How do I pull/fetch with Git INTO a bare repository?

Question

I'm writing a tool to backup all my repositories from Bitbucket (which supports Git and Mercurial) to my local machine.

It already works for Mercurial, where I do it like this:

create a new empty repository without a working copy on the local machine
(the same like a bare Git repository)
pull from the remote repository into the local empty repository

Now I'm trying to do the same with Git.

I already found out that I can't directly pull to a bare repository and that I should use fetch instead.

So I tried it:

C:\test>git fetch https://github.com/SamSaffron/dapper-dot-net.git
remote: Counting objects: 1255, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1178/1178), done.
remote: Total 1255 (delta 593), reused 717 (delta 56)
Receiving objects: 100% (1255/1255), 13.66 MiB | 706 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (593/593), done.
From https://github.com/SamSaffron/dapper-dot-net
 * branch            HEAD       -> FETCH_HEAD

Obviously Git did fetch something, but the local repository is empty after that.
(git log says fatal: bad default revision 'HEAD')

What am I doing wrong?

Disclaimer:
I have only very, very basic Git knowledge (I usually use Mercurial).
And I'm using Windows, if that matters.

possible duplicate of [git log and show on a bare repo](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6214711/git-log-and-show-on-a-bare-repo) — CharlesB, Oct 25 '11 at 21:02
@CharlesB: None of the answers in this link work for me. Not even things like `git branch -va` that worked for the asker, not the suggested `git log branchname` (I tried `master`), nor the "To visualize everything in the repository..." command at the end of the answer. — Christian Specht, Oct 25 '11 at 21:30

score 20 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 13 '16 at 00:38

20

Try

git fetch https://github.com/SamSaffron/dapper-dot-net.git master:master

edited Feb 13 '16 at 00:38

Kyle Strand

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answered Oct 25 '11 at 21:01

Michael Krelin - hacker

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This only seems to fetch the master branch (I just tried it with https://github.com/dontangg/nocco, because Dapper has no other branches). Is it possible to fetch **all** branches? This will be a backup tool, and of course I want to back up everything that is there. – Christian Specht Oct 25 '11 at 21:19
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Something like `"*:*"` or `"refs/heads/*:refs/heads/*"` should do. – Michael Krelin - hacker Oct 25 '11 at 21:20
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`*:*` doesn't work for me (`fatal: Invalid refspec '*.*'`), but `refs/heads/*:refs/heads/*` does the trick. Thank you! – Christian Specht Oct 25 '11 at 21:34
I think it depends on git version, then. – Michael Krelin - hacker Oct 25 '11 at 21:42
Do you know a link where the differences between the Git versions are explained? It worked on a machine with Git 1.7.7, but the machine I'm using now has Git 1.6.5.1, and I can't get `fetch` to work at all. I'd really like to see a reference that tells me which command works with which Git version. Thank you! – Christian Specht Nov 04 '11 at 20:34
I don't know of a better resource for this information than git itself: http://repo.or.cz/w/git.git/tree/HEAD:/Documentation/RelNotes – Michael Krelin - hacker Nov 05 '11 at 16:59
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Note, that the edit by @FirstZero doesn't fully apply to the *bare* repository. – Michael Krelin - hacker Mar 13 '14 at 22:53
I needed this for a bare repo used for redmine setup `git fetch origin *:*` in crontab did the trick – Bart C Oct 19 '17 at 17:17

score 16 · Answer 2 · edited May 16 '16 at 12:57

To backup the remote repository into your bare repository regulary configure first

git config remote.origin.url https://github.com/SamSaffron/dapper-dot-net.git
git config remote.origin.fetch "+*:*"

and then simply run

git fetch --prune

to backup.

You probably can skip the fist configuration addition as this should has been already set while cloning the remote repository.
Please also mind the enclosing double quotation marks (") in the above command to protect the asterix (*) not to be interpreted from your shell.
The plus sign is needed to allow non-fastforward updates. That is probably your intention if you want to backup the current state of your remote.
Option --prune is used to also delete by now non-existent branches.

A good explanation with all the pertinent facts in one place, especially useful is the point about double-quotes and the need for the `+` prefixing the [refspec](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-The-Refspec). — starfry, May 16 '16 at 12:09

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 26 '11 at 03:00

4

I think you if you really want to backup. You can try $ git clone --mirror XXXX command. it will get almost everything from repository. Hope it is helpful.

answered Oct 26 '11 at 03:00

Enze Chi

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Yes, but I want the backup to run regularly. So after the first run, the local repository already exists --> I have to run `pull`/`fetch`/whatever anyway and make sure that this pulls **everything** as well. – Christian Specht Oct 26 '11 at 05:40
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After you mirrored you bare. you can use 'git fetch --all --progress -v' to update your local bares. – Enze Chi Oct 26 '11 at 22:06

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 03 '14 at 03:36

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$ git fetch https://github.com/SamSaffron/dapper-dot-net.git +refs/heads/*:refs/heads/* --prune

answered Oct 03 '14 at 03:36

antak

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How do I pull/fetch with Git INTO a bare repository?

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How do I pull/fetch with Git INTO a bare repository?