lu0/git-partial-clone

Effortlessly clone specific subdirectories of Git repositories.

git-partial-clone

This script clones a subdirectory of a github/gitlab repository.

• Install
• Using the comand line options
  • Clone from public repositories
  • Clone from private repositories
• Using a configuration file
  • Configuration variables
    • Mandatory variables
    • Variables for private repositories
    • Optional variables
• Docker

Install

Install the script and autocompletion rules.

./install.sh

Then you can call the command git-partial-clone from any directory and use TAB to autocomplete the CLI options.

Using the comand line options

Run with the --help flag to see the complete list of options (recommended). Or read the following sections to clone using the most common options.

$ git-partial-clone -h

Clone a subdirectory of a github/gitlab repository.

USAGE:
   git-partial-clone   [OPTIONS] ARGUMENTS
   git-partial-clone   # Or assume config variables in shell.

OPTIONS:
            --help     Show this manual.

   Using a config file:
       -f | --file     Path to the configuration file.

   CLI options (mandatory):
       -o | --owner    Author (owner) of the repository.
       -r | --repo     Name of the repository.

   CLI options (optional):
       -h | --host     github (default) or gitlab.
       -s | --subdir   Subfolder to be cloned.

       -t | --token    Path to your access token (for private repos).

       -b | --branch   Branch to be fetched.
       -v | --tag      Tag of the version to be fetched.
       -d | --depth    Number of commits to be fetched.

Clone from public repositories

Provide the mandatory options --repo, --owner and the subdirectory (--subdir) you want to clone.

The following example clones a subfolder of my vscode-settings repository.

git-partial-clone --owner=lu0 --repo=vscode-settings --subdir=json/snippets

You can also clone the entire repository, although this is not the intended use.

git-partial-clone --owner=lu0 --repo=vscode-settings

Clone from private repositories

You will need to generate an access token in order to clone private repositories, as password authentication is deprecated.

• Github: github.com/settings/tokens.
• Gitlab: gitlab.com/-/profile/personal_access_tokens.

Save your token in a file and provide its path with the --token option, the following example would clone a subfolder of a private repository.

git-partial-clone --owner=owner --repo=repo --subdir=path/to/subdir \
    --token=/path/to/your/token/file

Using a configuration file

Using a configuration file will give you more control over the objects you're cloning. You can test this functionality with the provided configuration file:

git-partial-clone --file=example.conf

By the end of the execution, you will see a tmp directory containing the subfolder of the example repository.

Configuration variables

Fill in the config file (template.conf) with the information of the repository you're cloning. You can see the example file here.

Mandatory variables

• GIT_HOST:
  • github if the repository is hosted on Github.
  • gitlab if the repository is hosted on Gitlab.
• REPO_OWNER:
  • Username of the owner/author of the repository.
• REPO_NAME:
  • Name of the repository to be cloned.
• REMOTE_PARTIAL_DIR:
  • Subdirectory of the repository you want to clone.
  • Omit it to clone the entire repository.

Variables for private repositories

• TOKEN_PATH:
  • Path to the file containing the access token.

Optional variables

• BRANCH:
  • The branch to be fetched.
  • Omit it to pull all of the branches and switch to the default one.
• TAG_NAME:(tag | t)
  • Tag of the version to be fetched.
  • Omit it to fetch the latest commit of BRANCH.
  • Set BRANCH to search for tags in a specific branch.
• COMMIT_DEPTH:
  • Number of commits you want to fetch (useful for deployment purposes).
  • Omit it to fetch the entire remote history.
• PARENT_DIR:
  • Path to the target parent directory.
  • Omit it to clone the repository in the current directory.

Docker

You can use the provided docker image to create rolling or stable releases of your repositories.

1. Fill your (configuration file) according to your needs.
2. Add your entrypoint script in your dockerfile:

FROM lu0alv/git-partial-clone:latest

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ENTRYPOINT ["/bin/sh", "-c" , "get-source && exec /home/${PARENT_DIR}/${REPO_NAME}/${REMOTE_PARTIAL_DIR}/deploy.sh"]

3. Then run your dockerfile by providing your configuration file and mounting the file containing your github/gitlab token:

CONFIG_FILE=/path/to/your/config-file.conf
source $CONFIG_FILE
docker run \
    --env-file ${CONFIG_FILE} \
    -v /path/to/your/existing/token-file:${TOKEN_PATH} \
    # your extra options and dockerfile