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10 .TH "GIT\-SPARSE\-CHECKOU" "1" "05/11/2022" "Git 2\&.36\&.1\&.74\&.g277cf0b" "Git Manual"
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31 git-sparse-checkout \- Reduce your working tree to a subset of tracked files
35 \fIgit sparse\-checkout <subcommand> [<options>]\fR
40 This command is used to create sparse checkouts, which means that it changes the working tree from having all tracked files present, to only have a subset of them\&. It can also switch which subset of files are present, or undo and go back to having all tracked files present in the working copy\&.
42 The subset of files is chosen by providing a list of directories in cone mode (which is recommended), or by providing a list of patterns in non\-cone mode\&.
44 When in a sparse\-checkout, other Git commands behave a bit differently\&. For example, switching branches will not update paths outside the sparse\-checkout directories/patterns, and \fBgit commit \-a\fR will not record paths outside the sparse\-checkout directories/patterns as deleted\&.
46 THIS COMMAND IS EXPERIMENTAL\&. ITS BEHAVIOR, AND THE BEHAVIOR OF OTHER COMMANDS IN THE PRESENCE OF SPARSE\-CHECKOUTS, WILL LIKELY CHANGE IN THE FUTURE\&.
51 Describe the directories or patterns in the sparse\-checkout file\&.
56 Enable the necessary sparse\-checkout config settings (\fBcore\&.sparseCheckout\fR,
57 \fBcore\&.sparseCheckoutCone\fR, and
58 \fBindex\&.sparse\fR) if they are not already set to the desired values, and write a set of patterns to the sparse\-checkout file from the list of arguments following the
60 subcommand\&. Update the working directory to match the new patterns\&.
62 To ensure that adjusting the sparse\-checkout settings within a worktree does not alter the sparse\-checkout settings in other worktrees, the
64 subcommand will upgrade your repository config to use worktree\-specific config if not already present\&. The sparsity defined by the arguments to the
66 subcommand are stored in the worktree\-specific sparse\-checkout file\&. See
68 and the documentation of
69 \fBextensions\&.worktreeConfig\fR
76 option is provided, the directories or patterns are read from standard in as a newline\-delimited list instead of from the arguments\&.
81 \fBcore\&.sparseCheckoutCone\fR
82 is enabled, the input list is considered a list of directories\&. This allows for better performance with a limited set of patterns (see
83 \fICONE PATTERN SET\fR
84 below)\&. The input format matches the output of
85 \fBgit ls\-tree \-\-name\-only\fR\&. This includes interpreting pathnames that begin with a double quote (") as C\-style quoted strings\&. Note that the set command will write patterns to the sparse\-checkout file to include all files contained in those directories (recursively) as well as files that are siblings of ancestor directories\&. This may become the default in the future; \-\-no\-cone can be passed to request non\-cone mode\&.
90 \fBcore\&.sparseCheckoutCone\fR
91 is not enabled, the input list is considered a list of patterns\&. This mode is harder to use and less performant, and is thus not recommended\&. See the "Sparse Checkout" section of
92 \fBgit-read-tree\fR(1)
93 and the "Pattern Set" sections below for more details\&.
96 \fB\-\-[no\-]sparse\-index\fR
97 option to use a sparse index (the default is to not use it)\&. A sparse index reduces the size of the index to be more closely aligned with your sparse\-checkout definition\&. This can have significant performance advantages for commands such as
100 \fBgit add\fR\&. This feature is still experimental\&. Some commands might be slower with a sparse index until they are properly integrated with the feature\&.
103 Using a sparse index requires modifying the index in a way that is not completely understood by external tools\&. If you have trouble with this compatibility, then run
104 \fBgit sparse\-checkout init \-\-no\-sparse\-index\fR
105 to rewrite your index to not be sparse\&. Older versions of Git will not understand the sparse directory entries index extension and may fail to interact with your repository until it is disabled\&.
110 Update the sparse\-checkout file to include additional directories (in cone mode) or patterns (in non\-cone mode)\&. By default, these directories or patterns are read from the command\-line arguments, but they can be read from stdin using the
117 Reapply the sparsity pattern rules to paths in the working tree\&. Commands like merge or rebase can materialize paths to do their work (e\&.g\&. in order to show you a conflict), and other sparse\-checkout commands might fail to sparsify an individual file (e\&.g\&. because it has unstaged changes or conflicts)\&. In such cases, it can make sense to run
118 \fBgit sparse\-checkout reapply\fR
119 later after cleaning up affected paths (e\&.g\&. resolving conflicts, undoing or committing changes, etc\&.)\&.
123 command can also take
126 \fB\-\-[no\-]sparse\-index\fR
127 flags, with the same meaning as the flags from the
129 command, in order to change which sparsity mode you are using without needing to also respecify all sparsity paths\&.
135 \fBcore\&.sparseCheckout\fR
136 config setting, and restore the working directory to include all files\&.
141 Deprecated command that behaves like
143 with no specified paths\&. May be removed in the future\&.
147 did not handle all the necessary config settings, which meant that both
151 had to be called\&. Invoking both meant the
153 step would first remove nearly all tracked files (and in cone mode, ignored files too), then the
155 step would add many of the tracked files (but not ignored files) back\&. In addition to the lost files, the performance and UI of this combination was poor\&.
