How to move some files from one git repo to another (not a clone), preserving history

Our Git repositories started out as parts of a single monster SVN repository where the individual projects each had their own tree like so: ``` project1/branches /tags /trunk project2/branches /tags /trunk ``` Obviously, it was pretty easy to move files from one to another with `svn mv`. But in Git, each project is in its own repository, and today I was asked to move a subdirectory from `project2` to `project1`. I did something like this: ``` $ git clone project2 $ cd project2 $ git filter-branch --subdirectory-filter deeply/buried/java/source/directory/A -- --all $ git remote rm origin # so I don't accidentally overwrite the repo ;-) $ mkdir -p deeply/buried/different/java/source/directory/B $ for f in *.java; do > git mv $f deeply/buried/different/java/source/directory/B > done $ git commit -m "moved files to new subdirectory" $ cd .. $ $ git clone project1 $ cd project1 $ git remote add p2 ../project2 $ git fetch p2 $ git branch p2 remotes/p2/master $ git merge p2 # --allow-unrelated-histories for git 2.9+ $ git remote rm p2 $ git push ``` But that seems pretty convoluted. Is there a better way to do this sort of thing in general? Or have I adopted the right approach? Note that this involves merging the history into an existing repository, rather than simply creating a new standalone repository from part of another one (as in an earlier question).