How do I checkout just one file from a git repo?

22 Answers

Originally, I mentioned in 2012 git archive (see Jared Forsyth's answer and Robert Knight's answer), since git1.7.9.5 (March 2012), Paul Brannan's answer:

git archive --format=tar --remote=origin HEAD:path/to/directory -- filename | tar -O -xf -

But: in 2013, that was no longer possible for remote URLs.
See the old page "Can I archive a repository?"

The current (2018) page "About archiving content and data on GitHub" recommends using third-party services like GHTorrent or GH Archive.

So you can also deal with local copies/clone:

You could alternatively do the following if you have a local copy of the bare repository as mentioned in this answer,

git --no-pager --git-dir /path/to/bar/repo.git show branch:path/to/file >file

Or you must clone first the repo, meaning you get the full history: - in the .git repo - in the working tree.

But then you can do a sparse checkout (if you are using Git1.7+),:
- enable the sparse checkout option (git config core.sparsecheckout true)
- adding what you want to see in the .git/info/sparse-checkout file
- re-reading the working tree to only display what you need

To re-read the working tree:

$ git read-tree -m -u HEAD

That way, you end up with a working tree including precisely what you want (even if it is only one file)

Richard Gomes points (in the comments) to "How do I clone, fetch or sparse checkout a single directory or a list of directories from git repository?"

A bash function which avoids downloading the history, which retrieves a single branch and which retrieves a list of files or directories you need.

First clone the repo with the -n option, which suppresses the default checkout of all files, and the --depth 1 option, which means it only gets the most recent revision of each file

git clone -n git://path/to/the_repo.git --depth 1

Then check out just the file you want like so:

cd the_repo git checkout HEAD name_of_file

If you already have a copy of the git repo, you can always checkout a version of a file using a git log to find out the hash-id (for example 3cdc61015724f9965575ba954c8cd4232c8b42e4) and then you simply type:

git checkout hash-id path-to-file

Here is an actual example:

git checkout 3cdc61015724f9965575ba954c8cd4232c8b42e4 /var/www/css/page.css

Normally it's not possible to download just one file from git without downloading the whole repository as suggested in the first answer. It's because Git doesn't store files as you think (as CVS/SVN do), but it generates them based on the entire history of the project.

But there are some workarounds for specific cases. Examples below with placeholders for user, project, branch, filename.

GitHub

wget

GitLab

wget

GitWeb

If you're using Git on the Server - GitWeb, then you may try in example (change it into the right path):

wget ""

GitWeb at drupalcode.org

Example:

wget ""

googlesource.com

There is an undocumented feature that allows you to download base64-encoded versions of raw files:

curl "" | base64 --decode

In other cases check if your Git repository is using any web interfaces.

If it's not using any web interface, you may consider to push your code to external services such as GitHub, Bitbucket, etc. and use it as a mirror.

If you don't have wget installed, try curl -O (url) alternatively.

Minimal Guide

git checkout -- <filename>

Ref:

Dup: Undo working copy modifications of one file in Git?

git checkout branch_or_version -- path/file

example: git checkout HEAD -- main.c

Now we can! As this is the first result on google, I thought I'd update this to the latest standing. With the advent of git 1.7.9.5, we have the git archive command which will allow you to retrieve a single file from a remote host.

git archive --remote=git:// HEAD:path/in/repo filename | tar -x

See answer in full here

Working in GIT 1.7.2.2

For example you have a remote some_remote with branches branch1, branch32

so to checkout a specific file you call this commands:

git checkout remote/branch path/to/file

as an example it will be something like this

git checkout some_remote/branch32 conf/en/myscript.conf git checkout some_remote/branch1 conf/fr/load.wav

This checkout command will copy the whole file structure conf/en and conf/fr into the current directory where you call these commands (of course I assume you ran git init at some point before)

Here is the complete solution for pulling and pushing only a particular file inside git repository:

First you need to clone git repository with a special hint –no checkout

git clone --no-checkout <git url>

The next step is to get rid of unstaged files in the index with the command:

git reset

Now you are allowed to start pulling files you want to change with the command:

git checkout origin/master <path to file>

Now the repository folder contains files that you may start editing right away. After editing you need to execute plain and familar sequence of commands.

git add <path to file> git commit -m <message text> git push

Very simple:

git checkout from-branch-name -- path/to/the/file/you/want

This will not checkout the from-branch-name branch. You will stay on whatever branch you are on, and only that single file will be checked out from the specified branch.

