@@ -21,27 +21,28 @@ DESCRIPTION
2121Reads list of objects from the standard input, and writes a packed
2222archive with specified base-name, or to the standard output.
2323
24- A packed archive is an efficient way to transfer set of objects
25- between two repositories, and also is an archival format which
26- is efficient to access. The packed archive format (.pack) is
27- designed to be self contained so that it can be unpacked without
28- any further information, but for fast, random access to the objects
29- in the pack, a pack index file (.idx) will be generated.
30-
31- Placing both in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
24+ A packed archive is an efficient way to transfer a set of objects
25+ between two repositories as well as an access efficient archival
26+ format. In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a
27+ compressed whole or as a difference from some other object.
28+ The latter is often called a delta.
29+
30+ The packed archive format (.pack) is designed to be self-contained
31+ so that it can be unpacked without any further information. Therefore,
32+ each object that a delta depends upon must be present within the pack.
33+
34+ A pack index file (.idx) is generated for fast, random access to the
35+ objects in the pack. Placing both the index file (.idx) and the packed
36+ archive (.pack) in the pack/ subdirectory of $GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY (or
3237any of the directories on $GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES)
33- enables git to read from such an archive.
38+ enables git to read from the pack archive.
3439
3540The 'git unpack-objects' command can read the packed archive and
3641expand the objects contained in the pack into "one-file
3742one-object" format; this is typically done by the smart-pull
3843commands when a pack is created on-the-fly for efficient network
3944transport by their peers.
4045
41- In a packed archive, an object is either stored as a compressed
42- whole, or as a difference from some other object. The latter is
43- often called a delta.
44-
4546
4647OPTIONS
4748-------
@@ -179,6 +180,16 @@ base-name::
179180 Add --no-reuse-object if you want to force a uniform compression
180181 level on all data no matter the source.
181182
183+ --thin::
184+ Create a "thin" pack by omitting the common objects between a
185+ sender and a receiver in order to reduce network transfer. This
186+ option only makes sense in conjunction with --stdout.
187+ +
188+ Note: A thin pack violates the packed archive format by omitting
189+ required objects and is thus unusable by git without making it
190+ self-contained. Use `git index-pack --fix-thin`
191+ (see linkgit:git-index-pack[1]) to restore the self-contained property.
192+
182193--delta-base-offset::
183194 A packed archive can express base object of a delta as
184195 either 20-byte object name or as an offset in the
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