How to sparsely checkout only one single file from a git repository?

Question

How do I checkout just one file from a git repo?

What do you mean by check out? Obtain a copy of only one file from a remote repository? — Cascabel, Mar 17 '10 at 23:59
If the repo in question is using gitweb you could just download the file directly from there. As I'm trying to explain below, what you're asking isn't really a standard git operation. — Cascabel, Mar 18 '10 at 00:08
possible duplicate of [How do I revert one file to the last commit in git?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/692246/how-do-i-revert-one-file-to-the-last-commit-in-git) — nawfal, Feb 24 '13 at 20:50
You can use chrome extension [GitHub Mate](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/github-mate/baggcehellihkglakjnmnhpnjmkbmpkf), enables you click the file icon to download it. — Cam Song, Dec 18 '13 at 05:31
Possible duplicate of [Retrieve a single file from a repository](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1125476/retrieve-a-single-file-from-a-repository) — Jacek Krysztofik, Dec 31 '16 at 03:46
I've created a ``bash`` function which avoids downloading the history, which retrieves a single branch and which retrieves a list of files or directories you need. See it here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60190759/how-do-i-clone-fetch-or-sparse-checkout-a-single-directory-or-a-list-of-directo — Richard Gomes, Feb 12 '20 at 14:41
Related: people landing here from Google searches may be looking for this instead, even though it's a completely different question altogether: [How to get just one file from another branch](https://stackoverflow.com/q/2364147/4561887). — Gabriel Staples, Mar 09 '21 at 23:44

VonC · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-12T14:55:33.730

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Originally, I mentioned in 2012 git archive (see Jared Forsyth's answer and Robert Knight's answer), since git1.7.9.5 (March 2012), Paul Brannan's answer:

git archive --format=tar --remote=origin HEAD:path/to/directory -- filename | tar -O -xf -

But: in 2013, that was no longer possible for remote https://github.com URLs.
See the old page "Can I archive a repository?"

The current (2018) page "About archiving content and data on GitHub" recommends using third-party services like GHTorrent or GH Archive.

So you can also deal with local copies/clone:

You could alternatively do the following if you have a local copy of the bare repository as mentioned in this answer,

git --no-pager --git-dir /path/to/bar/repo.git show branch:path/to/file >file

Or you must clone first the repo, meaning you get the full history: - in the .git repo - in the working tree.

But then you can do a sparse checkout (if you are using Git1.7+),:
- enable the sparse checkout option (git config core.sparsecheckout true)
- adding what you want to see in the .git/info/sparse-checkout file
- re-reading the working tree to only display what you need

To re-read the working tree:

$ git read-tree -m -u HEAD

That way, you end up with a working tree including precisely what you want (even if it is only one file)

Richard Gomes points (in the comments) to "How do I clone, fetch or sparse checkout a single directory or a list of directories from git repository?"

A bash function which avoids downloading the history, which retrieves a single branch and which retrieves a list of files or directories you need.

