---
name: "gotadmin"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "got"
version: "0.111-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/gotadmin"
---

# gotadmin(1)

Game of Trees repository administration

## NAME

**gotadmin** – Game of Trees repository administration

## SYNOPSIS

**gotadmin** \[**-hV**\] *command* \[*arg* *...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**gotadmin** is the repository maintenance tool for the [got(1)](/got/1.md) version control system.

[got(1)](/got/1.md) stores the history of tracked files in a Git repository, as used by the Git version control system. **gotadmin** provides commands for inspecting and manipulating the on-disk state of Git repositories. The repository format is described in [git-repository(5)](/git-repository/5.md).

**gotadmin** provides global and command-specific options. Global options must precede the command name, and are as follows:

- **-h**

  Display usage information and exit immediately.

- **-V**, **--version**

  Display program version and exit immediately.

The commands for **gotadmin** are as follows:

- **init** \[**-A** *hashing-algorithm*\] \[**-b** *branch*\] *repository-path*

  Create a new empty repository at the specified *repository-path*.

  After **gotadmin** **init**, the new repository must be populated before **got** **checkout** can be used. The **got** **import** command can be used to populate the new repository with data from a local directory. Alternatively, on a server running [gotd(8)](/gotd/8.md), the new repository can be made available to [got(1)](/got/1.md) or [git(1)](/git/1.md) clients by adding the repository to [gotd.conf(5)](/gotd.conf/5.md) and restarting [gotd(8)](/gotd/8.md). Clients may then clone the new repository from the server, populate the cloned repository, and then populate the new repository on the server via **got** **send** or **git** **push**.

  The options for **gotadmin** **init** are as follows:

  - **-A** *hashing-algorithm*

    Configure the repository's *hashing-algorithm* used for the computation of Git object IDs. Possible values are **sha1** (the default) or **sha256**.

  - **-b** *branch*

    Make the repository's HEAD reference point to the specified *branch* instead of the default branch “main”.

    The **gotadmin** **init** command is equivalent to **got** **init**.

- **info** \[**-r** *repository-path*\]

  Display information about a repository. This includes some configuration settings from [got.conf(5)](/got.conf/5.md), the object ID hashing algorithm, and the number of objects stored in the repository, in packed or loose form, as well as the current on-disk size of these objects.

  The options for **gotadmin** **info** are as follows:

  - **-r** *repository-path*

    Use the repository at the specified path. If not specified, assume the repository is located at or above the current working directory. If this directory is a [got(1)](/got/1.md) work tree, use the repository path associated with this work tree.

-

  **pack** \[**-aDq**\] \[**-r** *repository-path*\] \[**-x** *reference*\] \[*reference* *...*\] Generate a new pack file and a corresponding pack file index. By default, add any loose objects which are reachable via any references to the generated pack file.

  If one or more *reference* arguments is specified, only add objects which are reachable via the specified references. Each *reference* argument may either specify a specific reference or a reference namespace, in which case all references within this namespace will be used.

  **gotadmin** **pack** always ignores references in the *refs/got/* namespace, effectively treating such references as if they did not refer to any objects.

  The options for **gotadmin** **pack** are as follows:

  - **-a**

    Add objects to the generated pack file even if they are already packed in a different pack file. Unless this option is specified, only loose objects will be added.

  - **-D**

    Force the use of ref-delta representation for deltified objects. If this option is not specified, offset-deltas will be used to represent deltified objects.

  - **-q**

    Suppress progress reporting output.

  - **-r** *repository-path*

    Use the repository at the specified path. If not specified, assume the repository is located at or above the current working directory. If this directory is a [got(1)](/got/1.md) work tree, use the repository path associated with this work tree.

  - **-x** *reference*

    Exclude objects reachable via the specified *reference* from the pack file. The *reference* argument may either specify a specific reference or a reference namespace, in which case all references within this namespace will be excluded. The **-x** option may be specified multiple times to build a list of references to exclude.

