How do I clone a single branch in Git?

Question

I have a local Git repository called \'skeleton\' that I use for storing project skeletons. It has a few branches, for different kinds of projects:

casey@aga         


        

Answer 1

You can try the long-winded way:

mkdir newrepo.git
cd newrepo.git
git init
git remote add origin file:///path/to/original
git fetch origin branchiwant:refs/remotes/origin/branchiwant
git checkout -b branchiwant --track origin/branchiwant

What this does is:

• Create and init an empty Git repository.
• Adds the original repository as a remote called origin.
• Fetches only the branch you require from the remote called origin.
• Creates and checks out a new branch that is set up to track the source branch you just cloned.

Hopefully that will be something like what you are after.