Git : How to get a snapshot of a git repository

Question

I'm looking for the right way to get an archive of a git repository without the .git/ directory in order to send a daily snapshot to testers.

Answer 1

git archive HEAD --format=zip > archive.zip

This does what it says on the tin.

More info here: http://gitready.com/intermediate/2009/01/29/exporting-your-repository.html

Answer 2

This will result in archive.tar.gz and add a prefix dir named "prefix-dir":

git archive --prefix=prefix-dir/ -o archive.tar HEAD
gzip archive.tar