edited Feb 12 '20 at 14:55

answered Mar 18 '10 at 04:58

VonC

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can you commit the changes in the sparse checkout? – Tilo Jan 11 '12 at 06:10
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@Tilo: not sure, but it should be possible, considering the clone has been a full one. – VonC Jan 11 '12 at 07:02
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How's this better than "git checkout HASH path-to-file" as noted in other answers? was that just not available at the time? – 0x6A75616E Aug 30 '12 at 17:47
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@juand the idea was to not have to load the all working tree before doing git checkout. – VonC Aug 30 '12 at 18:04
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btw we can use `git archive` now. – Jared Forsyth Sep 10 '13 at 07:14
@JaredForsyth Great! And +1 to your answer. I have reference it in mine for more visibility. – VonC Sep 10 '13 at 07:24
Notice that for `git archive` to work, you MUST first run this inside the directory of your repository on your git server (where git daemon runs): `git config daemon.uploadarch true`. credit: @patthoyts (http://stackoverflow.com/a/1126333/2591231) – Doron Gold Nov 08 '14 at 15:40
@DoronGold Good point. I have included your comment in the answer for more visibility. – VonC Nov 08 '14 at 16:45
@purpletech because the emphasis with Git is on the repository, a coherent set of files where *one* file is not supposed to make sense without the others. This differs from sparse checkout, which allows you to get only a part of a repo: http://stackoverflow.com/a/13738951/6309 and http://stackoverflow.com/a/26129796/6309 – VonC Jun 18 '15 at 22:06
deleted a file from working directory but want to restore it form the repo, how does that above command work? – Si8 Nov 24 '17 at 19:57
@Si8 it doesn't. You would simply do a `git checkout -- myDeletedFile`. – VonC Nov 24 '17 at 20:37
@VonC Thank you. I was able to follow the documentation (Ahhh the wonder of it). I appreciate your respectful response. – Si8 Nov 27 '17 at 16:41
Is this answer still relevant? I am getting a 'The remote end hung up unexpectedly' message...( see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30659758/git-archive-remote-end-hung-up) – zwep Oct 11 '18 at 13:57
@zwep Agreed. `git archive` alone would no longer work for remote servers like github.com. I have rewritten the answer accordingly. – VonC Oct 11 '18 at 15:55
@VonC Ah I see now.. sorry, must have missed that part yesterday. – zwep Oct 12 '18 at 10:23
I've created a ``bash`` function which avoids downloading the history, which retrieves a single branch and which retrieves a list of files or directories you need. See it here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60190759/how-do-i-clone-fetch-or-sparse-checkout-a-single-directory-or-a-list-of-directo – Richard Gomes Feb 12 '20 at 14:42
@RichardGomes Thank you. I have included your comment in the answer for more visibility. And I have upvoted your other answer: this seems pretty neat! – VonC Feb 12 '20 at 14:56
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This `git show` command for obtaining file content from a bare repo is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thank you! – Gio Jul 19 '20 at 16:46

Nick Moore · Answer 2 · 2011-06-16T10:44:35.080

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First clone the repo with the -n option, which suppresses the default checkout of all files, and the --depth 1 option, which means it only gets the most recent revision of each file

git clone -n git://path/to/the_repo.git --depth 1

Then check out just the file you want like so:

cd the_repo
git checkout HEAD name_of_file

edited Jun 16 '11 at 10:44

answered Mar 17 '10 at 23:58

Nick Moore

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While literally this does check out a single file, it's almost certainly not what the OP wants to do, since they will have all of the files (and the checkout is a no-op anyway). – Cascabel Mar 17 '10 at 23:58
5

I don't think this even works - with `-n` the work tree and index end up in sync. That is, all content shows up as deleted. You have to either `git reset HEAD` or `git checkout HEAD file`. It's also really difficult to work with the repository at this point unless you really understand how git works. – Cascabel Mar 18 '10 at 00:06
Yes, you are quite right. I gave the answer before I tried it myself. I was going to delete it, but with your useful additions I shall leave it now. – Nick Moore Mar 18 '10 at 00:14
All right, so with Debilski's addition, you can definitely do this, only fetching enough data to construct... the entire work tree in its current state. I think stefanB is probably closest to what the OP actually needs to know, namely, how to make changes to a single file with git. – Cascabel Mar 18 '10 at 00:52
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Getting a single file from the repo was something I needed for a particular build process. This answer came up on a target search ... it might not have been what OP wanted but +1 from me :) – Daniel Elliott Jun 16 '11 at 06:10
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And if the OP and OOPs like DanielElliott really just want the file (not the repo) adding another `rm -rf .git` to NickMoore's script would clean up all traces of the cloned repo and perhaps allay Jefromi's concern about having a hard-to-use repo laying around. Makes it very useful for me for several applications, like my challenge today to build a post-receive hook to update the version of another post-receive hook automagicaly. – hobs Aug 10 '12 at 00:56
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This is a much better answer than the accepted. Glad I kept reading. – Eric Uldall Oct 02 '14 at 21:51
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**This answer is the best** (but `git` is not the best for this kind of work). This answer is also valid for [this question](http://stackoverflow.com/q/11834386/287948), or [this other popular one](http://stackoverflow.com/q/600079/287948), and many other ones: change `name_of_file` to `name_of_folder`. Git in nowadays (2014s) offer [submodules](http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Submodules) to repo-owner offer some por friendly for repo-users. – Peter Krauss Nov 01 '14 at 12:13
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I agree: for its conciseness and strict adherence to the OP this is the best answer. – rgulia Jun 01 '16 at 15:02
you can run `git ls-files -m` or `git status | grep modified` to only show modified fields – baligena Jul 08 '16 at 19:08
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THIS SHOULD BE THE ACCEPTED ANSWER! – emeraldhieu Sep 01 '19 at 11:14
I've created a ``bash`` function which avoids downloading the history, which retrieves a single branch and which retrieves a list of files or directories you need. See it here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60190759/how-do-i-clone-fetch-or-sparse-checkout-a-single-directory-or-a-list-of-directo – Richard Gomes Feb 12 '20 at 14:43
I used this solution because I wanted to be able to trigger a build of a repository in our Ci/CD system by updating a single file and committing it back. I tested it out on our SCRATCH repository first. It worked, I was able to check out a single file and update it. Only snag was, when I committed the single file change, git assumed that I wanted to delete everything else. Since this was our scratch repo I let it go ahead and indeed it did destroy the entire repository's contents! – Paul M Mar 25 '20 at 12:11
the secret is to do a "git reset HEAD ." ; thus : mkdir SCRATCH ; cd SCRATCH ; git clone -n "ssh://git.example.com/SCRATCH" --depth 1 . ; git reset HEAD . ; date > .trigger_file ; git add .trigger_file ; git commit -m "NOBUG triggering pipeline" ; git push ; – Paul M Mar 25 '20 at 14:24

