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 'set'::
  50         Write a set of patterns to the sparse-checkout file, as given as
  51         a list of arguments following the 'set' subcommand. Update the
  52         working directory to match the new patterns. Enable the
  53         core.sparseCheckout config setting if it is not already enabled.
  54 +
  55 When the `--stdin` option is provided, the patterns are read from
  56 standard in as a newline-delimited list instead of from the arguments.
  57 +
  58 When `core.sparseCheckoutCone` is enabled, the input list is considered a
  59 list of directories instead of sparse-checkout patterns. The command writes
  60 patterns to the sparse-checkout file to include all files contained in those
  61 directories (recursively) as well as files that are siblings of ancestor
  62 directories. The input format matches the output of `git ls-tree --name-only`.
  63 This includes interpreting pathnames that begin with a double quote (") as
  64 C-style quoted strings.
  65
  66 'add'::
  67         Update the sparse-checkout file to include additional patterns.
  68         By default, these patterns are read from the command-line arguments,
  69         but they can be read from stdin using the `--stdin` option. When
  70         `core.sparseCheckoutCone` is enabled, the given patterns are interpreted
  71         as directory names as in the 'set' subcommand.
  72
  73 'reapply'::
  74         Reapply the sparsity pattern rules to paths in the working tree.
  75         Commands like merge or rebase can materialize paths to do their
  76         work (e.g. in order to show you a conflict), and other
  77         sparse-checkout commands might fail to sparsify an individual file
  78         (e.g. because it has unstaged changes or conflicts).  In such
  79         cases, it can make sense to run `git sparse-checkout reapply` later
  80         after cleaning up affected paths (e.g. resolving conflicts, undoing
  81         or committing changes, etc.).
  82
  83 'disable'::
  84         Disable the `core.sparseCheckout` config setting, and restore the
  85         working directory to include all files. Leaves the sparse-checkout
  86         file intact so a later 'git sparse-checkout init' command may
  87         return the working directory to the same state.
  88
  89 SPARSE CHECKOUT
  90 ---------------
  91
  92 "Sparse checkout" allows populating the working directory sparsely.
  93 It uses the skip-worktree bit (see linkgit:git-update-index[1]) to tell
  94 Git whether a file in the working directory is worth looking at. If
  95 the skip-worktree bit is set, then the file is ignored in the working
  96 directory. Git will not populate the contents of those files, which
  97 makes a sparse checkout helpful when working in a repository with many
  98 files, but only a few are important to the current user.
  99
 100 The `$GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout` file is used to define the
 101 skip-worktree reference bitmap. When Git updates the working
 102 directory, it updates the skip-worktree bits in the index based
 103 on this file. The files matching the patterns in the file will
 104 appear in the working directory, and the rest will not.
 105
 106 To enable the sparse-checkout feature, run `git sparse-checkout init` to
 107 initialize a simple sparse-checkout file and enable the `core.sparseCheckout`
 108 config setting. Then, run `git sparse-checkout set` to modify the patterns in
 109 the sparse-checkout file.
 110
 111 To repopulate the working directory with all files, use the
 112 `git sparse-checkout disable` command.
 113
 114
 115 FULL PATTERN SET
 116 ----------------
 117
 118 By default, the sparse-checkout file uses the same syntax as `.gitignore`
 119 files.
 120
 121 While `$GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout` is usually used to specify what
 122 files are included, you can also specify what files are _not_ included,
 123 using negative patterns. For example, to remove the file `unwanted`:
 124
 125 ----------------
 126 /*
 127 !unwanted
 128 ----------------
 129
 130
 131 CONE PATTERN SET
 132 ----------------
 133
 134 The full pattern set allows for arbitrary pattern matches and complicated
 135 inclusion/exclusion rules. These can result in O(N*M) pattern matches when
 136 updating the index, where N is the number of patterns and M is the number
 137 of paths in the index. To combat this performance issue, a more restricted
 138 pattern set is allowed when `core.sparseCheckoutCone` is enabled.
