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