score 116 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 27 '12 at 19:14

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If you already have a copy of the git repo, you can always checkout a version of a file using a git log to find out the hash-id (for example 3cdc61015724f9965575ba954c8cd4232c8b42e4) and then you simply type:

git checkout hash-id path-to-file

Here is an actual example:

git checkout 3cdc61015724f9965575ba954c8cd4232c8b42e4 /var/www/css/page.css

answered Jun 27 '12 at 19:14

techexpert

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You can use a tag or branch name, too, not just the hash. Those are often easier. – Rob Kennedy Apr 17 '15 at 22:27
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Good solution. But if `path-to-file` is a directory, and current `HEAD` contains certain file while `target` does not, (or vice versa), this will not correctly update the file. Is there a way to handle? – MasterMind Mar 14 '18 at 06:32
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Simpler and better. Thanks! – Kerem atam Jun 01 '18 at 09:28
error: pathspec. Is the path the path on the local PC or the path on the remote PC? – Paul McCarthy Feb 06 '20 at 12:44
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@PaulMcCarthy - local – techexpert Feb 12 '20 at 18:09

score 88 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 15 '19 at 18:14

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Normally it's not possible to download just one file from git without downloading the whole repository as suggested in the first answer. It's because Git doesn't store files as you think (as CVS/SVN do), but it generates them based on the entire history of the project.

But there are some workarounds for specific cases. Examples below with placeholders for user, project, branch, filename.

GitHub

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/user/project/branch/filename

GitLab

wget https://gitlab.com/user/project/raw/branch/filename

GitWeb

If you're using Git on the Server - GitWeb, then you may try in example (change it into the right path):

wget "http://example.com/gitweb/?p=example;a=blob_plain;f=README.txt;hb=HEAD"

GitWeb at drupalcode.org

Example:

wget "http://drupalcode.org/project/ads.git/blob_plain/refs/heads/master:/README.md"

googlesource.com

There is an undocumented feature that allows you to download base64-encoded versions of raw files:

curl "https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/net/+/master/http/transport_security_state_static.json?format=TEXT" | base64 --decode

In other cases check if your Git repository is using any web interfaces.

If it's not using any web interface, you may consider to push your code to external services such as GitHub, Bitbucket, etc. and use it as a mirror.

