git clone, ignoring a directory

Question

I'm trying to test something on a wordpress install. In doing so, I'd like to quickly replicate the repo. However, the upload directory (wp-content/uploads) is massive, so I'd like to ignore it.

Note: I don't want to .gitignore this directory all the time, just for this scenario.

Basically, I'd like a command like this pseudo code: git clone --ignore wp-content/uploads.

Is the best way to add that directory to .gitignore, clone, and then revert .gitignore? Or is there a better method?

Answer 1

A bit late to the party, but: Don't you want a sparse checkout?

mkdir <repo> && cd <repo> git init git remote add –f <name> <url> 

Enable sparse-checkout:

git config core.sparsecheckout true 

Configure sparse-checkout by listing your desired sub-trees in .git/info/sparse-checkout:

echo some/dir/ >> .git/info/sparse-checkout echo another/sub/tree >> .git/info/sparse-checkout 

Checkout from the remote:

git pull <remote> <branch> 

See http://jasonkarns.com/blog/subdirectory-checkouts-with-git-sparse-checkout/ for more info.

Answer 2

git clone will always clone the complete repository*, including all previous commits ever added to the repository. So even if you remove the files temporarily, and clone it then, you will still receive the older versions which do contain those files.

Also, just editing the .gitignore will not remove tracked files from the repository even if they would normally be ignored.

So no, it is not really possible to skip a certain folder during cloning.

*It is possible to limit the amount of commits retrieved during a clone, but this will not make the repository very usable.