Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt

   1 git-sparse-checkout(1)
   2 ======================
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-sparse-checkout - Initialize and modify the sparse-checkout
   7 configuration, which reduces the checkout to a set of paths
   8 given by a list of patterns.
   9
  10
  11 SYNOPSIS
  12 --------
  13 [verse]
  14 'git sparse-checkout <subcommand> [<options>]'
  15
  16
  17 DESCRIPTION
  18 -----------
  19
  20 Initialize and modify the sparse-checkout configuration, which reduces
  21 the checkout to a set of paths given by a list of patterns.
  22
  23 THIS COMMAND IS EXPERIMENTAL. ITS BEHAVIOR, AND THE BEHAVIOR OF OTHER
  24 COMMANDS IN THE PRESENCE OF SPARSE-CHECKOUTS, WILL LIKELY CHANGE IN
  25 THE FUTURE.
  26
  27
  28 COMMANDS
  29 --------
  30 'list'::
  31         Describe the patterns in the sparse-checkout file.
  32
  33 'init'::
  34         Enable the `core.sparseCheckout` setting. If the
  35         sparse-checkout file does not exist, then populate it with
  36         patterns that match every file in the root directory and
  37         no other directories, then will remove all directories tracked
  38         by Git. Add patterns to the sparse-checkout file to
  39         repopulate the working directory.
  40 +
  41 To avoid interfering with other worktrees, it first enables the
  42 `extensions.worktreeConfig` setting and makes sure to set the
  43 `core.sparseCheckout` setting in the worktree-specific config file.
  44 +
  45 When `--cone` is provided, the `core.sparseCheckoutCone` setting is
  46 also set, allowing for better performance with a limited set of
  47 patterns (see 'CONE PATTERN SET' below).
  48 +
  49 Use the `--[no-]sparse-index` option to toggle the use of the sparse
  50 index format. This reduces the size of the index to be more closely
  51 aligned with your sparse-checkout definition. This can have significant
  52 performance advantages for commands such as `git status` or `git add`.
  53 This feature is still experimental. Some commands might be slower with
  54 a sparse index until they are properly integrated with the feature.
  55 +
  56 **WARNING:** Using a sparse index requires modifying the index in a way
  57 that is not completely understood by external tools. If you have trouble
  58 with this compatibility, then run `git sparse-checkout init --no-sparse-index`
  59 to rewrite your index to not be sparse. Older versions of Git will not
  60 understand the sparse directory entries index extension and may fail to
  61 interact with your repository until it is disabled.
  62
  63 'set'::
  64         Write a set of patterns to the sparse-checkout file, as given as
  65         a list of arguments following the 'set' subcommand. Update the
  66         working directory to match the new patterns. Enable the
  67         core.sparseCheckout config setting if it is not already enabled.
  68 +
  69 When the `--stdin` option is provided, the patterns are read from
  70 standard in as a newline-delimited list instead of from the arguments.
  71 +
  72 When `core.sparseCheckoutCone` is enabled, the input list is considered a
  73 list of directories instead of sparse-checkout patterns. The command writes
  74 patterns to the sparse-checkout file to include all files contained in those
  75 directories (recursively) as well as files that are siblings of ancestor
  76 directories. The input format matches the output of `git ls-tree --name-only`.
  77 This includes interpreting pathnames that begin with a double quote (") as
  78 C-style quoted strings.
  79
  80 'add'::
  81         Update the sparse-checkout file to include additional patterns.
  82         By default, these patterns are read from the command-line arguments,
  83         but they can be read from stdin using the `--stdin` option. When
  84         `core.sparseCheckoutCone` is enabled, the given patterns are interpreted
  85         as directory names as in the 'set' subcommand.
  86
  87 'reapply'::
  88         Reapply the sparsity pattern rules to paths in the working tree.
  89         Commands like merge or rebase can materialize paths to do their
  90         work (e.g. in order to show you a conflict), and other
  91         sparse-checkout commands might fail to sparsify an individual file
  92         (e.g. because it has unstaged changes or conflicts).  In such
  93         cases, it can make sense to run `git sparse-checkout reapply` later
  94         after cleaning up affected paths (e.g. resolving conflicts, undoing
  95         or committing changes, etc.).
  96
  97 'disable'::
  98         Disable the `core.sparseCheckout` config setting, and restore the
  99         working directory to include all files. Leaves the sparse-checkout
 100         file intact so a later 'git sparse-checkout init' command may
 101         return the working directory to the same state.
 102
 103 SPARSE CHECKOUT
 104 ---------------
 105
 106 "Sparse checkout" allows populating the working directory sparsely.
 107 It uses the skip-worktree bit (see linkgit:git-update-index[1]) to tell
 108 Git whether a file in the working directory is worth looking at. If
 109 the skip-worktree bit is set, then the file is ignored in the working
 110 directory. Git will not populate the contents of those files, which
 111 makes a sparse checkout helpful when working in a repository with many
 112 files, but only a few are important to the current user.
 113
 114 The `$GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout` file is used to define the
 115 skip-worktree reference bitmap. When Git updates the working
 116 directory, it updates the skip-worktree bits in the index based
 117 on this file. The files matching the patterns in the file will
 118 appear in the working directory, and the rest will not.
 119
 120 To enable the sparse-checkout feature, run `git sparse-checkout init` to
 121 initialize a simple sparse-checkout file and enable the `core.sparseCheckout`
 122 config setting. Then, run `git sparse-checkout set` to modify the patterns in
 123 the sparse-checkout file.