Here's the relevant part of the manpage for git-checkout

git checkout [-p|--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>... When <paths> or --patch are given, git checkout does not switch branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from the index file or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit). In this case, the -b and --track options are meaningless and giving either of them results in an error. The <tree-ish> argument can be used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree) to update the index for the given paths before updating the working tree.

Hat tip to Ariejan de Vroom who taught me this from this blog post.

git clone --filter from Git 2.19

This option will actually skip fetching most unneeded objects from the server:

git clone --depth 1 --no-checkout --filter=blob:none \ "file://$(pwd)/server_repo" local_repo cd local_repo git checkout master -- mydir/myfile

The server should be configured with:

git config --local uploadpack.allowfilter 1 git config --local uploadpack.allowanysha1inwant 1

There is no server support as of v2.19.0, but it can already be locally tested.

TODO: --filter=blob:none skips all blobs, but still fetches all tree objects. But on a normal repo, this should be tiny compared to the files themselves, so this is already good enough. Asked at: Devs replied a --filter=tree:0 is in the works to do that.

Remember that --depth 1 already implies --single-branch, see also: How do I clone a single branch in Git?

file://$(path) is required to overcome git clone protocol shenanigans: How to shallow clone a local git repository with a relative path?

The format of --filter is documented on man git-rev-list.

An extension was made to the Git remote protocol to support this feature.

Docs on Git tree:

Test it out

#!/usr/bin/env bash set -eu list-objects() ( git rev-list --all --objects echo "master commit SHA: $(git log -1 --format="%H")" echo "mybranch commit SHA: $(git log -1 --format="%H")" git ls-tree master git ls-tree mybranch | grep mybranch git ls-tree master~ | grep root ) # Reproducibility. export GIT_COMMITTER_NAME='a' export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL='a' export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME='a' export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL='a' export GIT_COMMITTER_DATE='2000-01-01T00:00:00+0000' export GIT_AUTHOR_DATE='2000-01-01T00:00:00+0000' rm -rf server_repo local_repo mkdir server_repo cd server_repo # Create repo. git init --quiet git config --local uploadpack.allowfilter 1 git config --local uploadpack.allowanysha1inwant 1 # First commit. # Directories present in all branches. mkdir d1 d2 printf 'd1/a' > ./d1/a printf 'd1/b' > ./d1/b printf 'd2/a' > ./d2/a printf 'd2/b' > ./d2/b # Present only in root. mkdir 'root' printf 'root' > ./root/root git add . git commit -m 'root' --quiet # Second commit only on master. git rm --quiet -r ./root mkdir 'master' printf 'master' > ./master/master git add . git commit -m 'master commit' --quiet # Second commit only on mybranch. git checkout -b mybranch --quiet master~ git rm --quiet -r ./root mkdir 'mybranch' printf 'mybranch' > ./mybranch/mybranch git add . git commit -m 'mybranch commit' --quiet echo "# List and identify all objects" list-objects echo # Restore master. git checkout --quiet master cd .. # Clone. Don't checkout for now, only .git/ dir. git clone --depth 1 --quiet --no-checkout --filter=blob:none "file://$(pwd)/server_repo" local_repo cd local_repo # List missing objects from master. echo "# Missing objects after --no-checkout" git rev-list --all --quiet --objects --missing=print echo echo "# Git checkout fails without internet" mv ../server_repo ../server_repo.off ! git checkout master echo echo "# Git checkout fetches the missing file from internet" mv ../server_repo.off ../server_repo git checkout master -- d1/a echo echo "# Missing objects after checking out d1/a" git rev-list --all --quiet --objects --missing=print

GitHub upstream.

