NAME

       git-clone-subset - Clones a subset of a git repository

SYNOPSIS

       git-clone-subset [options] repository destination-dir pattern

DESCRIPTION

       Clones a repository into a destination-dir and prune from history all files except the
       ones matching pattern by running on the clone:
       git filter-branch --prune-empty --tree-filter 'git rm ...' -- --all
       This effectively creates a clone with a subset of files (and history) of the original
       repository. The original repository is not modified.

       Useful for creating a new repository out of a set of files from another repository,
       migrating (only) their associated history. Very similar to:
       git filter-branch --subdirectory-filter
       But git-clone-subset works on a path pattern instead of just a single directory.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
               show usage information.

       repository
               URL or local path to the git repository to be cloned.

       destination-dir
               Directory to create the clone. Same rules for git-clone applies: it will be
               created if it does not exist and it must be empty otherwise.  But, unlike git-
               clone, this argument is not optional: git-clone uses several rules to determine
               the "friendly" basename of a cloned repo, and git-clone-subset will not risk parse
               its output, let alone predict the chosen name.

       pattern Glob pattern to match the desired files/dirs. It will be ultimately evaluated by a
               call to bash, NOT git or sh, using extended glob '!(<pattern>)' rule. Quote it or
               escape it on command line, so it does not get evaluated prematurely by your
               current shell. Only a single pattern is allowed: if more are required, use
               extglob's "|" syntax. Globs will be evaluated with bash's shopt dotglob set, so
               beware. Patterns should not contain spaces or special chars like " ' $ ( ) { } `,
               not even quoted or escaped, since that might interfere with the !() syntax after
               pattern expansion.

               Pattern Examples:

               "*.png"
               "*.png|*icon*"
               "*.h|src/|lib"

LIMITATIONS

       Renames are NOT followed. As a workaround, list the rename history with 'git log --follow
       --name-status --format='%H' -- file | grep "^[RAD]"' and include all multiple names of a
       file in the pattern, as in "current_name|old_name|initial_name". As a side effect, if a
       different file has taken place of an old name, it will be preserved too, and there is no
       way around this using this tool.

       There is no (easy) way to keep some files in a dir: using 'dir/foo*' as pattern will not
       work. So keep the whole dir and remove files afterwards, using git filter-branch and a
       (quite complex) combination of cloning, remote add, rebase, etc.

       Pattern matching is quite limited, and many of bash's escaping and quoting does not work
       properly when pattern is expanded inside !().

SEE ALSO

       https://github.com/MestreLion/git-tools

AUTHOR

       Rodrigo Silva (MestreLion) linux@rodrigosilva.com

                                            2021-02-11                        GIT-CLONE-SUBSET(1)