git .pack expansion question

["Ryan Moszynski" <ryan.m.public@gmail.com>]

hopefully this is the right list for this:

am i understanding this right?

if i run the command:
git-repack
this creates an .idx and a .pack file that together hold all the files
and other metadata for my git directory.  What i can't figure out
though, is how to send just these two files to another machine over
the network, and then using only these two files, have git create a
replica of the original git directory that the .pack file was made
from.  I've tried

mkdir git-test
cd git-test
cp pack-92fadfab20e56acbbf28ed45851d61dc0d35c6ab.idx && .pack ./
git-init-db
git add .
git-unpack-objects < pack-92fadfab20e56acbbf28ed45851d61dc0d35c6ab.pack


now, the objects that were created from my original files are in the
objects directory, but I need them expanded so my git directory is a
copy of the one i originally git-repack'ed.  Is there an easy way to
do this?  This is for back up and archival purposes.

here are three ways i know to do this already, none of which I like very much.

cloning a repository over a network,
drawback: git has to be installed on both machines
or
scp'ing my whole git directory over the network,
drawback: too many little files, scp is too slow
or
tar'ing up my git directory so i can send one file for everything,
drawback: since git already has a compression/expansion tool built in,
i shouldn't have to use another to be able to do what i need.

any comments appreciated,

ryan