git clone

The "clone" command downloads an existing Git repository to your local computer.

You will then have a full-blown, local version of that Git repo and can start working on the project.

Typically, the "original" repository is located on a remote server, often from a service like GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab). That remote repository's URL is then later referred to as the "origin".

Important Options

<repository>

Specifies the URL of the remote repository. Usually, this will point to a remote server, using a protocol like HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, or GIT.

<directory>

The name of the folder on your local machine where the repository will be downloaded into. If this option is not specified, Git will simply create a new folder named after the remote repository.

--recurse-submodules

Clones and initializes all contained submodules. If your project contains submodules, using this parameter will make sure that all submodules will both be cloned and initialized once the main project has been cloned. This saves you from having to manually initialize and update the submodules later.

Usage Examples

In its simplest (and most common) form, only the repository URL is specified:

cd folder/to/clone-into/
git clone https://github.com/gittower/git-crash-course.git

This will download the project to a folder named after the Git repository ("git-crash-course" in this case). If you want a different folder name, simply specify it as the last parameter:

git clone https://github.com/gittower/git-crash-course.git other-name

Learn More

• Check out the chapter Starting with an Existing Project in our free online book
• Find the full command description in the Git documentation
• More frequently asked questions about Git & version control