 139
 140 The accepted patterns in the cone pattern set are:
 141
 142 1. *Recursive:* All paths inside a directory are included.
 143
 144 2. *Parent:* All files immediately inside a directory are included.
 145
 146 In addition to the above two patterns, we also expect that all files in the
 147 root directory are included. If a recursive pattern is added, then all
 148 leading directories are added as parent patterns.
 149
 150 By default, when running `git sparse-checkout init`, the root directory is
 151 added as a parent pattern. At this point, the sparse-checkout file contains
 152 the following patterns:
 153
 154 ----------------
 155 /*
 156 !/*/
 157 ----------------
 158
 159 This says "include everything in root, but nothing two levels below root."
 160
 161 When in cone mode, the `git sparse-checkout set` subcommand takes a list of
 162 directories instead of a list of sparse-checkout patterns. In this mode,
 163 the command `git sparse-checkout set A/B/C` sets the directory `A/B/C` as
 164 a recursive pattern, the directories `A` and `A/B` are added as parent
 165 patterns. The resulting sparse-checkout file is now
 166
 167 ----------------
 168 /*
 169 !/*/
 170 /A/
 171 !/A/*/
 172 /A/B/
 173 !/A/B/*/
 174 /A/B/C/
 175 ----------------
 176
 177 Here, order matters, so the negative patterns are overridden by the positive
 178 patterns that appear lower in the file.
 179
 180 If `core.sparseCheckoutCone=true`, then Git will parse the sparse-checkout file
 181 expecting patterns of these types. Git will warn if the patterns do not match.
 182 If the patterns do match the expected format, then Git will use faster hash-
 183 based algorithms to compute inclusion in the sparse-checkout.
 184
 185 In the cone mode case, the `git sparse-checkout list` subcommand will list the
 186 directories that define the recursive patterns. For the example sparse-checkout
 187 file above, the output is as follows:
 188
 189 --------------------------
 190 $ git sparse-checkout list
 191 A/B/C
 192 --------------------------
 193
 194 If `core.ignoreCase=true`, then the pattern-matching algorithm will use a
 195 case-insensitive check. This corrects for case mismatched filenames in the
 196 'git sparse-checkout set' command to reflect the expected cone in the working
 197 directory.
 198
 199
 200 SUBMODULES
 201 ----------
 202
 203 If your repository contains one or more submodules, then submodules
 204 are populated based on interactions with the `git submodule` command.
 205 Specifically, `git submodule init -- <path>` will ensure the submodule
 206 at `<path>` is present, while `git submodule deinit [-f] -- <path>`
 207 will remove the files for the submodule at `<path>` (including any
 208 untracked files, uncommitted changes, and unpushed history).  Similar
 209 to how sparse-checkout removes files from the working tree but still
 210 leaves entries in the index, deinitialized submodules are removed from
 211 the working directory but still have an entry in the index.
 212
 213 Since submodules may have unpushed changes or untracked files,
 214 removing them could result in data loss.  Thus, changing sparse
 215 inclusion/exclusion rules will not cause an already checked out
 216 submodule to be removed from the working copy.  Said another way, just
 217 as `checkout` will not cause submodules to be automatically removed or
 218 initialized even when switching between branches that remove or add
 219 submodules, using `sparse-checkout` to reduce or expand the scope of
 220 "interesting" files will not cause submodules to be automatically
 221 deinitialized or initialized either.
 222
 223 Further, the above facts mean that there are multiple reasons that
 224 "tracked" files might not be present in the working copy: sparsity
 225 pattern application from sparse-checkout, and submodule initialization
 226 state.  Thus, commands like `git grep` that work on tracked files in
 227 the working copy may return results that are limited by either or both
 228 of these restrictions.
 229
 230
 231 SEE ALSO
 232 --------
 233
 234 linkgit:git-read-tree[1]
 235 linkgit:gitignore[5]
 236
 237 GIT
 238 ---
 239 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite