How to convert a normal Git repository to a bare one?

Question

How can I convert a 'normal' Git repository to a bare one?

The main difference seems to be:

• in the normal Git repository, you have a .git folder inside the repository containing all relevant data and all other files making up your working copy

• in a bare Git repository, there is no working copy and the folder (let's call it repo.git) contains the actual repository data

Answer 1

In short: replace the contents of repo with the contents of repo/.git, then tell the repository that it is now a bare repository.

To do this, execute the following commands:

cd repo mv .git ../repo.git # renaming just for clarity cd .. rm -fr repo cd repo.git git config --bool core.bare true 

Note that this is different from doing a git clone --bare to a new location (see below).

Answer 2

Your method looks like it would work; the file structure of a bare repository is just what is inside the .git directory. But I don't know if any of the files are actually changed, so if that fails, you can just do

git clone --bare /path/to/repo 

You'll probably need to do it in a different directory to avoid a name conflict, and then you can just move it back to where you want. And you may need to change the config file to point to wherever your origin repo is.