Git Clone: Just the files, please?

git

Solution

The git command that would be the closest from what you are looking for would by `git archive`. See backing up project which uses git: it will include in an archive all files (including submodules if you are using the `git-archive-all` script)

You can then use that archive anywhere, giving you back only files, no `.git` directory.

git archive --remote=<repository URL> | tar -t

If you need folders and files just from the first level:

git archive --remote=<repository URL> | tar -t --exclude="*/*"

To list only first-level folders of a remote repo:

git archive --remote=<repository URL> | tar -t --exclude="*/*" | grep "/"

Note: that does not work for GitHub (not supported)

So you would need to clone (shallow to quicken the clone step), and then archive locally:

git clone --depth=1 git@github.com:xxx/yyy.git
cd yyy
git archive --format=tar aTag -o aTag.tar

Another option would be to do a shallow clone (as mentioned below), but locating the .git folder elsewhere.

git --git-dir=/path/to/another/folder.git clone --depth=1 /url/to/repo

The repo folder would include only the file, without `.git`.

Note: `git --git-dir` is an option of the command `git`, not `git clone`.

Update with Git 2.14.X/2.15 (Q4 2017): it will make sure to avoid adding empty folders.

"`git archive`", especially when used with pathspec, stored an empty directory in its output, even though Git itself never does so. This has been fixed.

See commit 4318094 (12 Sep 2017) by René Scharfe (``). Suggested-by: Jeff King (`peff`). (Merged by Junio C Hamano -- `gitster` -- in commit 62b1cb7, 25 Sep 2017)

`archive`: don't add empty directories to archives

While git doesn't track empty directories, `git archive` can be tricked into putting some into archives. While that is supported by the object database, it can't be represented in the index and thus it's unlikely to occur in the wild.

As empty directories are not supported by git, they should also not be written into archives. If an empty directory is really needed then it can be tracked and archived by placing an empty `.gitignore` file in it.

Problem

I want to clone a GIT repo and NOT end up with a `.git` directory. In other words I just want the files. Is there a way to do this? `git clone --no-checkout` did the exact opposite of what I want (gave me just the `.git` directory). I am trying to do that for a remote repo, not a local one, meaning this is not a duplicate of "How to do a “git export” (like “svn export”)" (even though the solution might end up being the same).

Original source

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