1GIT-SPARSE-CHECKOU(1) Git Manual GIT-SPARSE-CHECKOU(1)
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6 git-sparse-checkout - Initialize and modify the sparse-checkout
7 configuration, which reduces the checkout to a set of paths given by a
8 list of patterns.
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11 git sparse-checkout <subcommand> [options]
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14 Initialize and modify the sparse-checkout configuration, which reduces
15 the checkout to a set of paths given by a list of patterns.
16 THIS COMMAND IS EXPERIMENTAL. ITS BEHAVIOR, AND THE BEHAVIOR OF OTHER
18 COMMANDS IN THE PRESENCE OF SPARSE-CHECKOUTS, WILL LIKELY CHANGE IN THE
19 FUTURE.
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22 list
23 Describe the patterns in the sparse-checkout file.
24 init
26 Enable the core.sparseCheckout setting. If the sparse-checkout file
27 does not exist, then populate it with patterns that match every
28 file in the root directory and no other directories, then will
29 remove all directories tracked by Git. Add patterns to the
30 sparse-checkout file to repopulate the working directory.
31 To avoid interfering with other worktrees, it first enables the
33 extensions.worktreeConfig setting and makes sure to set the
34 core.sparseCheckout setting in the worktree-specific config file.
35 When --cone is provided, the core.sparseCheckoutCone setting is
37 also set, allowing for better performance with a limited set of
38 patterns (see CONE PATTERN SET below).
39 set
41 Write a set of patterns to the sparse-checkout file, as given as a
42 list of arguments following the set subcommand. Update the working
43 directory to match the new patterns. Enable the core.sparseCheckout
44 config setting if it is not already enabled.
45 When the --stdin option is provided, the patterns are read from
47 standard in as a newline-delimited list instead of from the
48 arguments.
49 When core.sparseCheckoutCone is enabled, the input list is
51 considered a list of directories instead of sparse-checkout
52 patterns. The command writes patterns to the sparse-checkout file
53 to include all files contained in those directories (recursively)
54 as well as files that are siblings of ancestor directories. The
55 input format matches the output of git ls-tree --name-only. This
56 includes interpreting pathnames that begin with a double quote (")
57 as C-style quoted strings.
58 add
60 Update the sparse-checkout file to include additional patterns. By
61 default, these patterns are read from the command-line arguments,
62 but they can be read from stdin using the --stdin option. When
63 core.sparseCheckoutCone is enabled, the given patterns are
64 interpreted as directory names as in the set subcommand.
65 disable
67 Disable the core.sparseCheckout config setting, and restore the
68 working directory to include all files. Leaves the sparse-checkout
69 file intact so a later git sparse-checkout init command may return
70 the working directory to the same state.
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73 "Sparse checkout" allows populating the working directory sparsely. It
74 uses the skip-worktree bit (see git-update-index(1)) to tell Git
75 whether a file in the working directory is worth looking at. If the
76 skip-worktree bit is set, then the file is ignored in the working
77 directory. Git will not populate the contents of those files, which
78 makes a sparse checkout helpful when working in a repository with many
79 files, but only a few are important to the current user.
80 The $GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout file is used to define the
82 skip-worktree reference bitmap. When Git updates the working directory,
83 it updates the skip-worktree bits in the index based on this file. The
84 files matching the patterns in the file will appear in the working
85 directory, and the rest will not.
86 To enable the sparse-checkout feature, run git sparse-checkout init to
88 initialize a simple sparse-checkout file and enable the
89 core.sparseCheckout config setting. Then, run git sparse-checkout set
90 to modify the patterns in the sparse-checkout file.
91 To repopulate the working directory with all files, use the git
93 sparse-checkout disable command.
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96 By default, the sparse-checkout file uses the same syntax as .gitignore
97 files.
98 While $GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout is usually used to specify what
100 files are included, you can also specify what files are not included,
101 using negative patterns. For example, to remove the file unwanted:
102 /*
104 !unwanted
105
107 The full pattern set allows for arbitrary pattern matches and
108 complicated inclusion/exclusion rules. These can result in O(N*M)
109 pattern matches when updating the index, where N is the number of
110 patterns and M is the number of paths in the index. To combat this
111 performance issue, a more restricted pattern set is allowed when
112 core.sparseCheckoutCone is enabled.
113 The accepted patterns in the cone pattern set are:
115 1. Recursive: All paths inside a directory are included.
117 2. Parent: All files immediately inside a directory are included.
119 In addition to the above two patterns, we also expect that all files in
121 the root directory are included. If a recursive pattern is added, then
122 all leading directories are added as parent patterns.
123 By default, when running git sparse-checkout init, the root directory
125 is added as a parent pattern. At this point, the sparse-checkout file
126 contains the following patterns:
127 /*
129 !/*/
130 This says "include everything in root, but nothing two levels below
132 root."
133 When in cone mode, the git sparse-checkout set subcommand takes a list
135 of directories instead of a list of sparse-checkout patterns. In this
136 mode, the command git sparse-checkout set A/B/C sets the directory
137 A/B/C as a recursive pattern, the directories A and A/B are added as
138 parent patterns. The resulting sparse-checkout file is now
139 /*
141 !/*/
142 /A/
143 !/A/*/
144 /A/B/
145 !/A/B/*/
146 /A/B/C/
147 Here, order matters, so the negative patterns are overridden by the
149 positive patterns that appear lower in the file.
150 If core.sparseCheckoutCone=true, then Git will parse the
152 sparse-checkout file expecting patterns of these types. Git will warn
153 if the patterns do not match. If the patterns do match the expected
154 format, then Git will use faster hash- based algorithms to compute
155 inclusion in the sparse-checkout.
156 In the cone mode case, the git sparse-checkout list subcommand will
158 list the directories that define the recursive patterns. For the
159 example sparse-checkout file above, the output is as follows:
160 $ git sparse-checkout list
162 A/B/C
163 If core.ignoreCase=true, then the pattern-matching algorithm will use a
165 case-insensitive check. This corrects for case mismatched filenames in
166 the git sparse-checkout set command to reflect the expected cone in the
167 working directory.
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170 If your repository contains one or more submodules, then those
171 submodules will appear based on which you initialized with the git
172 submodule command. If your sparse-checkout patterns exclude an
173 initialized submodule, then that submodule will still appear in your
174 working directory.
175
177 git-read-tree(1) gitignore(5)
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180 Part of the git(1) suite
181Git 2.26.2 2020-04-20 GIT-SPARSE-CHECKOU(1)