If you don't have wget installed, try curl -O (url) alternatively.

edited Dec 15 '19 at 18:14

Carolus

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answered Feb 08 '13 at 19:30

kenorb

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And if I don't use github ? – Zulu Jul 12 '13 at 07:28
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Then don't use this method. – Alan Mar 04 '14 at 12:43
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I would argue against the statement that git "generates [files] based on the entire history of the project". It is more correct to say that git stores snapshots of the states of files in the form of hash trees. Certainly there is no generating going on. – Jay Sullivan Feb 07 '16 at 03:00
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This answer was most useful to me since I was trying to simply restore a file that I'd intentionally deleted locally along with several others (without committing the delete) but later decided it was needed while the others still weren't – rshdev Feb 20 '16 at 14:41
Call me insane, but I just make daily backups. Then, if I want an old file, I can go and get it. Incredibly, this even works with files in other projects!!!!!!!! – Geoff Kendall Oct 20 '16 at 15:36
This was actually a perfect answer for what I needed. No branching, check outs, or anything. – DNorthrup Dec 23 '16 at 18:34
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You know that sinking feeling when you want to do something simple with Git, come on SO to see how it's done, and halfway through the answer your brain stops and everything becomes fuzzy and sad. Then you scroll down and find this brilliant `wget` answer and simplicity returns, along with happiness. Thanks man. – pgr Apr 09 '17 at 14:22
This is a great answer because it addresses a problem that a lot of users, including myself, struggle with. That we think we know how we want to do something, but actually our entire methodology is wrong. I know people get flak for Q&As like **Q:"How do I do this with this"** and **A:"You shouldn't. Use this instead"**. But sometimes that's the best answer. As it was for me in this case. – Stack of Pancakes May 13 '18 at 13:31
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I like this answer because git archive is not supported by the gradle git library and I needed to pull one file from a different repo. I used the rest api of bitbucket with a personal access token. https://docs.atlassian.com/bitbucket-server/rest/5.12.0/bitbucket-rest.html?utm_source=%2Fstatic%2Frest%2Fbitbucket-server%2Flatest%2Fbitbucket-rest.html&utm_medium=301 – Fresh Codemonger Jul 23 '18 at 19:38

score 49 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

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Minimal Guide

git checkout -- <filename>

Ref: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-checkout

Dup: Undo working copy modifications of one file in Git?

edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

Community

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answered Nov 07 '15 at 02:06

Geoffrey Hale

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For further explanation.[broc.seib](https://stackoverflow.com/a/29762249/1278112)'s answer explained what is the relevant part of the man page for `git-checkout`. – Shihe Zhang Jun 29 '18 at 03:51

score 44 · Answer 6 · edited May 30 '12 at 06:23

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git checkout branch_or_version -- path/file

example: git checkout HEAD -- main.c

edited May 30 '12 at 06:23

Botz3000

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answered May 30 '12 at 02:17

Thomas Brushington

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I really got confused by other answers. this did job for me. before updating i deleted the file to be replaced. then did this: ```git checkout HEAD abcd.cpp``` – veenus adiyodi Oct 29 '20 at 13:26

score 38 · Answer 7 · edited Jan 16 '19 at 09:04

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Now we can! As this is the first result on google, I thought I'd update this to the latest standing. With the advent of git 1.7.9.5, we have the git archive command which will allow you to retrieve a single file from a remote host.

git archive --remote=git://git.foo.com/project.git HEAD:path/in/repo filename | tar -x

See answer in full here https://stackoverflow.com/a/5324532/290784

edited Jan 16 '19 at 09:04

Raphael

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answered Sep 10 '13 at 07:14

Jared Forsyth

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@Benubird it is the hostname of your repo. For github (if github supported the archive command, which last I checked it doesn't), it would be `github.com` – Jared Forsyth May 14 '15 at 15:11
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This worked for me, but only if I specified the branch (or refname) alone, e.g. just `HEAD` or `master` not `HEAD:directory`. – stormbeta Apr 04 '16 at 22:11
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This worked for me on bitbucket: ```git archive --remote=git@bitbucket.org:user/repo branch:path/to file | tar -x``` – Dave Jan 23 '19 at 18:33

score 24 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 06 '11 at 17:54

Working in GIT 1.7.2.2

For example you have a remote some_remote with branches branch1, branch32

so to checkout a specific file you call this commands:

git checkout remote/branch path/to/file

as an example it will be something like this

git checkout some_remote/branch32 conf/en/myscript.conf
git checkout some_remote/branch1 conf/fr/load.wav