Output in Git v2.19.0:

# List and identify all objects c6fcdfaf2b1462f809aecdad83a186eeec00f9c1 fc5e97944480982cfc180a6d6634699921ee63ec 7251a83be9a03161acde7b71a8fda9be19f47128 62d67bce3c672fe2b9065f372726a11e57bade7e b64bf435a3e54c5208a1b70b7bcb0fc627463a75 d1 308150e8fddde043f3dbbb8573abb6af1df96e63 d1/a f70a17f51b7b30fec48a32e4f19ac15e261fd1a4 d1/b 84de03c312dc741d0f2a66df7b2f168d823e122a d2 0975df9b39e23c15f63db194df7f45c76528bccb d2/a 41484c13520fcbb6e7243a26fdb1fc9405c08520 d2/b 7d5230379e4652f1b1da7ed1e78e0b8253e03ba3 master 8b25206ff90e9432f6f1a8600f87a7bd695a24af master/master ef29f15c9a7c5417944cc09711b6a9ee51b01d89 19f7a4ca4a038aff89d803f017f76d2b66063043 mybranch 1b671b190e293aa091239b8b5e8c149411d00523 mybranch/mybranch c3760bb1a0ece87cdbaf9a563c77a45e30a4e30e a0234da53ec608b54813b4271fbf00ba5318b99f root 93ca1422a8da0a9effc465eccbcb17e23015542d root/root master commit SHA: fc5e97944480982cfc180a6d6634699921ee63ec mybranch commit SHA: fc5e97944480982cfc180a6d6634699921ee63ec 040000 tree b64bf435a3e54c5208a1b70b7bcb0fc627463a75 d1 040000 tree 84de03c312dc741d0f2a66df7b2f168d823e122a d2 040000 tree 7d5230379e4652f1b1da7ed1e78e0b8253e03ba3 master 040000 tree 19f7a4ca4a038aff89d803f017f76d2b66063043 mybranch 040000 tree a0234da53ec608b54813b4271fbf00ba5318b99f root # Missing objects after --no-checkout ?f70a17f51b7b30fec48a32e4f19ac15e261fd1a4 ?8b25206ff90e9432f6f1a8600f87a7bd695a24af ?41484c13520fcbb6e7243a26fdb1fc9405c08520 ?0975df9b39e23c15f63db194df7f45c76528bccb ?308150e8fddde043f3dbbb8573abb6af1df96e63 # Git checkout fails without internet fatal: '/home/ciro/bak/git/test-git-web-interface/other-test-repos/ does not appear to be a git repository fatal: Could not read from remote repository. Please make sure you have the correct access rights and the repository exists. # Git checkout fetches the missing directory from internet remote: Enumerating objects: 1, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (1/1), done. remote: Total 1 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0) Receiving objects: 100% (1/1), 45 bytes | 45.00 KiB/s, done. remote: Enumerating objects: 1, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (1/1), done. remote: Total 1 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0) Receiving objects: 100% (1/1), 45 bytes | 45.00 KiB/s, done. # Missing objects after checking out d1 ?f70a17f51b7b30fec48a32e4f19ac15e261fd1a4 ?8b25206ff90e9432f6f1a8600f87a7bd695a24af ?41484c13520fcbb6e7243a26fdb1fc9405c08520 ?0975df9b39e23c15f63db194df7f45c76528bccb

Conclusions: all blobs except d1/a are missing. E.g. f70a17f51b7b30fec48a32e4f19ac15e261fd1a4, which is d1/b, is not there after checking out d1/.

Note that root/root and mybranch/mybranch are also missing, but --depth 1 hides that from the list of missing files. If you remove --depth 1, then they show on the list of missing files.

