Get specific files from a GIT remote branch

Question

Is it possible to pull from a remote repository but only selectively take files from that remote that I'm interested in? I don't want to simply pull down the entire branch.

Thanks.

Answer 1

A "remote branch" is nothing more than a commit pointer and the affiliated pack data. Just git fetch <remote> and then if you want to view diffs between files on the remote and your local, you can do so with:

git diff <local_branch> <remote>/<remote_branch> -- <file>

This would in many cases be, for example, git diff master origin/master -- <file>. You could also see the commit differences with git log:

git log <local_branch>..<remote>/<remote_branch> -- <file>

so... git log master..origin/master -- <file>

Finally if you just want to checkout a particular version of a file from the remote (this wouldn't be ideal; much better to merge the remote branch with git merge <remote>/<remote_branch> or git pull), use:

git checkout <remote>/<remote_branch> -- <file>