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 2.47.3 07/30/2025 GIT-ARCHIVE(1)
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