159 would not actually initialize the sparse\-checkout file if it already existed\&. This meant it was possible to return to a sparse\-checkout without remembering which paths to pass to a subsequent
166 \fB\-\-sparse\-index\fR
167 options would not be remembered across the disable command, so the easy restore of calling a plain
169 decreased in utility\&.
171 .SH "SPARSE CHECKOUT"
173 "Sparse checkout" allows populating the working directory sparsely\&. It uses the skip\-worktree bit (see \fBgit-update-index\fR(1)) to tell Git whether a file in the working directory is worth looking at\&. If the skip\-worktree bit is set, and the file is not present in the working tree, then its absence is ignored\&. Git will avoid populating 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\&.
175 The \fB$GIT_DIR/info/sparse\-checkout\fR file is used to define the skip\-worktree reference bitmap\&. When Git updates the working directory, it updates the skip\-worktree bits in the index based on this file\&. The files matching the patterns in the file will appear in the working directory, and the rest will not\&.
177 To enable the sparse\-checkout feature, run \fBgit sparse\-checkout set\fR to set the patterns you want to use\&.
179 To repopulate the working directory with all files, use the \fBgit sparse\-checkout disable\fR command\&.
180 .SH "FULL PATTERN SET"
182 By default, the sparse\-checkout file uses the same syntax as \fB\&.gitignore\fR files\&.
184 While \fB$GIT_DIR/info/sparse\-checkout\fR is usually used to specify what files are included, you can also specify what files are \fInot\fR included, using negative patterns\&. For example, to remove the file \fBunwanted\fR:
197 .SH "CONE PATTERN SET"
199 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 \fBcore\&.sparseCheckoutCone\fR is enabled\&.
201 The accepted patterns in the cone pattern set are:
212 All paths inside a directory are included\&.
224 All files immediately inside a directory are included\&.
227 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\&.
229 By default, when running \fBgit sparse\-checkout init\fR, the root directory is added as a parent pattern\&. At this point, the sparse\-checkout file contains the following patterns:
243 This says "include everything in root, but nothing two levels below root\&."
245 When in cone mode, the \fBgit sparse\-checkout set\fR subcommand takes a list of directories instead of a list of sparse\-checkout patterns\&. In this mode, the command \fBgit sparse\-checkout set A/B/C\fR sets the directory \fBA/B/C\fR as a recursive pattern, the directories \fBA\fR and \fBA/B\fR are added as parent patterns\&. The resulting sparse\-checkout file is now
264 Here, order matters, so the negative patterns are overridden by the positive patterns that appear lower in the file\&.
266 If \fBcore\&.sparseCheckoutCone=true\fR, 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\&.
268 In the cone mode case, the \fBgit sparse\-checkout list\fR subcommand will list the directories that define the recursive patterns\&. For the example sparse\-checkout file above, the output is as follows:
274 $ git sparse\-checkout list
282 If \fBcore\&.ignoreCase=true\fR, then the pattern\-matching algorithm will use a case\-insensitive check\&. This corrects for case mismatched filenames in the \fIgit sparse\-checkout set\fR command to reflect the expected cone in the working directory\&.
284 When changing the sparse\-checkout patterns in cone mode, Git will inspect each tracked directory that is not within the sparse\-checkout cone to see if it contains any untracked files\&. If all of those files are ignored due to the \fB\&.gitignore\fR patterns, then the directory will be deleted\&. If any of the untracked files within that directory is not ignored, then no deletions will occur within that directory and a warning message will appear\&. If these files are important, then reset your sparse\-checkout definition so they are included, use \fBgit add\fR and \fBgit commit\fR to store them, then remove any remaining files manually to ensure Git can behave optimally\&.
287 If your repository contains one or more submodules, then submodules are populated based on interactions with the \fBgit submodule\fR command\&. Specifically, \fBgit submodule init \-\- <path>\fR will ensure the submodule at \fB<path>\fR is present, while \fBgit submodule deinit [\-f] \-\- <path>\fR will remove the files for the submodule at \fB<path>\fR (including any untracked files, uncommitted changes, and unpushed history)\&. Similar to how sparse\-checkout removes files from the working tree but still leaves entries in the index, deinitialized submodules are removed from the working directory but still have an entry in the index\&.
289 Since submodules may have unpushed changes or untracked files, removing them could result in data loss\&. Thus, changing sparse inclusion/exclusion rules will not cause an already checked out submodule to be removed from the working copy\&. Said another way, just as \fBcheckout\fR will not cause submodules to be automatically removed or initialized even when switching between branches that remove or add submodules, using \fBsparse\-checkout\fR to reduce or expand the scope of "interesting" files will not cause submodules to be automatically deinitialized or initialized either\&.
291 Further, the above facts mean that there are multiple reasons that "tracked" files might not be present in the working copy: sparsity pattern application from sparse\-checkout, and submodule initialization state\&. Thus, commands like \fBgit grep\fR that work on tracked files in the working copy may return results that are limited by either or both of these restrictions\&.
294 \fBgit-read-tree\fR(1) \fBgitignore\fR(5)
297 Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite