3.5 What is Git bare repository ?

• A bare repository in Git just contains the version control information and no working files (no tree) and it doesn’t contain the special .git sub-directory.
• git init one –bare
• It is used as remote repository, users can connect to that repository and push their changes
• Bare repo save the files , but do not shows the working tree(project files),
• But when we clone the bare repository we can see the working tree.

Example/Demo :

(i) First image box :

• Created bare repo with name git-bare-repo
• using command with direct init with single command
• git init git-bare-repo –bare
• once after repository initialized , listed the files
• we can see only the version control(metadata or .git folder files ) are showing
• that means bare repo is like a remote repository host, it won’t save direct files
• but it saves the files changes information and commits
• let’s try to try to understand more

(ii) Second image box :

• changed directory to f drive (acts/login as new user)
• cd /f
• cloned the first repo : git-bare-repo (directory path/url on local computer is /c/users/gajan/git-bare-repo)
• git clone /c/users/gajan/git-bare-repo
• it worked git repository cloned to f drive
• moved into the repository : cd git-bare-repo
• if we try to list it , there is nothing
• now we try to add some files : touch user1-1.txt
• Adding to staging area : git add .
• Commiting : git commit -m “users1”
• pushing the changes to repo git-bare-repo : git push
• if we run list : ls , we can see one file user1-1.txt

(iii) Third image box :

• changed directory to e drive (acts/login as new user)
• cd /e
• cloned the first repo : git-bare-repo (directory path/url on local computer is /c/users/gajan/git-bare-repo)
• git clone /c/users/gajan/git-bare-repo
• it worked git repository cloned to e drive
• moved into the repository : cd git-bare-repo
• if we try to list it , then we can see user1-1.txt
• now try list file ls at c drive(first image box) , we can see , it only showing the version control(metadata or .git folder files )
• now we try to add some files : touch user2-1.txt
• Adding to staging area : git add .
• Commiting : git commit -m “users2”
• pushing the changes to repo git-bare-repo : git push
• if we run list : ls , we can see one file user1-1.txt,user2-1.txt

• Now moved to f drive
• pulled the changes from the remote repository, it mandatory if we want to get latest updates
• git pull
• if we try to list it , then we can see user1-1.txt, user2-1.txt
• if we try to list it , then we can see user1-1.txt
• now try list file ls at c drive(first image box) , we can see , it only showing the version control(metadata or .git folder files )

*** So Git bare repository acts as remote repository, users can connect to that repository and push their changes and pull/get the latest changes, Bare repo save the files , but do not shows the working tree (project files).