path: root/Documentation/technical/bundle-format.txt

= Git bundle v2 format

The Git bundle format is a format that represents both refs and Git objects.

== Format

We will use ABNF notation to define the Git bundle format. See
protocol-common.txt for the details.

----
bundle    = signature *prerequisite *reference LF pack
signature = "# v2 git bundle" LF

prerequisite = "-" obj-id SP comment LF
comment      = *CHAR
reference    = obj-id SP refname LF

pack         = ... ; packfile
----

== Semantics

A Git bundle consists of three parts.

* "Prerequisites" lists the objects that are NOT included in the bundle and the
  reader of the bundle MUST already have, in order to use the data in the
  bundle. The objects stored in the bundle may refer to prerequisite objects and
  anything reachable from them (e.g. a tree object in the bundle can reference
  a blob that is reachable from a prerequisite) and/or expressed as a delta
  against prerequisite objects.

* "References" record the tips of the history graph, iow, what the reader of the
  bundle CAN "git fetch" from it.

* "Pack" is the pack data stream "git fetch" would send, if you fetch from a
  repository that has the references recorded in the "References" above into a
  repository that has references pointing at the objects listed in
  "Prerequisites" above.

In the bundle format, there can be a comment following a prerequisite obj-id.
This is a comment and it has no specific meaning. The writer of the bundle MAY
put any string here. The reader of the bundle MUST ignore the comment.

=== Note on the shallow clone and a Git bundle

Note that the prerequisites does not represent a shallow-clone boundary. The
semantics of the prerequisites and the shallow-clone boundaries are different,
and the Git bundle v2 format cannot represent a shallow clone repository.