I would like to know how I could clone only one branch instead of cloning the whole Git repository.
448
votes
What a couple others pointed out is very true: unless there are large files committed to some branches and never to others, this isn't actually going to make much of any difference.
– Cascabel
@Jefromi: It really makes difference when you clone it.. See this link: stackoverflow.com/questions/14682245/…
– Amol M Kulkarni
@AmolMKulkarni Like I said two years ago, only if some branches contain a lot of data that others don't. The question you linked to doesn't actually say that just one branch is smaller - if all of that enormous size is just in the common history of all branches, cloning one branch will be just as big.
– Cascabel
This also makes a difference when certain recipients are intended only to see certain branches and their histories.
– Old McStopher
Super complete answer by VonC here : stackoverflow.com/a/9920956/1579667
– Benj
4 Answers
798
votes
From the announcement Git 1.7.10 (April 2012):
git clonelearned--single-branchoption to limit cloning to a single branch (surprise!); tags that do not point into the history of the branch are not fetched.
Git actually allows you to clone only one branch, for example:
git clone -b mybranch --single-branch git://sub.domain.com/repo.git
Note: Also you can add another single branch or "undo" this action.
68
votes
26
votes
“--single-branch” switch is your answer, but it only works if you have git version 1.8.X onwards, first check
#git --version
If you already have git version 1.8.X installed then simply use "-b branch and --single branch" to clone a single branch
#git clone -b branch --single-branch git://github/repository.git
By default in Ubuntu 12.04/12.10/13.10 and Debian 7 the default git installation is for version 1.7.x only, where --single-branch is an unknown switch. In that case you need to install newer git first from a non-default ppa as below.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pdoes/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git
git --version
Once 1.8.X is installed now simply do:
git clone -b branch --single-branch git://github/repository.git
Git will now only download a single branch from the server.
