git-repo/docs/manifest-format.md

repo Manifest Format

A repo manifest describes the structure of a repo client; that is the directories that are visible and where they should be obtained from with git.

The basic structure of a manifest is a bare Git repository holding a single default.xml XML file in the top level directory.

Manifests are inherently version controlled, since they are kept within a Git repository. Updates to manifests are automatically obtained by clients during repo sync.

[TOC]

XML File Format

A manifest XML file (e.g. default.xml) roughly conforms to the following DTD:

<!DOCTYPE manifest [

  <!ELEMENT manifest (notice?,
                      remote*,
                      default?,
                      manifest-server?,
                      remove-project*,
                      project*,
                      extend-project*,
                      repo-hooks?,
                      superproject?,
                      contactinfo?,
                      include*)>

  <!ELEMENT notice (#PCDATA)>

  <!ELEMENT remote (annotation*)>
  <!ATTLIST remote name         ID    #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST remote alias        CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST remote fetch        CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST remote pushurl      CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST remote review       CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST remote revision     CDATA #IMPLIED>

  <!ELEMENT default EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST default remote      IDREF #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST default revision    CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST default dest-branch CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST default upstream    CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST default sync-j      CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST default sync-c      CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST default sync-s      CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST default sync-tags   CDATA #IMPLIED>

  <!ELEMENT manifest-server EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST manifest-server url CDATA #REQUIRED>

  <!ELEMENT project (annotation*,
                     project*,
                     copyfile*,
                     linkfile*)>
  <!ATTLIST project name        CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST project path        CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST project remote      IDREF #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST project revision    CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST project dest-branch CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST project groups      CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST project sync-c      CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST project sync-s      CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST project sync-tags   CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST project upstream CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST project clone-depth CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST project force-path CDATA #IMPLIED>

  <!ELEMENT annotation EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST annotation name  CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST annotation value CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST annotation keep  CDATA "true">

  <!ELEMENT copyfile EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST copyfile src  CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST copyfile dest CDATA #REQUIRED>

  <!ELEMENT linkfile EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST linkfile src CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST linkfile dest CDATA #REQUIRED>

  <!ELEMENT extend-project EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST extend-project name CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST extend-project path CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST extend-project groups CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST extend-project revision CDATA #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST extend-project remote CDATA #IMPLIED>

  <!ELEMENT remove-project EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST remove-project name  CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST remove-project optional  CDATA #IMPLIED>

  <!ELEMENT repo-hooks EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST repo-hooks in-project CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST repo-hooks enabled-list CDATA #REQUIRED>

  <!ELEMENT superproject EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST superproject name     CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST superproject remote   IDREF #IMPLIED>
  <!ATTLIST superproject revision CDATA #IMPLIED>

  <!ELEMENT contactinfo EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST contactinfo bugurl  CDATA #REQUIRED>

  <!ELEMENT include EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST include name   CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST include groups CDATA #IMPLIED>
]>

For compatibility purposes across repo releases, all unknown elements are silently ignored. However, repo reserves all possible names for itself for future use. If you want to use custom elements, the x-* namespace is reserved for that purpose, and repo guarantees to never allocate any corresponding names.

A description of the elements and their attributes follows.

Element manifest

The root element of the file.

Element notice

Arbitrary text that is displayed to users whenever repo sync finishes. The content is simply passed through as it exists in the manifest.

Element remote

One or more remote elements may be specified. Each remote element specifies a Git URL shared by one or more projects and (optionally) the Gerrit review server those projects upload changes through.

Attribute name: A short name unique to this manifest file. The name specified here is used as the remote name in each project's .git/config, and is therefore automatically available to commands like git fetch, git remote, git pull and git push.

Attribute alias: The alias, if specified, is used to override name to be set as the remote name in each project's .git/config. Its value can be duplicated while attribute name has to be unique in the manifest file. This helps each project to be able to have same remote name which actually points to different remote url.

Attribute fetch: The Git URL prefix for all projects which use this remote. Each project's name is appended to this prefix to form the actual URL used to clone the project.

Attribute pushurl: The Git "push" URL prefix for all projects which use this remote. Each project's name is appended to this prefix to form the actual URL used to "git push" the project. This attribute is optional; if not specified then "git push" will use the same URL as the fetch attribute.

Attribute review: Hostname of the Gerrit server where reviews are uploaded to by repo upload. This attribute is optional; if not specified then repo upload will not function.

Attribute revision: Name of a Git branch (e.g. main or refs/heads/main). Remotes with their own revision will override the default revision.

Element default

At most one default element may be specified. Its remote and revision attributes are used when a project element does not specify its own remote or revision attribute.

