When creating a git repository that will be on the server, can I convert it to a bare repository?

Question

I already created a repository. Can I make it a bare type or shall I start over?

Answer 1

git clone --bare repo

This will give you a new bare version of repo named repo.git. Easy, no?

Answer 2

Just move the .git folder away from the working copy.

mv /var/git/repo/repo/.git /var/git/repos/repo.git

You might want to follow that up with a

git config --bool core.bare true

in that repository, just in case git complains about something not being right.

Answer 3

According to the FAQ, conversion from non-bare to bare can be done in two ways. The best one:

$ git clone --bare -l repo repo.git
$ rm -rf repo

To create a bare repository from scratch:

$ mkdir repo.git
$ cd repo.git
$ git --bare init