This checkout command will copy the whole file structure conf/en and conf/fr into the current directory where you call these commands (of course I assume you ran git init at some point before)

But you need to run `git fetch some_remote` before, don't you? — phihag, Jan 31 '13 at 20:47

ripreal · Answer 9 · 2020-07-23T15:44:42.757

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Here is the complete solution for pulling and pushing only a particular file inside git repository:

First you need to clone git repository with a special hint –no checkout

git clone --no-checkout <git url>

The next step is to get rid of unstaged files in the index with the command:

git reset

Now you are allowed to start pulling files you want to change with the command:

git checkout origin/master <path to file>

Now the repository folder contains files that you may start editing right away. After editing you need to execute plain and familar sequence of commands.

git add <path to file>
git commit -m <message text>
git push

edited Jul 23 '20 at 15:44

answered Mar 03 '19 at 11:37

ripreal

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This. It answers the question with a simple to understand and remember workflow. Also, turns out you don't need the `origin/master` in the checkout: a simple `git checkout ` works for step 3. – Johann Jul 22 '20 at 14:50
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git reset is a bit dangerous here as it will mark the files to be deleted as an Undo procedure. And the 'git commit ...' and 'git push...' could also commit the deletions.. May remove lots of files from the repository. 'git commit YOUR_FILE -m ' should be the correct thing... – Farrukh Waheed Aug 04 '21 at 13:12
I just tried to use this command set and it seems it is the most dangerous/wrong answer. First command actually brings entire tree, but does not show anything on running "ls" command. When you run second command, you actually see that all files have gone in deleted mode and staged as well. Now, if you do a git add of your updated file, it will actually remove others and keep this single file. Just to try, I went to third step and tried committing file, which actually resulted in renaming of another file by my present file, which again is completely wrong. – rkdove96 May 27 '22 at 11:43

score 16 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 21 '15 at 03:14

Very simple:

git checkout from-branch-name -- path/to/the/file/you/want

This will not checkout the from-branch-name branch. You will stay on whatever branch you are on, and only that single file will be checked out from the specified branch.

Here's the relevant part of the manpage for git-checkout

git checkout [-p|--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>...
       When <paths> or --patch are given, git checkout does not switch
       branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from the
       index file or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit). In
       this case, the -b and --track options are meaningless and giving
       either of them results in an error. The <tree-ish> argument can be
       used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree) to
       update the index for the given paths before updating the working
       tree.

Hat tip to Ariejan de Vroom who taught me this from this blog post.

Cool, if not the fact you have to clone first. – Antoniossss Oct 08 '18 at 07:23 — Antoniossss, Oct 08 '18 at 07:23

Ciro Santilli Путлер Капут 六四事 · Answer 11 · 2018-11-21T20:44:24.993

git clone --filter from Git 2.19

This option will actually skip fetching most unneeded objects from the server:

git clone --depth 1 --no-checkout --filter=blob:none \
  "file://$(pwd)/server_repo" local_repo
cd local_repo
git checkout master -- mydir/myfile

The server should be configured with:

git config --local uploadpack.allowfilter 1
git config --local uploadpack.allowanysha1inwant 1

There is no server support as of v2.19.0, but it can already be locally tested.

TODO: --filter=blob:none skips all blobs, but still fetches all tree objects. But on a normal repo, this should be tiny compared to the files themselves, so this is already good enough. Asked at: https://www.spinics.net/lists/git/msg342006.html Devs replied a --filter=tree:0 is in the works to do that.

Remember that --depth 1 already implies --single-branch, see also: How do I clone a single branch in Git?

file://$(path) is required to overcome git clone protocol shenanigans: How to shallow clone a local git repository with a relative path?

The format of --filter is documented on man git-rev-list.

An extension was made to the Git remote protocol to support this feature.

