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Git single-branch cloning

Git single-branch cloning is a Git operation used to copy a repository while limiting the retrieval to a specific branch, rather than cloning all references and history^[600-developer__tools__git__git-command.md].

Usage

To perform a single-branch clone, use the --single-branch flag in conjunction with the --branch flag^[600-developer__tools__git__git-command.md]. This allows the user to specify exactly which branch to clone^[600-developer__tools__git__git-command.md].

The syntax for this command is:

git clone --single-branch <repository-url> --branch <remote-branch-name> <local-directory>

For example, to clone only the dev branch from a repository into a local directory named develop^[600-developer__tools__git__git-command.md]:

git clone --single-branch git@github.com:yudady/concurrency.git --branch dev develop

Behavior

When this command is executed, Git enumerates, compresses, and receives the objects related to the specified branch^[600-developer__tools__git__git-command.md]. The resulting local clone will contain only the history and files associated with that branch, which can save disk space and reduce cloning time compared to a full repository clone.

  • [[Git]]
  • [[Branching]]
  • [[Version Control]]

Sources

  • 600-developer__tools__git__git-command.md