Two variants on what's already been given:

git archive --format=tar --remote=git:// HEAD:path/to/directory filename | tar -O -xf -

and:

git archive --format=zip --remote=git:// HEAD:path/to/directory filename | funzip

These write the file to standard output.

You can do it by

git archive --format=tar --remote=origin HEAD | tar xf - git archive --format=tar --remote=origin HEAD <file> | tar xf -

Say the file name is 123.txt, this works for me:

git checkout --theirs 123.txt

If the file is inside a directory A, make sure to specify it correctly:

git checkout --theirs "A/123.txt"

In git you do not 'checkout' files before you update them - it seems like this is what you are after.

Many systems like clearcase, csv and so on require you to 'checkout' a file before you can make changes to it. Git does not require this. You clone a repository and then make changes in your local copy of repository.

Once you updated files you can do:

git status

To see what files have been modified. You add the ones you want to commit to index first with (index is like a list to be checked in):

git add .

git add blah.c

Then do git status will show you which files were modified and which are in index ready to be commited or checked in.

To commit files to your copy of repository do:

git commit -a -m "commit message here"

See git website for links to manuals and guides.

If you need a specific file from a specific branch from a remote Git repository the command is:

git archive --remote=git:// refs/heads/mybranch path/to/myfile |tar xf -

The rest can be derived from @VonC's answer:

If you need a specific file from the master branch it is:

git archive --remote=git:// HEAD path/to/myfile |tar xf -

If you need a specific file from a tag it is:

git archive --remote=git:// mytag path/to/myfile |tar xf -

It sounds like you're trying to carry over an idea from centralized version control, which git by nature is not - it's distributed. If you want to work with a git repository, you clone it. You then have all of the contents of the work tree, and all of the history (well, at least everything leading up to the tip of the current branch), not just a single file or a snapshot from a single commit.

 git clone /path/to/repo git clone git://url/of/repo git clone

I am adding this answer as an alternative to doing a formal checkout or some similar local operation. Assuming that you have access to the web interface of your Git provider, you might be able to directly view any file at a given desired commit. For example, on GitHub you may use something like:

Here ed25584f is the first 8 characters from the SHA-1 hash of the commit of interest, followed by the path to the source file.

Similary, on Bitbucket we can try:

In this case, we place the commit hash at the end of the source URL.

In codecommit (git version of Amazon AWS) you can do this:

aws codecommit \ get-file --repository-name myrepo \ --commit-specifier master \ --file-path path/myfile \ --output text \ --query fileContent | base64 --decode > myfile

I don’t see what worked for me listed out here so I will include it should anybody be in my situation.

My situation, I have a remote repository of maybe 10,000 files and I need to build an RPM file for my Linux system. The build of the RPM includes a git clone of everything. All I need is one file to start the RPM build. I can clone the entire source tree which does what I need but it takes an extra two minutes to download all those files when all I need is one. I tried to use the git archive option discussed and I got “fatal: Operation not supported by protocol.” It seems I have to get some sort of archive option enabled on the server and my server is maintained by bureaucratic thugs that seem to enjoy making it difficult to get things done.

What I finally did was I went into the web interface for bitbucket and viewed the one file I needed. I did a right click on the link to download a raw copy of the file and selected “copy shortcut” from the resulting popup. I could not just download the raw file because I needed to automate things and I don’t have a browser interface on my Linux server.

For the sake of discussion, that resulted in the URL:

I could not directly download this file from the bitbucket repository because I needed to sign in first. After a little digging, I found this worked: On Linux:

echo "myUser:myPass123"| base64 bXlVc2VyOm15UGFzczEyMwo= curl -H 'Authorization: Basic bXlVc2VyOm15UGFzczEyMwo=' ' > bar.spec

This combination allowed me to download the one file I needed to build everything else.

If you only need to download the file, no need to check out with Git.

GitHub Mate is much easier to do so, it's a Chrome extension, enables you click the file icon to download it. also open source

If you have edited a local version of a file and wish to revert to the original version maintained on the central server, this can be easily achieved using Git Extensions.