Docs on Git tree:

Test it out

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -eu

list-objects() (
  git rev-list --all --objects
  echo "master commit SHA: $(git log -1 --format="%H")"
  echo "mybranch commit SHA: $(git log -1 --format="%H")"
  git ls-tree master
  git ls-tree mybranch | grep mybranch
  git ls-tree master~ | grep root
)

# Reproducibility.
export GIT_COMMITTER_NAME='a'
export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL='a'
export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME='a'
export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL='a'
export GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='2000-01-01T00:00:00+0000'
export GIT_AUTHOR_DATE='2000-01-01T00:00:00+0000'

rm -rf server_repo local_repo
mkdir server_repo
cd server_repo

# Create repo.
git init --quiet
git config --local uploadpack.allowfilter 1
git config --local uploadpack.allowanysha1inwant 1

# First commit.
# Directories present in all branches.
mkdir d1 d2
printf 'd1/a' > ./d1/a
printf 'd1/b' > ./d1/b
printf 'd2/a' > ./d2/a
printf 'd2/b' > ./d2/b
# Present only in root.
mkdir 'root'
printf 'root' > ./root/root
git add .
git commit -m 'root' --quiet

# Second commit only on master.
git rm --quiet -r ./root
mkdir 'master'
printf 'master' > ./master/master
git add .
git commit -m 'master commit' --quiet

# Second commit only on mybranch.
git checkout -b mybranch --quiet master~
git rm --quiet -r ./root
mkdir 'mybranch'
printf 'mybranch' > ./mybranch/mybranch
git add .
git commit -m 'mybranch commit' --quiet

echo "# List and identify all objects"
list-objects
echo

# Restore master.
git checkout --quiet master
cd ..

# Clone. Don't checkout for now, only .git/ dir.
git clone --depth 1 --quiet --no-checkout --filter=blob:none "file://$(pwd)/server_repo" local_repo
cd local_repo

# List missing objects from master.
echo "# Missing objects after --no-checkout"
git rev-list --all --quiet --objects --missing=print
echo

echo "# Git checkout fails without internet"
mv ../server_repo ../server_repo.off
! git checkout master
echo

echo "# Git checkout fetches the missing file from internet"
mv ../server_repo.off ../server_repo
git checkout master -- d1/a
echo

echo "# Missing objects after checking out d1/a"
git rev-list --all --quiet --objects --missing=print

GitHub upstream.

Output in Git v2.19.0:

# List and identify all objects
c6fcdfaf2b1462f809aecdad83a186eeec00f9c1
fc5e97944480982cfc180a6d6634699921ee63ec
7251a83be9a03161acde7b71a8fda9be19f47128
62d67bce3c672fe2b9065f372726a11e57bade7e
b64bf435a3e54c5208a1b70b7bcb0fc627463a75 d1
308150e8fddde043f3dbbb8573abb6af1df96e63 d1/a
f70a17f51b7b30fec48a32e4f19ac15e261fd1a4 d1/b
84de03c312dc741d0f2a66df7b2f168d823e122a d2
0975df9b39e23c15f63db194df7f45c76528bccb d2/a
41484c13520fcbb6e7243a26fdb1fc9405c08520 d2/b
7d5230379e4652f1b1da7ed1e78e0b8253e03ba3 master
8b25206ff90e9432f6f1a8600f87a7bd695a24af master/master
ef29f15c9a7c5417944cc09711b6a9ee51b01d89
19f7a4ca4a038aff89d803f017f76d2b66063043 mybranch
1b671b190e293aa091239b8b5e8c149411d00523 mybranch/mybranch
c3760bb1a0ece87cdbaf9a563c77a45e30a4e30e
a0234da53ec608b54813b4271fbf00ba5318b99f root
93ca1422a8da0a9effc465eccbcb17e23015542d root/root
master commit SHA: fc5e97944480982cfc180a6d6634699921ee63ec
mybranch commit SHA: fc5e97944480982cfc180a6d6634699921ee63ec
040000 tree b64bf435a3e54c5208a1b70b7bcb0fc627463a75    d1
040000 tree 84de03c312dc741d0f2a66df7b2f168d823e122a    d2
040000 tree 7d5230379e4652f1b1da7ed1e78e0b8253e03ba3    master
040000 tree 19f7a4ca4a038aff89d803f017f76d2b66063043    mybranch
040000 tree a0234da53ec608b54813b4271fbf00ba5318b99f    root