    Exclusion takes precedence over inclusion. If a reference appears in both the included and excluded lists, it will be excluded.

- **indexpack** *packfile-path*

  ```
  (alias: ix)
  ```

  Create a pack index for the pack file at *packfile-path*.

  A pack index is required for using the corresponding pack file with [got(1)](/got/1.md). Usually, a pack index will be created by commands such as **gotadmin** **pack** or **got** **fetch** as part of regular operation. The **gotadmin** **indexpack** command may be used to recover from a corrupt or missing index. A given pack file will always yield the same bit-identical index.

  The provided *packfile-path* must be located within the *objects/pack/* directory of the repository and should end in *.pack*. The filename of the corresponding pack index is equivalent, except that it ends in *.idx*.

-

  **listpack** \[**-hs**\] *packfile-path*

  ```
  (alias: ls)
  ```

  List the contents of the pack file at *packfile-path*.

  Each object contained in the pack file will be displayed on a single line. The information shown includes the object ID, object type, object offset, and object size.

  If a packed object is deltified against another object, the delta base will be shown as well. For offset deltas, the delta base is identified via an offset into the pack file. For reference deltas, the delta base is identified via an object ID.

  The provided *packfile-path* must be located within the *objects/pack/* directory of the repository and should end in *.pack*. The corresponding pack index must exist and can be created with **gotadmin** **indexpack** if it is missing.

  The options for **gotadmin** **listpack** are as follows:

  - **-h**

    Show object sizes in human-readable form.

  - **-s**

    Display statistics about the pack file after listing objects. This includes the total number of objects stored in the pack file and a break-down of the number of objects per object type.

-

  **cleanup** \[**-anpq**\] \[**-r** *repository-path*\]

  ```
  (alias: cl)
  ```

  Repack the repository and then purge unreferenced loose objects and redundant pack files. Display the amount of disk space which has been freed as a result.

  Unreferenced objects are present in the repository but cannot be reached via any reference in the entire *refs/* namespace. Objects will usually become unreferenced as a result of deleting branches, tags, or other references with **got** **branch** **-d**, **got** **ref** **-d**, or **got** **fetch** **-X**.

  Loose objects are stored as individual files in subdirectories of the repository's *objects/* directory.

  Packed objects are stored in pack files under *objects/pack/*.

  If redundant copies of packed objects exist in loose form, such redundant copies will be purged. If all the objects of a pack file are present in a bigger pack file, the redundant smaller pack file will be purged.

  References in the *refs/got* namespace may prevent objects from being purged. This includes references in the *refs/got/worktree* namespace created by **got** **checkout** and **got** **update**, as well as references in the *refs/got/backup* namespace created by **got** **rebase** and **got** **histedit**. **gotadmin** **cleanup** will only purge corresponding objects once such references have been deleted with **got** **rebase** **-X**, **got** **histedit** **-X**, or **got** **ref** **-d**.

  The “preciousObjects” Git extension is intended to prevent the removal of objects from a repository. **gotadmin** **cleanup** will refuse to operate on repositories where this extension is active.

  For compatibility with Git, if a file with the extension *.keep* exists and corresponds to a pack file with the extension *.pack* then this pack file will not be removed.

  Some Git repositories contain pack index files which lack a corresponding pack file, which is an inconsistent repository state. In such cases, **gotadmin** **cleanup** **-p** **-n** will display a list of affected pack index files. Whenever possible, the missing pack files should be restored. If restoring missing pack files is not possible, then affected pack index files can be removed with **gotadmin** **cleanup** **-p**.

  The options for **gotadmin** **cleanup** are as follows:

  - **-a**

    Delete all redundant loose and packed objects. By default, objects which are newer than an implementation-defined modification timestamp are kept on disk to prevent race conditions with other commands that add new objects to the repository while **gotadmin** **cleanup** is running.