Attribute remote: Name of a previously defined remote element. Project elements lacking a remote attribute of their own will use this remote.

Attribute revision: Name of a Git branch (e.g. main or refs/heads/main). Project elements lacking their own revision attribute will use this revision.

Attribute dest-branch: Name of a Git branch (e.g. main). Project elements not setting their own dest-branch will inherit this value. If this value is not set, projects will use revision by default instead.

Attribute upstream: Name of the Git ref in which a sha1 can be found. Used when syncing a revision locked manifest in -c mode to avoid having to sync the entire ref space. Project elements not setting their own upstream will inherit this value.

Attribute sync-j: Number of parallel jobs to use when synching.

Attribute sync-c: Set to true to only sync the given Git branch (specified in the revision attribute) rather than the whole ref space. Project elements lacking a sync-c element of their own will use this value.

Attribute sync-s: Set to true to also sync sub-projects.

Attribute sync-tags: Set to false to only sync the given Git branch (specified in the revision attribute) rather than the other ref tags.

Element manifest-server

At most one manifest-server may be specified. The url attribute is used to specify the URL of a manifest server, which is an XML RPC service.

The manifest server should implement the following RPC methods:

GetApprovedManifest(branch, target)

Return a manifest in which each project is pegged to a known good revision for the current branch and target. This is used by repo sync when the --smart-sync option is given.

The target to use is defined by environment variables TARGET_PRODUCT and TARGET_BUILD_VARIANT. These variables are used to create a string of the form $TARGET_PRODUCT-$TARGET_BUILD_VARIANT, e.g. passion-userdebug. If one of those variables or both are not present, the program will call GetApprovedManifest without the target parameter and the manifest server should choose a reasonable default target.

GetManifest(tag)

Return a manifest in which each project is pegged to the revision at the specified tag. This is used by repo sync when the --smart-tag option is given.

Element project

One or more project elements may be specified. Each element describes a single Git repository to be cloned into the repo client workspace. You may specify Git-submodules by creating a nested project. Git-submodules will be automatically recognized and inherit their parent's attributes, but those may be overridden by an explicitly specified project element.

Attribute name: A unique name for this project. The project's name is appended onto its remote's fetch URL to generate the actual URL to configure the Git remote with. The URL gets formed as:

${remote_fetch}/${project_name}.git

where ${remote_fetch} is the remote's fetch attribute and ${project_name} is the project's name attribute. The suffix ".git" is always appended as repo assumes the upstream is a forest of bare Git repositories. If the project has a parent element, its name will be prefixed by the parent's.

The project name must match the name Gerrit knows, if Gerrit is being used for code reviews.

"name" must not be empty, and may not be an absolute path or use "." or ".." path components. It is always interpreted relative to the remote's fetch settings, so if a different base path is needed, declare a different remote with the new settings needed. These restrictions are not enforced for Local Manifests.

Attribute path: An optional path relative to the top directory of the repo client where the Git working directory for this project should be placed. If not supplied the project "name" is used. If the project has a parent element, its path will be prefixed by the parent's.

"path" may not be an absolute path or use "." or ".." path components. These restrictions are not enforced for Local Manifests.

If you want to place files into the root of the checkout (e.g. a README or Makefile or another build script), use the copyfile or linkfile elements instead.

Attribute remote: Name of a previously defined remote element. If not supplied the remote given by the default element is used.

Attribute revision: Name of the Git branch the manifest wants to track for this project. Names can be relative to refs/heads (e.g. just "main") or absolute (e.g. "refs/heads/main"). Tags and/or explicit SHA-1s should work in theory, but have not been extensively tested. If not supplied the revision given by the remote element is used if applicable, else the default element is used.

Attribute dest-branch: Name of a Git branch (e.g. main). When using repo upload, changes will be submitted for code review on this branch. If unspecified both here and in the default element, revision is used instead.

Attribute groups: List of groups to which this project belongs, whitespace or comma separated. All projects belong to the group "all", and each project automatically belongs to a group of its name:name and path:path. E.g. for <project name="monkeys" path="barrel-of"/>, that project definition is implicitly in the following manifest groups: default, name:monkeys, and path:barrel-of. If you place a project in the group "notdefault", it will not be automatically downloaded by repo. If the project has a parent element, the name and path here are the prefixed ones.

Attribute sync-c: Set to true to only sync the given Git branch (specified in the revision attribute) rather than the whole ref space.

Attribute sync-s: Set to true to also sync sub-projects.

Attribute upstream: Name of the Git ref in which a sha1 can be found. Used when syncing a revision locked manifest in -c mode to avoid having to sync the entire ref space.

Attribute clone-depth: Set the depth to use when fetching this project. If specified, this value will override any value given to repo init with the --depth option on the command line.

