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 'disable'::
  74         Disable the `core.sparseCheckout` config setting, and restore the
  75         working directory to include all files. Leaves the sparse-checkout
  76         file intact so a later 'git sparse-checkout init' command may
  77         return the working directory to the same state.
  78
  79 SPARSE CHECKOUT
  80 ---------------
  81
  82 "Sparse checkout" allows populating the working directory sparsely.
  83 It uses the skip-worktree bit (see linkgit:git-update-index[1]) to tell
  84 Git whether a file in the working directory is worth looking at. If
  85 the skip-worktree bit is set, then the file is ignored in the working
  86 directory. Git will not populate the contents of those files, which
  87 makes a sparse checkout helpful when working in a repository with many
  88 files, but only a few are important to the current user.
  89
  90 The `$GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout` file is used to define the
  91 skip-worktree reference bitmap. When Git updates the working
  92 directory, it updates the skip-worktree bits in the index based
  93 on this file. The files matching the patterns in the file will
  94 appear in the working directory, and the rest will not.
  95
  96 To enable the sparse-checkout feature, run `git sparse-checkout init` to
  97 initialize a simple sparse-checkout file and enable the `core.sparseCheckout`
  98 config setting. Then, run `git sparse-checkout set` to modify the patterns in
  99 the sparse-checkout file.
 100
 101 To repopulate the working directory with all files, use the
 102 `git sparse-checkout disable` command.
 103
 104
 105 FULL PATTERN SET
 106 ----------------
 107
 108 By default, the sparse-checkout file uses the same syntax as `.gitignore`
 109 files.
 110
 111 While `$GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout` is usually used to specify what
 112 files are included, you can also specify what files are _not_ included,
 113 using negative patterns. For example, to remove the file `unwanted`:
 114
 115 ----------------
 116 /*
 117 !unwanted
 118 ----------------
 119
 120
 121 CONE PATTERN SET
 122 ----------------
 123
 124 The full pattern set allows for arbitrary pattern matches and complicated
 125 inclusion/exclusion rules. These can result in O(N*M) pattern matches when
 126 updating the index, where N is the number of patterns and M is the number
 127 of paths in the index. To combat this performance issue, a more restricted
 128 pattern set is allowed when `core.sparseCheckoutCone` is enabled.
 129
 130 The accepted patterns in the cone pattern set are:
 131
 132 1. *Recursive:* All paths inside a directory are included.
 133
 134 2. *Parent:* All files immediately inside a directory are included.
 135
 136 In addition to the above two patterns, we also expect that all files in the
 137 root directory are included. If a recursive pattern is added, then all
 138 leading directories are added as parent patterns.
 139
 140 By default, when running `git sparse-checkout init`, the root directory is
 141 added as a parent pattern. At this point, the sparse-checkout file contains
 142 the following patterns:
 143
 144 ----------------
 145 /*
 146 !/*/
 147 ----------------
 148
 149 This says "include everything in root, but nothing two levels below root."
 150
 151 When in cone mode, the `git sparse-checkout set` subcommand takes a list of
 152 directories instead of a list of sparse-checkout patterns. In this mode,
 153 the command `git sparse-checkout set A/B/C` sets the directory `A/B/C` as
 154 a recursive pattern, the directories `A` and `A/B` are added as parent
 155 patterns. The resulting sparse-checkout file is now
 156
 157 ----------------
 158 /*
 159 !/*/
 160 /A/
 161 !/A/*/
 162 /A/B/
 163 !/A/B/*/
 164 /A/B/C/
 165 ----------------
 166
 167 Here, order matters, so the negative patterns are overridden by the positive
 168 patterns that appear lower in the file.
 169
 170 If `core.sparseCheckoutCone=true`, then Git will parse the sparse-checkout file
 171 expecting patterns of these types. Git will warn if the patterns do not match.
 172 If the patterns do match the expected format, then Git will use faster hash-
 173 based algorithms to compute inclusion in the sparse-checkout.
 174
 175 In the cone mode case, the `git sparse-checkout list` subcommand will list the
 176 directories that define the recursive patterns. For the example sparse-checkout
 177 file above, the output is as follows:
 178
 179 --------------------------
 180 $ git sparse-checkout list
 181 A/B/C
 182 --------------------------
 183
 184 If `core.ignoreCase=true`, then the pattern-matching algorithm will use a
 185 case-insensitive check. This corrects for case mismatched filenames in the
 186 'git sparse-checkout set' command to reflect the expected cone in the working
 187 directory.
 188
 189
 190 SUBMODULES
 191 ----------
 192
 193 If your repository contains one or more submodules, then those submodules will
 194 appear based on which you initialized with the `git submodule` command. If
 195 your sparse-checkout patterns exclude an initialized submodule, then that
 196 submodule will still appear in your working directory.
 197
 198
 199 SEE ALSO
 200 --------
 201
 202 linkgit:git-read-tree[1]
 203 linkgit:gitignore[5]
 204
 205 GIT
 206 ---
 207 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite