# git bundle unbundle and "check-outable" refs

3 messages from 2011-09-29 to 2011-09-29. Participants: Todd A. Jacobs, Junio C Hamano, Jakub Narebski.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/28528

## Todd A. Jacobs, 2011-09-29 15:51

Subject: git bundle unbundle and "check-outable" refs
Message-ID: <dec8c877-bd6e-4120-b045-87179d54abe2@i30g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/dec8c877-bd6e-4120-b045-87179d54abe2%40i30g2000yqd.googlegroups.com

```
Never having needed git bundle before, I've recently been using it as
a sneakernet. In particular, I'm using bundles to work around
limitations of filesystem semantics on vfat and hpfs+ drives when
shared between Linux and OS X systems. The systems are air-gapped, so
sneakernet is essential.

At any rate, the issue I'm dealing with is that "git bundle unbundle"
is sort of non-intuitive to deal with. It seems to add the commits
directly to the local repository, but doesn't give me any of the
branch refs that I'm expecting from such an operation. In other words,
if I bundle branch foo on machine A, then unbundle on machine B, I
expect to be able to "git checkout foo" and get on with life.

Instead, it seems that I have to figure out what commits were
unbundled, and create a new branch ref pointing to the head that I
want. I assume this is to prevent namespace collisions, but it seems
really, really cumbersome. Wouldn't it make more sense to include
branch names in the bundle, and simply prompt the user to rename refs
that conflict?

I'm certainly open to other ideas of how to accomplish this workflow,
and if there's an invocation to simplify this that I'm unaware of,
please advise. Otherwise, I really think the default behavior of the
unbundle sub-command ought to be more intuitive.

```

## Junio C Hamano, 2011-09-29 16:49

Subject: Re: git bundle unbundle and "check-outable" refs
Message-ID: <7vsjnfthtk.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vsjnfthtk.fsf%40alter.siamese.dyndns.org
In-Reply-To: <dec8c877-bd6e-4120-b045-87179d54abe2@i30g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>

```
"Todd A. Jacobs" <nospam+listmail@codegnome.org> writes:

> directly to the local repository, but doesn't give me any of the
> branch refs that I'm expecting from such an operation. In other words,
> if I bundle branch foo on machine A, then unbundle on machine B, I
> expect to be able to "git checkout foo" and get on with life.

$ git bundle -h
usage: git bundle create <file> <git-rev-list args>
   or: git bundle verify <file>
   or: git bundle list-heads <file> [<refname>...]
   or: git bundle unbundle <file> [<refname>...]

$ git bundle list-heads /var/tmp/junk/foo.bundle
632052641517de1a965c1f045b97d2eaa541b2e9 refs/heads/maint

$ git fetch /var/tmp/junk/foo.bundle maint
From /var/tmp/junk/foo.bundle
 * branch            maint      -> FETCH_HEAD

or

$ git fetch /var/tmp/junk/foo.bundle maint:bundle_head
$ git log bundle_head

```

## Jakub Narebski, 2011-09-29 17:20

Subject: Re: git bundle unbundle and "check-outable" refs
Message-ID: <m3ty7vnu4g.fsf@localhost.localdomain>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/m3ty7vnu4g.fsf%40localhost.localdomain
In-Reply-To: <dec8c877-bd6e-4120-b045-87179d54abe2@i30g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>

```
"Todd A. Jacobs" <nospam+listmail@codegnome.org> writes:

> Never having needed git bundle before, I've recently been using it as
> a sneakernet. In particular, I'm using bundles to work around
> limitations of filesystem semantics on vfat and hpfs+ drives when
> shared between Linux and OS X systems. The systems are air-gapped, so
> sneakernet is essential.
> 
> At any rate, the issue I'm dealing with is that "git bundle unbundle"
> is sort of non-intuitive to deal with. [...]

I guess the fault is with "git bundle" documentation.

The "Example" section of git-bundle(1) manpage shows that you can use
path to bundle in place of URL to repository in "git clone".  Actually
you can use path to bundle anywhere where URL or nickname of
repository is/can be used, i.e.:

  git remote add <name> <bundle>
  git fetch <bundle> [<refspec>...]
  git pull <bundle>  [<refspec>...]

  git ls-remote <bundle>

HTH
-- 
Jakub Narębski

```