Clone contents of a GitHub repository (without the folder itself)

Question

I\'d like to git clone the contents of a repository I have on GitHub. When I git clone (git@github:me/name.git...) I get a folder called name

Answer 1

Unfortunately, this doesn't work if there are other, non-related directories already in the same dir. Looking for a solution. The error message is: "fatal: destination path '.' already exists...".

The solution in this case is:

git init
git remote add origin git@github.com:me/name.git
git pull origin master

This recipe works even if there are other directories in the one you want to checkout in.

Answer 2

You can specify the destination directory as second parameter of the git clone command, so you can do:

git clone <remote> .

This will clone the repository directly in the current local directory.

Answer 3

If the folder is not empty, a slightly modified version of @JohnLittle's answer worked for me:

git init
git remote add origin https://github.com/me/name.git
git pull origin master

As @peter-cordes pointed out, the only difference is using https protocol instead of git, for which you need to have SSH keys configured.

Answer 4

to clone git repo into the current and empty folder (no git init) and if you do not use ssh:

git clone https://github.com/accountName/repoName.git .

Answer 5

If the current directory is empty, you can do that with:

git clone git@github:me/name.git .

(Note the . at the end to specify the current directory.) Of course, this also creates the .git directory in your current folder, not just the source code from your project.

This optional [directory] parameter is documented in the git clone manual page, which points out that cloning into an existing directory is only allowed if that directory is empty.

Answer 6

this worker for me

git clone <repository> .