git-maintenance

git maintenance subcommand [options]

git maintenance manages repository maintenance tasks automatically. It handles garbage collection, commit graph updates, prefetch, and incremental repack either on-demand or through scheduled background jobs.Background maintenance improves repository performance over time without manual intervention. The `start` subcommand registers the repository and sets up a system scheduler (crontab, systemd, launchctl, or schtasks depending on platform) to run tasks periodically. The `register` subcommand configures recommended task schedules and sets `maintenance.strategy = incremental` while disabling foreground auto-gc.## Tasks- gc — Full garbage collection; repacks all objects into a single pack-file. Expensive.- prefetch — Fetches objects from all remotes into `refs/prefetch/` without updating remote-tracking branches.- commit-graph — Incrementally updates commit-graph files for faster graph traversal.- loose-objects — Packs loose objects into pack-files in batches (default batch: 50,000).- incremental-repack — Repacks small pack-files using the multi-pack-index.- pack-refs — Consolidates loose ref files into a single packed-refs file.- reflog-expire — Deletes reflog entries older than the expiry threshold.- rerere-gc — Cleans stale entries from the rerere cache.- worktree-prune — Removes stale or broken worktree records.

run

Run one or more maintenance tasks immediately.

Enable background maintenance and schedule hourly runs via the system scheduler.

Disable background maintenance schedule.

Add the repository to the global maintenance list and apply recommended task schedules.

Remove the repository from the global maintenance list.

Exit 0 if maintenance tasks need to run, 1 otherwise.

Specific task to run. May be repeated. Valid tasks: gc, prefetch, commit-graph, loose-objects, incremental-repack, pack-refs, reflog-expire, rerere-gc, worktree-prune.

Only run tasks whose scheduled time threshold has been met.

Only run tasks if their auto thresholds are met (e.g. gc.auto loose object count).

Suppress progress output to stderr.

Background scheduler to use with start: auto, crontab, systemd-timer, launchctl, schtasks (default: auto).

Used with unregister; suppress error if the repository is not registered.

Display help information.

~/.gitconfig

Global maintenance configuration for registered repositories and scheduled tasks.

$ [maintenance]
    strategy = incremental
    auto = false

Background jobs require a working system scheduler. The `gc` task is expensive and disruptive for large repositories; prefer `loose-objects` and `incremental-repack` for background use. Configuration is stored in git config.

git maintenance was added in Git 2.29 to provide automated repository optimization, replacing manual gc invocation.

git-gc(1), git-commit-graph(1), git-fetch(1)