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

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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SYNOPSIS

11       git sparse-checkout <subcommand> [options]
12

DESCRIPTION

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
17       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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COMMANDS

22       list
23           Describe the patterns in the sparse-checkout file.
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25       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.
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32           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.
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36           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).
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40       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
46           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.
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50           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.
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59       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.
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66       reapply
67           Reapply the sparsity pattern rules to paths in the working tree.
68           Commands like merge or rebase can materialize paths to do their
69           work (e.g. in order to show you a conflict), and other
70           sparse-checkout commands might fail to sparsify an individual file
71           (e.g. because it has unstaged changes or conflicts). In such cases,
72           it can make sense to run git sparse-checkout reapply later after
73           cleaning up affected paths (e.g. resolving conflicts, undoing or
74           committing changes, etc.).
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76       disable
77           Disable the core.sparseCheckout config setting, and restore the
78           working directory to include all files. Leaves the sparse-checkout
79           file intact so a later git sparse-checkout init command may return
80           the working directory to the same state.
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SPARSE CHECKOUT

83       "Sparse checkout" allows populating the working directory sparsely. It
84       uses the skip-worktree bit (see git-update-index(1)) to tell Git
85       whether a file in the working directory is worth looking at. If the
86       skip-worktree bit is set, then the file is ignored in the working
87       directory. Git will not populate the contents of those files, which
88       makes a sparse checkout helpful when working in a repository with many
89       files, but only a few are important to the current user.
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91       The $GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout file is used to define the
92       skip-worktree reference bitmap. When Git updates the working directory,
93       it updates the skip-worktree bits in the index based on this file. The
94       files matching the patterns in the file will appear in the working
95       directory, and the rest will not.
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97       To enable the sparse-checkout feature, run git sparse-checkout init to
98       initialize a simple sparse-checkout file and enable the
99       core.sparseCheckout config setting. Then, run git sparse-checkout set
100       to modify the patterns in the sparse-checkout file.
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102       To repopulate the working directory with all files, use the git
103       sparse-checkout disable command.
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FULL PATTERN SET

106       By default, the sparse-checkout file uses the same syntax as .gitignore
107       files.
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109       While $GIT_DIR/info/sparse-checkout is usually used to specify what
110       files are included, you can also specify what files are not included,
111       using negative patterns. For example, to remove the file unwanted:
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113           /*
114           !unwanted
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CONE PATTERN SET

117       The full pattern set allows for arbitrary pattern matches and
118       complicated inclusion/exclusion rules. These can result in O(N*M)
119       pattern matches when updating the index, where N is the number of
120       patterns and M is the number of paths in the index. To combat this
121       performance issue, a more restricted pattern set is allowed when
122       core.sparseCheckoutCone is enabled.
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124       The accepted patterns in the cone pattern set are:
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126        1. Recursive: All paths inside a directory are included.
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128        2. Parent: All files immediately inside a directory are included.
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130       In addition to the above two patterns, we also expect that all files in
131       the root directory are included. If a recursive pattern is added, then
132       all leading directories are added as parent patterns.
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134       By default, when running git sparse-checkout init, the root directory
135       is added as a parent pattern. At this point, the sparse-checkout file
136       contains the following patterns:
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138           /*
139           !/*/
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141       This says "include everything in root, but nothing two levels below
142       root."
143
144       When in cone mode, the git sparse-checkout set subcommand takes a list
145       of directories instead of a list of sparse-checkout patterns. In this
146       mode, the command git sparse-checkout set A/B/C sets the directory
147       A/B/C as a recursive pattern, the directories A and A/B are added as
148       parent patterns. The resulting sparse-checkout file is now
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150           /*
151           !/*/
152           /A/
153           !/A/*/
154           /A/B/
155           !/A/B/*/
156           /A/B/C/
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158       Here, order matters, so the negative patterns are overridden by the
159       positive patterns that appear lower in the file.
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161       If core.sparseCheckoutCone=true, then Git will parse the
162       sparse-checkout file expecting patterns of these types. Git will warn
163       if the patterns do not match. If the patterns do match the expected
164       format, then Git will use faster hash- based algorithms to compute
165       inclusion in the sparse-checkout.
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167       In the cone mode case, the git sparse-checkout list subcommand will
168       list the directories that define the recursive patterns. For the
169       example sparse-checkout file above, the output is as follows:
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171           $ git sparse-checkout list
172           A/B/C
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174       If core.ignoreCase=true, then the pattern-matching algorithm will use a
175       case-insensitive check. This corrects for case mismatched filenames in
176       the git sparse-checkout set command to reflect the expected cone in the
177       working directory.
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SUBMODULES

180       If your repository contains one or more submodules, then submodules are
181       populated based on interactions with the git submodule command.
182       Specifically, git submodule init -- <path> will ensure the submodule at
183       <path> is present, while git submodule deinit [-f] -- <path> will
184       remove the files for the submodule at <path> (including any untracked
185       files, uncommitted changes, and unpushed history). Similar to how
186       sparse-checkout removes files from the working tree but still leaves
187       entries in the index, deinitialized submodules are removed from the
188       working directory but still have an entry in the index.
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190       Since submodules may have unpushed changes or untracked files, removing
191       them could result in data loss. Thus, changing sparse
192       inclusion/exclusion rules will not cause an already checked out
193       submodule to be removed from the working copy. Said another way, just
194       as checkout will not cause submodules to be automatically removed or
195       initialized even when switching between branches that remove or add
196       submodules, using sparse-checkout to reduce or expand the scope of
197       "interesting" files will not cause submodules to be automatically
198       deinitialized or initialized either.
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200       Further, the above facts mean that there are multiple reasons that
201       "tracked" files might not be present in the working copy: sparsity
202       pattern application from sparse-checkout, and submodule initialization
203       state. Thus, commands like git grep that work on tracked files in the
204       working copy may return results that are limited by either or both of
205       these restrictions.
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SEE ALSO

208       git-read-tree(1) gitignore(5)
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GIT

211       Part of the git(1) suite
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215Git 2.30.2                        2021-03-08             GIT-SPARSE-CHECKOU(1)
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