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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | TEMPLATE DIRECTORY | EXAMPLES | CONFIGURATION | GIT | COLOPHON |
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GIT-INIT(1) Git Manual GIT-INIT(1)
git-init - Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an
existing one
git init [-q | --quiet] [--bare] [--template=<template-directory>]
[--separate-git-dir <git-dir>] [--object-format=<format>]
[--ref-format=<format>]
[-b <branch-name> | --initial-branch=<branch-name>]
[--shared[=<permissions>]] [<directory>]
This command creates an empty Git repository - basically a .git
directory with subdirectories for objects, refs/heads, refs/tags,
and template files. An initial branch without any commits will be
created (see the --initial-branch option below for its name).
If the GIT_DIR environment variable is set then it specifies a
path to use instead of ./.git for the base of the repository.
If the object storage directory is specified via the
GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY environment variable then the sha1
directories are created underneath; otherwise, the default
$GIT_DIR/objects directory is used.
Running git init in an existing repository is safe. It will not
overwrite things that are already there. The primary reason for
rerunning git init is to pick up newly added templates (or to move
the repository to another place if --separate-git-dir is given).
-q, --quiet
Only print error and warning messages; all other output will
be suppressed.
--bare
Create a bare repository. If GIT_DIR environment is not set,
it is set to the current working directory.
--object-format=<format>
Specify the given object <format> (hash algorithm) for the
repository. The valid values are sha1 and (if enabled) sha256.
sha1 is the default.
Note: At present, there is no interoperability between SHA-256
repositories and SHA-1 repositories.
Historically, we warned that SHA-256 repositories may later need
backward incompatible changes when we introduce such
interoperability features. Today, we only expect compatible
changes. Furthermore, if such changes prove to be necessary, it
can be expected that SHA-256 repositories created with today’s Git
will be usable by future versions of Git without data loss.
--ref-format=<format>
Specify the given ref storage <format> for the repository. The
valid values are:
• files for loose files with packed-refs. This is the
default.
• reftable for the reftable format. This format is
experimental and its internals are subject to change.
--template=<template-directory>
Specify the directory from which templates will be used. (See
the "TEMPLATE DIRECTORY" section below.)
--separate-git-dir=<git-dir>
Instead of initializing the repository as a directory to
either $GIT_DIR or ./.git/, create a text file there
containing the path to the actual repository. This file acts
as a filesystem-agnostic Git symbolic link to the repository.
If this is a reinitialization, the repository will be moved to
the specified path.
-b <branch-name>, --initial-branch=<branch-name>
Use <branch-name> for the initial branch in the newly created
repository. If not specified, fall back to the default name
(currently master, but this is subject to change in the
future; the name can be customized via the init.defaultBranch
configuration variable).
--shared[=(false|true|umask|group|all|world|everybody|<perm>)]
Specify that the Git repository is to be shared amongst
several users. This allows users belonging to the same group
to push into that repository. When specified, the config
variable core.sharedRepository is set so that files and
directories under $GIT_DIR are created with the requested
permissions. When not specified, Git will use permissions
reported by umask(2).
The option can have the following values, defaulting to group
if no value is given:
umask, false
Use permissions reported by umask(2). The default, when
--shared is not specified.
group, true
Make the repository group-writable, (and g+sx, since the
git group may not be the primary group of all users). This
is used to loosen the permissions of an otherwise safe
umask(2) value. Note that the umask still applies to the
other permission bits (e.g. if umask is 0022, using group
will not remove read privileges from other (non-group)
users). See 0xxx for how to exactly specify the repository
permissions.
all, world, everybody
Same as group, but make the repository readable by all
users.
<perm>
<perm> is a 3-digit octal number prefixed with ‘0` and
each file will have mode <perm>. <perm> will override
users’ umask(2) value (and not only loosen permissions as
group and all do). 0640 will create a repository which is
group-readable, but not group-writable or accessible to
others. 0660 will create a repo that is readable and
writable to the current user and group, but inaccessible
to others (directories and executable files get their x
bit from the r bit for corresponding classes of users).
By default, the configuration flag receive.denyNonFastForwards is
enabled in shared repositories, so that you cannot force a non
fast-forwarding push into it.
If you provide a <directory>, the command is run inside it. If
this directory does not exist, it will be created.
Files and directories in the template directory whose name do not
start with a dot will be copied to the $GIT_DIR after it is
created.
The template directory will be one of the following (in order):
• the argument given with the --template option;
• the contents of the $GIT_TEMPLATE_DIR environment variable;
• the init.templateDir configuration variable; or
• the default template directory: /usr/share/git-core/templates.
The default template directory includes some directory structure,
suggested "exclude patterns" (see gitignore(5)), and sample hook
files.
The sample hooks are all disabled by default. To enable one of the
sample hooks rename it by removing its .sample suffix.
See githooks(5) for more general info on hook execution.
Start a new Git repository for an existing code base
$ cd /path/to/my/codebase
$ git init (1)
$ git add . (2)
$ git commit (3)
1. Create a /path/to/my/codebase/.git directory.
2. Add all existing files to the index.
3. Record the pristine state as the first commit in the
history.
Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
from the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as
what’s found there:
init.templateDir
Specify the directory from which templates will be copied.
init.defaultBranch
Allows overriding the default branch name e.g. when
initializing a new repository.
init.defaultObjectFormat
Allows overriding the default object format for new
repositories. See --object-format= in git-init(1). Both the
command line option and the GIT_DEFAULT_HASH environment
variable take precedence over this config.
init.defaultRefFormat
Allows overriding the default ref storage format for new
repositories. See --ref-format= in git-init(1). Both the
command line option and the GIT_DEFAULT_REF_FORMAT environment
variable take precedence over this config.
Part of the git(1) suite
This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control
system) project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩. If you have a bug report for this manual
page, see ⟨http://git-scm.com/community⟩. This page was obtained
from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/git/git.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2025-08-07.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Git 2.51.0.rc1 2025-08-07 GIT-INIT(1)
Pages that refer to this page: git(1), git-clone(1), git-config(1), git-init(1), git-init-db(1), git-worktree(1), githooks(5), gitrepository-layout(5), giteveryday(7)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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