DOKK / manpages / debian 13 / git-buildpackage / gbp-clone.1.en
gbp-clone(1) git-buildpackage Manual gbp-clone(1)

gbp-clone - Clone a Git repository from a remote and set up the necessary branch tracking


gbp clone
[--version] [--help] [--verbose] [--color=[auto|on|off]] [--color-scheme= COLOR_SCHEME] [--all] [--[no-]pristine-tar] [--debian-branch= branch_name] [--upstream-branch= branch_name] [--depth= depth] [--reference= repository] [--postclone= COMMAND] [--[no-]hooks] [--defuse-gitattributes= [auto|on|off]] [--repo-user= [GIT|DEBIAN]] [--repo-email= [GIT|DEBIAN]] [--[no-]aliases] [--[no-]add-upstream-vcs] repository [directory]

Unlike a regular git clone, the gbp clone will parse the debian/gbp.conf options and clone the remote repository with correct branches tracked.

Likewise, it is recommended to use gbp pull and gbp push to later update the repository as it will spare from having to run git pull and git push multiple times or with lengthy arguments to sync each tracked branch.

Print version of the program, i.e. version of the git-buildpackage suite
Verbose execution
Print help and exit
Whether to use colored output.
Colors to use in output (when color is enabled). The format for COLOR_SCHEME is '<debug>:<info>:<warning>:<error>'. Numerical values and color names are accepted, empty fields imply the default color. For example, --git-color-scheme='cyan:34::' would show debug messages in cyan, info messages in blue and other messages in default (i.e. warning and error messages in red).
Track all branches, not only debian and upstream.
The branch in the Git repository the Debian package is being developed on, default is master.
The branch in the Git repository the upstream sources are put onto. Default is upstream.
Git history depth, for creating shallow git clones.
Local repository to use as alternate instead of re-copying data from remote repository.
Track pristine tar branch.
--[no-]hooks
Enable running hooks.
Execute COMMAND after cloning the source from the remote.

Exported environment variables are: GBP_GIT_DIR (the repository the package is being built from).

Note that if you clone a repository that contains a hook configuration in debian/gbp.conf this hook will not be run automatically to prevent execution of untrusted code.

Disable Git attributes that may interfere with building packages. Works by updating .git/info/attributes to override attributes in the upstream sources which may cause files to be transformed on checkout. More specifically, a new macro attribute is defined, [attr]dgit-defuse-attrs, which is then applied to * together with export-subst and export-ignore. This is done to be compatible with dgit and git-deborig which disable Git attributes this way.

If set to auto, first check whether there are any .gitattributes files in the upstream source, and act only if there are some. If set to on, unconditionally there are some. If set to off, does nothing.

When set to DEBIAN use the DEBEMAIL environment variable to set the user.email Git configuration otherwise use Git's defaults.
When set to DEBIAN use the DEBFULLNAME environment variable to set the user.name Git configuration otherwise use Git's defaults.
--[no-]aliases
Whether to expand gbp specific aliases for remote repos like salsa:.
--[no-]add-upstream-vcs
Whether to add the upstream git repository as additional remote. The repository url is read from the "Repository" field in debian/upstream/metadata.
The (possibly remote) repository to clone from. This is usually a Git URL but some shortcuts are supported (see below).
The directory to clone to.

Clone the Debian packaging repository and the upstream repository in one go:

gbp clone -add-upstream-vcs vcs-git:entr

The branches, tags and pristine-tar will be automatically setup correctly following the contents of debian/gbp.conf in the package, and there will be an additional git remote with the name upstreamvcs that points to the upstream Entr repository on GitHub.

A parameter on the command line would override anything in the debian/gbp.conf file. For example, clone a repository and setup a tracking branch for pristine-tar as well:

gbp clone --pristine-tar git://honk.sigxcpu.org/git/git-buildpackage.git

Clone from the Git-Vcs URL of a package:

gbp clone vcs-git:libvirt

Clone a repository from Salsa (Debian's code hosting):

gbp clone salsa:agx/git-buildpackage

Clone from a GitHub repository:

gbp clone github:agx/git-buildpackage

Several gbp.conf files are parsed to set defaults for the above command-line arguments. See the gbp.conf(5) manpage for details.

gbp-buildpackage(1), gbp-pull(1), gbp-setup-gitattributes(1), gbp.conf(5), gitattributes(5)

Guido Günther <agx@sigxcpu.org>

10 April 2025