# Missing objects after --no-checkout
?f70a17f51b7b30fec48a32e4f19ac15e261fd1a4
?8b25206ff90e9432f6f1a8600f87a7bd695a24af
?41484c13520fcbb6e7243a26fdb1fc9405c08520
?0975df9b39e23c15f63db194df7f45c76528bccb
?308150e8fddde043f3dbbb8573abb6af1df96e63

# Git checkout fails without internet
fatal: '/home/ciro/bak/git/test-git-web-interface/other-test-repos/partial-clone.tmp/server_repo' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

# Git checkout fetches the missing directory from internet
remote: Enumerating objects: 1, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (1/1), done.
remote: Total 1 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (1/1), 45 bytes | 45.00 KiB/s, done.
remote: Enumerating objects: 1, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (1/1), done.
remote: Total 1 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (1/1), 45 bytes | 45.00 KiB/s, done.

# Missing objects after checking out d1
?f70a17f51b7b30fec48a32e4f19ac15e261fd1a4
?8b25206ff90e9432f6f1a8600f87a7bd695a24af
?41484c13520fcbb6e7243a26fdb1fc9405c08520
?0975df9b39e23c15f63db194df7f45c76528bccb

Conclusions: all blobs except d1/a are missing. E.g. f70a17f51b7b30fec48a32e4f19ac15e261fd1a4, which is d1/b, is not there after checking out d1/.

Note that root/root and mybranch/mybranch are also missing, but --depth 1 hides that from the list of missing files. If you remove --depth 1, then they show on the list of missing files.

Nice, I must have missed that option. +1 – VonC Sep 12 '18 at 09:01 — VonC, Sep 12 '18 at 09:01

score 8 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 21 '13 at 18:08

Two variants on what's already been given:

git archive --format=tar --remote=git://git.foo.com/project.git HEAD:path/to/directory filename | tar -O -xf -

and:

git archive --format=zip --remote=git://git.foo.com/project.git HEAD:path/to/directory filename | funzip

These write the file to standard output.

score 8 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 13 '14 at 13:24

8

You can do it by

git archive --format=tar --remote=origin HEAD | tar xf -
git archive --format=tar --remote=origin HEAD <file> | tar xf -

answered Feb 13 '14 at 13:24

Fizer Khan

80,049
27
138
151

score 7 · Answer 14 · edited Feb 19 '18 at 08:09

7

Say the file name is 123.txt, this works for me:

git checkout --theirs  123.txt

If the file is inside a directory A, make sure to specify it correctly:

git checkout --theirs  "A/123.txt"

edited Feb 19 '18 at 08:09

Ruturaj Bisure

141
2
13

answered Dec 08 '15 at 02:54

Joseph Wu

4,540
1
19
19

score 4 · Answer 15 · answered Mar 18 '10 at 00:08

In git you do not 'checkout' files before you update them - it seems like this is what you are after.

Many systems like clearcase, csv and so on require you to 'checkout' a file before you can make changes to it. Git does not require this. You clone a repository and then make changes in your local copy of repository.

Once you updated files you can do:

git status

To see what files have been modified. You add the ones you want to commit to index first with (index is like a list to be checked in):

git add .

or

git add blah.c

Then do git status will show you which files were modified and which are in index ready to be commited or checked in.

To commit files to your copy of repository do:

git commit -a -m "commit message here"

See git website for links to manuals and guides.

And if your goal is to patch this single file and submit it back, you'll need to either push (but probably you don't have push access for this project?) or use `git format-patch` to create a patch for submission (`git format-patch -1` will create a patch for just your most recent commit). — Cascabel, Mar 18 '10 at 00:58
Thanks, that was a good explanation coming to Git from Clearcase — Kellen Stuart, Aug 10 '18 at 16:44

score 2 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 08 '17 at 11:04

If you need a specific file from a specific branch from a remote Git repository the command is:

git archive --remote=git://git.example.com/project.git refs/heads/mybranch path/to/myfile |tar xf -

The rest can be derived from @VonC's answer:

If you need a specific file from the master branch it is:

git archive --remote=git://git.example.com/project.git HEAD path/to/myfile |tar xf -

If you need a specific file from a tag it is:

git archive --remote=git://git.example.com/project.git mytag path/to/myfile |tar xf -