 124
 125 To repopulate the working directory with all files, use the
 126 `git sparse-checkout disable` command.
 127
 128
 129 FULL PATTERN SET
 130 ----------------
 131
 132 By default, the sparse-checkout file uses the same syntax as `.gitignore`
 133 files.
 134
 135 While `$GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout` is usually used to specify what
 136 files are included, you can also specify what files are _not_ included,
 137 using negative patterns. For example, to remove the file `unwanted`:
 138
 139 ----------------
 140 /*
 141 !unwanted
 142 ----------------
 143
 144
 145 CONE PATTERN SET
 146 ----------------
 147
 148 The full pattern set allows for arbitrary pattern matches and complicated
 149 inclusion/exclusion rules. These can result in O(N*M) pattern matches when
 150 updating the index, where N is the number of patterns and M is the number
 151 of paths in the index. To combat this performance issue, a more restricted
 152 pattern set is allowed when `core.sparseCheckoutCone` is enabled.
 153
 154 The accepted patterns in the cone pattern set are:
 155
 156 1. *Recursive:* All paths inside a directory are included.
 157
 158 2. *Parent:* All files immediately inside a directory are included.
 159
 160 In addition to the above two patterns, we also expect that all files in the
 161 root directory are included. If a recursive pattern is added, then all
 162 leading directories are added as parent patterns.
 163
 164 By default, when running `git sparse-checkout init`, the root directory is
 165 added as a parent pattern. At this point, the sparse-checkout file contains
 166 the following patterns:
 167
 168 ----------------
 169 /*
 170 !/*/
 171 ----------------
 172
 173 This says "include everything in root, but nothing two levels below root."
 174
 175 When in cone mode, the `git sparse-checkout set` subcommand takes a list of
 176 directories instead of a list of sparse-checkout patterns. In this mode,
 177 the command `git sparse-checkout set A/B/C` sets the directory `A/B/C` as
 178 a recursive pattern, the directories `A` and `A/B` are added as parent
 179 patterns. The resulting sparse-checkout file is now
 180
 181 ----------------
 182 /*
 183 !/*/
 184 /A/
 185 !/A/*/
 186 /A/B/
 187 !/A/B/*/
 188 /A/B/C/
 189 ----------------
 190
 191 Here, order matters, so the negative patterns are overridden by the positive
 192 patterns that appear lower in the file.
 193
 194 If `core.sparseCheckoutCone=true`, then Git will parse the sparse-checkout file
 195 expecting patterns of these types. Git will warn if the patterns do not match.
 196 If the patterns do match the expected format, then Git will use faster hash-
 197 based algorithms to compute inclusion in the sparse-checkout.
 198
 199 In the cone mode case, the `git sparse-checkout list` subcommand will list the
 200 directories that define the recursive patterns. For the example sparse-checkout
 201 file above, the output is as follows:
 202
 203 --------------------------
 204 $ git sparse-checkout list
 205 A/B/C
 206 --------------------------
 207
 208 If `core.ignoreCase=true`, then the pattern-matching algorithm will use a
 209 case-insensitive check. This corrects for case mismatched filenames in the
 210 'git sparse-checkout set' command to reflect the expected cone in the working
 211 directory.
 212
 213 When changing the sparse-checkout patterns in cone mode, Git will inspect each
 214 tracked directory that is not within the sparse-checkout cone to see if it
 215 contains any untracked files. If all of those files are ignored due to the
 216 `.gitignore` patterns, then the directory will be deleted. If any of the
 217 untracked files within that directory is not ignored, then no deletions will
 218 occur within that directory and a warning message will appear. If these files
 219 are important, then reset your sparse-checkout definition so they are included,
 220 use `git add` and `git commit` to store them, then remove any remaining files
 221 manually to ensure Git can behave optimally.
 222
 223
 224 SUBMODULES
 225 ----------
 226
 227 If your repository contains one or more submodules, then submodules
 228 are populated based on interactions with the `git submodule` command.
 229 Specifically, `git submodule init -- <path>` will ensure the submodule
 230 at `<path>` is present, while `git submodule deinit [-f] -- <path>`
 231 will remove the files for the submodule at `<path>` (including any
 232 untracked files, uncommitted changes, and unpushed history).  Similar
 233 to how sparse-checkout removes files from the working tree but still
 234 leaves entries in the index, deinitialized submodules are removed from
 235 the working directory but still have an entry in the index.
 236
 237 Since submodules may have unpushed changes or untracked files,
 238 removing them could result in data loss.  Thus, changing sparse
 239 inclusion/exclusion rules will not cause an already checked out
 240 submodule to be removed from the working copy.  Said another way, just
 241 as `checkout` will not cause submodules to be automatically removed or
 242 initialized even when switching between branches that remove or add
 243 submodules, using `sparse-checkout` to reduce or expand the scope of
 244 "interesting" files will not cause submodules to be automatically
 245 deinitialized or initialized either.
 246
 247 Further, the above facts mean that there are multiple reasons that
 248 "tracked" files might not be present in the working copy: sparsity
 249 pattern application from sparse-checkout, and submodule initialization
 250 state.  Thus, commands like `git grep` that work on tracked files in
 251 the working copy may return results that are limited by either or both
 252 of these restrictions.
 253
 254
 255 SEE ALSO
 256 --------
 257
 258 linkgit:git-read-tree[1]
 259 linkgit:gitignore[5]
 260
 261 GIT
 262 ---
 263 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite