How can I transfer my git project from local repository (old laptop) to another local repository (new laptop)?

Question

I am working on my git project and the local repo is on my laptop(old). I bought a new laptop and want to work on it going forward. I would like to transfer my git project from my old laptop to my new laptop. How do I go about it?

Answer 1

The "answers" in the comments are possible solutions, but they may not replicate everything you want.

If you want to continue using the repo seamlessly as you've been using it on your old laptop, then you can probably just copy the repo (including the .git folder that should be sitting at the top of the worktree) to the new laptop. You should not use this as a way to transfer data between two actively-used repos (for various reasons), but if you want to move your local repo from one place to another, this is almost always[1] fine. (Even if you're going to continue using both copies, it's ok to use this method for the initial setup of the copy, though you'd want to be careful with data that hadn't already been committed.)

The advantage is that this copies everything. There are several types of data git doesn't share when cloning (or fetching, or pushing, ...). If you use any of those things, then you would have to manually apply them to the new repo. These include:

• reflogs
• client-side hooks
• local repo configuration (i.e. settings in .git/config; system-wide configuration on your laptop is another matter); this likely includes configuration of remotes (though if you only have one remote and re-clone from that remote then this won't be an issue)
• other local setup stored under .git, such as non-shared exclusion rules in .git/info/exclude
• refs (other than branches and tags that you've chosen to share) - at least, by default
• uncommitted (and/or untracked) data in your worktrees and index

If you don't have any local data that matters, then of course making a fresh clones from the origin would work just as if you were a new user joining the project; but we have to at least entertain the possibility that you wouldn't have asked the question if it were that simple.

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[1] "almost always" because there are always edge cases.

If the repo isn't self contained (i.e. if the worktree has symbolic links, maybe), that might have consequences.

If you have multiple worktrees for the repo and they aren't grouped together in a single parent directory, this may just not be as easy as it sounds.

If the two machines have wildly different git versions, then maybe some esoteric change would cause the new laptop's version to be upset by a repo created by the old laptop's version - but I don't know of specific version combinations that would have such an issue.