I have tried:
git archive HEAD --format=zip > archive.zip
:and then I email archive.zip and at the other end they unzip archive.zip into a folder. But when they try any git commands they find out that this does not produce a valid git repository
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23For others who find this: the reason git archive isn't right for the job is that it only packages up the work tree. It's for doing things like making a tarball of all your source, for distribution. – Cascabel Mar 30 '10 at 14:52
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You could use git bundle and email one single file
See "backing up project which uses git"
A git bundle is just one file which can be very easily created and again imported as it can be treated like another remote.
Once received, you can clone it or fetch from that file.
As mentioned in "Backup of github repo", you will probably want for the first email to make your bundle with all branches:
$ git bundle create /tmp/foo-all --all
As Andreas mentions in the comments, Scott Chacon recently (March 2010) wrote a "cute" article on this topic in the ProGit book:
Vladislav Povorozniuc
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VonC
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Thanks. I read this but it wasn't clear if all my history and branches are saved. Also does it allow me to merge both repositories at a later date? – yazz.com Mar 30 '10 at 14:07
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2Thanks. I figured it out: git init, and then : git pull bundle.bdl master – yazz.com Mar 30 '10 at 14:26
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6@Zubair: unbundle it? You can simply clone it to get back a normal git repo. Or pull it in an empty repo. Which is, I see now, what you did ;) – VonC Mar 30 '10 at 14:26
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As previous answer said, git bundle is the way.
If you want to create a bundle from using only one branch (I prefer bundling only main) and sending over e-mail, you can do something as below:
git bundle create ~/mygitbackup.bundle main
Above will create a git bundle file in your home directory.
Manu Manjunath
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