Attribute force-path: Set to true to force this project to create the local mirror repository according to its path attribute (if supplied) rather than the name attribute. This attribute only applies to the local mirrors syncing, it will be ignored when syncing the projects in a client working directory.

Element extend-project

Modify the attributes of the named project.

This element is mostly useful in a local manifest file, to modify the attributes of an existing project without completely replacing the existing project definition. This makes the local manifest more robust against changes to the original manifest.

Attribute path: If specified, limit the change to projects checked out at the specified path, rather than all projects with the given name.

Attribute groups: List of additional groups to which this project belongs. Same syntax as the corresponding element of project.

Attribute revision: If specified, overrides the revision of the original project. Same syntax as the corresponding element of project.

Attribute remote: If specified, overrides the remote of the original project. Same syntax as the corresponding element of project.

Element annotation

Zero or more annotation elements may be specified as children of a project or remote element. Each element describes a name-value pair. For projects, this name-value pair will be exported into each project's environment during a 'forall' command, prefixed with REPO__. In addition, there is an optional attribute "keep" which accepts the case insensitive values "true" (default) or "false". This attribute determines whether or not the annotation will be kept when exported with the manifest subcommand.

Element copyfile

Zero or more copyfile elements may be specified as children of a project element. Each element describes a src-dest pair of files; the "src" file will be copied to the "dest" place during repo sync command.

"src" is project relative, "dest" is relative to the top of the tree. Copying from paths outside of the project or to paths outside of the repo client is not allowed.

"src" and "dest" must be files. Directories or symlinks are not allowed. Intermediate paths must not be symlinks either.

Parent directories of "dest" will be automatically created if missing.

Element linkfile

It's just like copyfile and runs at the same time as copyfile but instead of copying it creates a symlink.

The symlink is created at "dest" (relative to the top of the tree) and points to the path specified by "src" which is a path in the project.

Parent directories of "dest" will be automatically created if missing.

The symlink target may be a file or directory, but it may not point outside of the repo client.

Element remove-project

Deletes the named project from the internal manifest table, possibly allowing a subsequent project element in the same manifest file to replace the project with a different source.

This element is mostly useful in a local manifest file, where the user can remove a project, and possibly replace it with their own definition.

Attribute optional: Set to true to ignore remove-project elements with no matching project element.

Element repo-hooks

NB: See the practical documentation for using repo hooks.

Only one repo-hooks element may be specified at a time. Attempting to redefine it will fail to parse.

Attribute in-project: The project where the hooks are defined. The value must match the name attribute (not the path attribute) of a previously defined project element.

Attribute enabled-list: List of hooks to use, whitespace or comma separated.

Element superproject

---

Note: This is currently a WIP.

---

NB: See the git superprojects documentation for background information.

This element is used to specify the URL of the superproject. It has "name" and "remote" as atrributes. Only "name" is required while the others have reasonable defaults. At most one superproject may be specified. Attempting to redefine it will fail to parse.

Attribute name: A unique name for the superproject. This attribute has the same meaning as project's name attribute. See the element project for more information.

Attribute remote: Name of a previously defined remote element. If not supplied the remote given by the default element is used.

Attribute revision: Name of the Git branch the manifest wants to track for this superproject. If not supplied the revision given by the remote element is used if applicable, else the default element is used.

Element contactinfo

---

Note: This is currently a WIP.

---

This element is used to let manifest authors self-register contact info. It has "bugurl" as a required atrribute. This element can be repeated, and any later entries will clobber earlier ones. This would allow manifest authors who extend manifests to specify their own contact info.

Attribute bugurl: The URL to file a bug against the manifest owner.

Element include

This element provides the capability of including another manifest file into the originating manifest. Normal rules apply for the target manifest to include - it must be a usable manifest on its own.

Attribute name: the manifest to include, specified relative to the manifest repository's root.

"name" may not be an absolute path or use "." or ".." path components. These restrictions are not enforced for Local Manifests.

Attribute groups: List of additional groups to which all projects in the included manifest belong. This appends and recurses, meaning all projects in sub-manifests carry all parent include groups. Same syntax as the corresponding element of project.

Local Manifests

Additional remotes and projects may be added through local manifest files stored in $TOP_DIR/.repo/local_manifests/*.xml.

For example:

$ ls .repo/local_manifests
local_manifest.xml
another_local_manifest.xml

$ cat .repo/local_manifests/local_manifest.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<manifest>
  <project path="manifest"
           name="tools/manifest" />
  <project path="platform-manifest"
           name="platform/manifest" />
</manifest>

Users may add projects to the local manifest(s) prior to a repo sync invocation, instructing repo to automatically download and manage these extra projects.

Manifest files stored in $TOP_DIR/.repo/local_manifests/*.xml will be loaded in alphabetical order.

Projects from local manifest files are added into local:: group.

The legacy $TOP_DIR/.repo/local_manifest.xml path is no longer supported.