatically moves active branches to inactive status based on
a simple least-recently-used algorithm.  The LRU chain is updated on
each <code>commit</code> command.  The maximum number of active branches can be
increased or decreased on the command line with --active-branches=.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_per_active_tree">per active tree</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Trees (aka directories) use just 12 bytes of memory on top of the
memory required for their entries (see &#8220;per active file&#8221; below).
The cost of a tree is virtually 0, as its overhead amortizes out
over the individual file entries.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="sect2">
<h3 id="_per_active_file_entry">per active file entry</h3>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Files (and pointers to subtrees) within active trees require 52 or 64
bytes (32/64 bit platforms) per entry.  To conserve space, file and
tree names are pooled in a common string table, allowing the filename
&#8220;Makefile&#8221; to use just 16 bytes (after including the string header
overhead) no matter how many times it occurs within the project.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The active branch LRU, when coupled with the filename string pool
and lazy loading of subtrees, allows fast-import to efficiently import
projects with 2,000+ branches and 45,114+ files in a very limited
memory footprint (less than 2.7 MiB per active branch).</p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_signals">Signals</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>Sending <strong>SIGUSR1</strong> to the <em>git fast-import</em> process ends the current
packfile early, simulating a <code>checkpoint</code> command.  The impatient
operator can use this facility to peek at the objects and refs from an
import in progress, at the cost of some added running time and worse
compression.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_git">GIT</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>Part of the <a href="git.html">git(1)</a> suite</p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
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