Mother Corp. decided that automated HTTP/S access is now verboten! This technique allows me to automate getting a single file from a repository without checking out the Whole Thing. Thank you and kudos! — JS., Feb 28 '19 at 18:19

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Mar 18 '10 at 00:03

It sounds like you're trying to carry over an idea from centralized version control, which git by nature is not - it's distributed. If you want to work with a git repository, you clone it. You then have all of the contents of the work tree, and all of the history (well, at least everything leading up to the tip of the current branch), not just a single file or a snapshot from a single commit.

 git clone /path/to/repo
 git clone git://url/of/repo
 git clone http://url/of/repo

score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Feb 10 '19 at 02:38

I am adding this answer as an alternative to doing a formal checkout or some similar local operation. Assuming that you have access to the web interface of your Git provider, you might be able to directly view any file at a given desired commit. For example, on GitHub you may use something like:

https://github.com/hubotio/hubot/blob/ed25584f/src/adapter.coffee

Here ed25584f is the first 8 characters from the SHA-1 hash of the commit of interest, followed by the path to the source file.

Similary, on Bitbucket we can try:

https://bitbucket.org/cofarrell/stash-browse-code-plugin/src/06befe08

In this case, we place the commit hash at the end of the source URL.

score 1 · Answer 19 · answered Apr 28 '22 at 07:47

1

In codecommit (git version of Amazon AWS) you can do this:

aws codecommit \
  get-file --repository-name myrepo \
  --commit-specifier master \
  --file-path path/myfile \
  --output text \
  --query fileContent | 
base64 --decode > myfile

answered Apr 28 '22 at 07:47

david.perez

5,255
3
31
52

score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Sep 18 '18 at 00:04

I don’t see what worked for me listed out here so I will include it should anybody be in my situation.

My situation, I have a remote repository of maybe 10,000 files and I need to build an RPM file for my Linux system. The build of the RPM includes a git clone of everything. All I need is one file to start the RPM build. I can clone the entire source tree which does what I need but it takes an extra two minutes to download all those files when all I need is one. I tried to use the git archive option discussed and I got “fatal: Operation not supported by protocol.” It seems I have to get some sort of archive option enabled on the server and my server is maintained by bureaucratic thugs that seem to enjoy making it difficult to get things done.

What I finally did was I went into the web interface for bitbucket and viewed the one file I needed. I did a right click on the link to download a raw copy of the file and selected “copy shortcut” from the resulting popup. I could not just download the raw file because I needed to automate things and I don’t have a browser interface on my Linux server.

For the sake of discussion, that resulted in the URL:

https://ourArchive.ourCompany.com/projects/ThisProject/repos/data/raw/foo/bar.spec?at=refs%2Fheads%2FTheBranchOfInterest

I could not directly download this file from the bitbucket repository because I needed to sign in first. After a little digging, I found this worked: On Linux:

echo "myUser:myPass123"| base64
bXlVc2VyOm15UGFzczEyMwo=

curl -H 'Authorization: Basic bXlVc2VyOm15UGFzczEyMwo=' 'https://ourArchive.ourCompany.com/projects/ThisProject/repos/data/raw/foo/bar.spec?at=refs%2Fheads%2FTheBranchOfInterest' > bar.spec

This combination allowed me to download the one file I needed to build everything else.

score -3 · Answer 21 · answered Dec 18 '13 at 05:29

-3

If you only need to download the file, no need to check out with Git.

GitHub Mate is much easier to do so, it's a Chrome extension, enables you click the file icon to download it. also open source

answered Dec 18 '13 at 05:29

Cam Song

2,958
1
21
18

9

`git` != `github` – Jan Groth May 26 '16 at 01:26

score -3 · Answer 22 · answered Aug 11 '15 at 10:39

If you have edited a local version of a file and wish to revert to the original version maintained on the central server, this can be easily achieved using Git Extensions.

Initially the file will be marked for commit, since it has been modified
Select (double click) the file in the file tree menu
The revision tree for the single file is listed.
Select the top/HEAD of the tree and right click save as
Save the file to overwrite the modified local version of the file
The file now has the correct version and will no longer be marked for commit!

Easy!

How to sparsely checkout only one single file from a git repository?

22 Answers22

Minimal Guide

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