diff --git a/scripts/sync-ebooks b/scripts/sync-ebooks
index edd4137c..71d2f2a7 100755
--- a/scripts/sync-ebooks
+++ b/scripts/sync-ebooks
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ set -e
 set -o pipefail
 
 usage(){
-	fmt <<EOF
+	cat <<EOF
 DESCRIPTION
 	Syncs books from standardebooks.org GitHub org to specified folder.
 
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ USAGE
 	With -v or --verbosity 1, display general progress updates.
 	With -vv or --verbosity 2, display general progress updates and verbose git output.
 	With --update-only, only sync existing repositories, do not download new repositories.
+	With -b or --bare, clone a bare repository (for a server) instead of a working directory
 	With --token TOKEN, specify a GitHub access token to use for request. Useful for when you hit the rate limit.
 
 	DIRECTORY should be where the repositories should go.
@@ -48,6 +49,7 @@ verbosity=0
 updateOnly="false"
 githubToken=""
 target=""
+bare=""
 
 while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
 	case "$1" in
@@ -75,6 +77,10 @@ while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
 			githubToken="$2"
 			shift 2
 			;;
+		-b|--bare)
+			bare="--bare"
+			shift 1
+			;;
 		*)
 			break ;;
 	esac
@@ -164,13 +170,21 @@ fi
 repoUrls=$(printf "%s" "${repoUrls}" | grep -v -e "/tools.git\$" -e "/web.git\$" -e "/manual.git\$" | awk 'NF')
 
 printf "%s\n" "${repoUrls}" | while IFS= read -r repoUrl; do
+	# make sure it's not an empty string
 	[ -n "${repoUrl}" ] || continue
-	[ -d "${repoUrl##*/}" ] && continue
 
+	# strip everything prior to the last segment of the name
 	repoName="${repoUrl##*/}"
+	if [ "${bare}" = "" ]; then
+		repoName="${repoName%.git}"
+	fi
+
+	# if the repo already exists, skip it (handled in the update above)
+	[ -d "${repoName}" ] && continue
+
 	repoNameLength=$(printf "%s" "${repoName}" | wc -m)
 	if [ "${repoNameLength}" -ge 100 ]; then
-		if dirs=( "${repoName%%.git}"*/ ) && [[ -d ${dirs[0]} ]]; then
+		if dirs=( "${repoName}"*/ ) && [[ -d ${dirs[0]} ]]; then
 			continue
 		fi
 	fi
@@ -180,9 +194,9 @@ printf "%s\n" "${repoUrls}" | while IFS= read -r repoUrl; do
 	fi
 
 	if [ "${verbosity}" -lt 2 ]; then
-		git clone -q --bare "${repoUrl}"
+		git clone -q ${bare} "${repoUrl}"
 	else
-		git clone -v --bare "${repoUrl}"
+		git clone -v ${bare} "${repoUrl}"
 	fi
 
 	if ! [ -d "${repoName}" ]; then
@@ -196,11 +210,14 @@ printf "%s\n" "${repoUrls}" | while IFS= read -r repoUrl; do
 		sed -E "s/<[^>]+?>//g" |
 		sed -E "s|url:https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/||g" |
 		sed -E "s|/|_|g").git"
+	if [ "${bare}" = "" ]; then
+		properName="${properName%.git}"
+	fi
 
-	if [ "${repoUrl##*/}" != "${properName}" ]; then
+	if [ "${repoName}" != "${properName}" ]; then
 		if [ "${verbosity}" -gt 0 ]; then
 			printf "Moving %s to %s\n" "${repoName}" "${properName}"
 		fi
 		mv "${repoName}" "${properName}"
 	fi
-done
+done
\ No newline at end of file