git-archive vs. cp
archive, cp, git
Solution
`git archive` only exports items that are part of the git repository. `cp` copies everything that's under the specified directory, including the `.git` directory, files which are ignored by git, etc.
Problem
What is the advantage of using ``` git archive master/foo | tar -x -C ~/destination ``` to deploy a copy of /foo vs. just copying from the the working copy with ``` cp foo ~/destination/foo ``` So, unless for some reason you don't want to copy everything over from that sub directory foo in master (or whatever branch you happening to be working on), using cp for deploying to a [destination] would suffice.