summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt185
1 files changed, 185 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt b/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..974ade2238
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,185 @@
+git-sparse-checkout(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
+--------
+[verse]
+'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 linkgit: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
+--------
+
+linkgit:git-read-tree[1]
+linkgit:gitignore[5]
+
+GIT
+---
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite