git-sparse-checkout

GIT-SPARSE-CHECKOU(1)             Git Manual             GIT-SPARSE-CHECKOU(1)

NAME
       git-sparse-checkout - Initialize and modify the sparse-checkout
       configuration, which reduces the checkout to a set of paths given by a
       list of patterns.

SYNOPSIS
       git sparse-checkout <subcommand> [options]

DESCRIPTION
       Initialize and modify the sparse-checkout configuration, which reduces
       the checkout to a set of paths given by a list of patterns.

       THIS COMMAND IS EXPERIMENTAL. ITS BEHAVIOR, AND THE BEHAVIOR OF OTHER
       COMMANDS IN THE PRESENCE OF SPARSE-CHECKOUTS, WILL LIKELY CHANGE IN THE
       FUTURE.

COMMANDS
       list
           Describe the patterns in the sparse-checkout file.

       init
           Enable the core.sparseCheckout setting. If the sparse-checkout file
           does not exist, then populate it with patterns that match every
           file in the root directory and no other directories, then will
           remove all directories tracked by Git. Add patterns to the
           sparse-checkout file to repopulate the working directory.

           To avoid interfering with other worktrees, it first enables the
           extensions.worktreeConfig setting and makes sure to set the
           core.sparseCheckout setting in the worktree-specific config file.

       set
           Write a set of patterns to the sparse-checkout file, as given as a
           list of arguments following the set subcommand. Update the working
           directory to match the new patterns. Enable the core.sparseCheckout
           config setting if it is not already enabled.

           When the --stdin option is provided, the patterns are read from
           standard in as a newline-delimited list instead of from the
           arguments.

       disable
           Disable the core.sparseCheckout config setting, and restore the
           working directory to include all files. Leaves the sparse-checkout
           file intact so a later git sparse-checkout init command may return
           the working directory to the same state.

SPARSE CHECKOUT
       "Sparse checkout" allows populating the working directory sparsely. It
       uses the skip-worktree bit (see git-update-index(1)) to tell Git
       whether a file in the working directory is worth looking at. If the
       skip-worktree bit is set, then the file is ignored in the working
       directory. Git will not populate the contents of those files, which
       makes a sparse checkout helpful when working in a repository with many
       files, but only a few are important to the current user.

       The $GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout file is used to define the
       skip-worktree reference bitmap. When Git updates the working directory,
       it updates the skip-worktree bits in the index based on this file. The
       files matching the patterns in the file will appear in the working
       directory, and the rest will not.

       To enable the sparse-checkout feature, run git sparse-checkout init to
       initialize a simple sparse-checkout file and enable the
       core.sparseCheckout config setting. Then, run git sparse-checkout set
       to modify the patterns in the sparse-checkout file.

       To repopulate the working directory with all files, use the git
       sparse-checkout disable command.

FULL PATTERN SET
       By default, the sparse-checkout file uses the same syntax as .gitignore
       files.

       While $GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout is usually used to specify what
       files are included, you can also specify what files are not included,
       using negative patterns. For example, to remove the file unwanted:

           /*
           !unwanted

CONE PATTERN SET
       The full pattern set allows for arbitrary pattern matches and
       complicated inclusion/exclusion rules. These can result in O(N*M)
       pattern matches when updating the index, where N is the number of
       patterns and M is the number of paths in the index. To combat this
       performance issue, a more restricted pattern set is allowed when
       core.spareCheckoutCone is enabled.

       The accepted patterns in the cone pattern set are:

        1. Recursive: All paths inside a directory are included.

        2. Parent: All files immediately inside a directory are included.

       In addition to the above two patterns, we also expect that all files in
       the root directory are included. If a recursive pattern is added, then
       all leading directories are added as parent patterns.

       By default, when running git sparse-checkout init, the root directory
       is added as a parent pattern. At this point, the sparse-checkout file
       contains the following patterns:

           /*
           !/*/

       This says "include everything in root, but nothing two levels below
       root." If we then add the folder A/B/C as a recursive pattern, the
       folders A and A/B are added as parent patterns. The resulting
       sparse-checkout file is now

           /*
           !/*/
           /A/
           !/A/*/
           /A/B/
           !/A/B/*/
           /A/B/C/

       Here, order matters, so the negative patterns are overridden by the
       positive patterns that appear lower in the file.

       If core.sparseCheckoutCone=true, then Git will parse the
       sparse-checkout file expecting patterns of these types. Git will warn
       if the patterns do not match. If the patterns do match the expected
       format, then Git will use faster hash- based algorithms to compute
       inclusion in the sparse-checkout.

       In the cone mode case, the git sparse-checkout list subcommand will
       list the directories that define the recursive patterns. For the
       example sparse-checkout file above, the output is as follows:

           $ git sparse-checkout list
           A/B/C

       If core.ignoreCase=true, then the pattern-matching algorithm will use a
       case-insensitive check. This corrects for case mismatched filenames in
       the git sparse-checkout set command to reflect the expected cone in the
       working directory.

SUBMODULES
       If your repository contains one or more submodules, then those
       submodules will appear based on which you initialized with the git
       submodule command. If your sparse-checkout patterns exclude an
       initialized submodule, then that submodule will still appear in your
       working directory.

SEE ALSO
       git-read-tree(1) gitignore(5)

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite

Git 2.25.1                        04/26/2023             GIT-SPARSE-CHECKOU(1)