  - **-n**

    Display the usual progress output and summary information but do not actually remove any files from disk.

  - **-p**

    Instead of purging unreferenced loose objects and redundant pack files, remove any pack index files which do not have a corresponding pack file.

  - **-q**

    Suppress progress reporting and disk space summary output.

  - **-r** *repository-path*

    Use the repository at the specified path. If not specified, assume the repository is located at or above the current working directory. If this directory is a [got(1)](/got/1.md) work tree, use the repository path associated with this work tree.

-

  **dump** \[**-q**\] \[**-r** *repository-path*\] \[**-x** *reference*\] \[*reference* *...*\] Dump the contents of the repository to standard output in Git bundle format.

  If one or more *reference* arguments is specified, only add objects which are reachable via the specified references. Each *reference* argument may either specify a specific reference or a reference namespace, in which case all references within this namespace will be used.

  The options for **gotadmin** **dump** are as follows:

  - **-q**

    Suppress progress reporting output.

  - **-r** *repository-path*

    Use the repository at the specified path. If not specified, assume the repository is located at or above the current working directory. If this directory is a [got(1)](/got/1.md) work tree, use the repository path associated with this work tree.

  - **-x** *reference*

    Exclude objects reachable via the specified *reference* from the bundle. The *reference* argument may either specify a specific reference or a reference namespace, in which case all references within this namespace will be excluded. The **-x** option may be specified multiple times to build a list of references to exclude.

    Exclusion takes precedence over inclusion. If a reference appears in both the included and excluded lists, it will be excluded.

-

  **load** \[**-nq**\] \[**-l** *bundle-path*\] \[**-r** *repository-path*\] \[*reference* *...*\] Read a Git bundle stream from standard input and load its data into a repository.

  If one or more *reference* arguments are provided then only load the specified references from the bundle. Otherwise, all references will be loaded.

  The options for **gotadmin** **load** are as follows:

  - **-l** *bundle-path*

    List references available for loading from the bundle at the specified *bundle-path* and exit immediately. If the **-l** option is specified then no *reference* arguments are allowed. The **-l** option is incompatible with the **-n** option.

  - **-n**

    Attempt to load the bundle but don't install new packfile or update any reference. Can be used to verify the integrity of the bundle.

  - **-q**

    Suppress progress reporting output.

  - **-r** *repository-path*

    Use the repository at the specified path. If not specified, assume the repository is located at or above the current working directory. If this directory is a [got(1)](/got/1.md) work tree, use the repository path associated with this work tree.

## EXIT STATUS

The **gotadmin** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

## SEE ALSO

[got(1)](/got/1.md), [tog(1)](/tog/1.md), [git-repository(5)](/git-repository/5.md), [got.conf(5)](/got.conf/5.md)

## AUTHORS

Christian Weisgerber ⟨*naddy@openbsd.org*⟩ Josh Rickmar ⟨*jrick@zettaport.com*⟩ Klemens Nanni ⟨*kn@openbsd.org*⟩ Omar Polo ⟨*op@openbsd.org*⟩ Ori Bernstein ⟨*ori@openbsd.org*⟩ Stefan Sperling ⟨*stsp@openbsd.org*⟩ Tracey Emery ⟨*tracey@traceyemery.net*⟩

## CAVEATS

**gotadmin** is a work-in-progress and some features remain to be implemented.

At present, the user has to fall back on [git(1)](/git/1.md) to perform some tasks. In particular:

- Exporting data from repositories requires [git-fast-export(1)](/git-fast-export/1.md).

- Importing data into repositories requires [git-fast-import(1)](/git-fast-import/1.md).

## BUGS

Disk space savings reported by **gotadmin** **cleanup** will be misleading if the repository contains object files that were hard-linked from another repository. Such hard-links will be created by certain [git(1)](/git/1.md) commands. By itself, [got(1)](/got/1.md) will never create hard-linked object files.