feature request: support sparse checkout

[missedone]

https://github.blog/2020-01-13-highlights-from-git-2-25/
git supports sparse checkout.
in my case, i'd like to clone (checkout) a subfolder out of a large git repo
for now it seems can not be done with go-git.

thanks

[c4milo]

this will be a great addition 🙌

[GridexX]

We really need this feature, is there a roadmap or something we can do for helping you ?
We could pay in ETHW 😄

[yordis]

Hey folks, I am trying to contribute to ArgoCD (and potentially FluxCD) by adding sparse checkout: argoproj/argo-cd#14272

But it seems it is not supported. Any opportunity to make the issue a priority?

[antonosmond]

@yordis AFAICT, sparse checkout is supported. You can see it in this test:

go-git/repository_test.go

Lines 291 to 320 in 809f9df

	func (s *RepositorySuite) TestCloneSparse(c *C) {
	fs := memfs.New()
	r, err := Clone(memory.NewStorage(), fs, &CloneOptions{
	URL: s.GetBasicLocalRepositoryURL(),
	})
	c.Assert(err, IsNil)
	w, err := r.Worktree()
	c.Assert(err, IsNil)
	sparseCheckoutDirectories := []string{"go", "json", "php"}
	c.Assert(w.Checkout(&CheckoutOptions{
	Branch: "refs/heads/master",
	SparseCheckoutDirectories: sparseCheckoutDirectories,
	}), IsNil)
	fis, err := fs.ReadDir(".")
	c.Assert(err, IsNil)
	for _, fi := range fis {
	c.Assert(fi.IsDir(), Equals, true)
	var oneOfSparseCheckoutDirs bool
	for _, sparseCheckoutDirectory := range sparseCheckoutDirectories {
	if strings.HasPrefix(fi.Name(), sparseCheckoutDirectory) {
	oneOfSparseCheckoutDirs = true
	}
	}
	c.Assert(oneOfSparseCheckoutDirs, Equals, true)
	}
	}

That being said, I'm trying to use this and it doesn't appear to working. After the checkout, I seem to have all dirs in the worktree, not just the sparse dirs. If you get it working, let me know! Thanks!

[yordis]

I removed the usage of the package btw!

[emirot]

@yordis @antonosmond

What did not work?

It looks to be working in my simple test: https://github.com/emirot/test-go-git/tree/main

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[jberger-dynatrace]

We would appreciate this feature as well!

[object88]

I also am having trouble using SparseCheckoutDirectories (with go-git v5.11.0). My case may be slightly strange, though. I want to get a sparse checkout from a particular commit. My code, in brief:

        # sha -> 40 character SHA
        # path -> subfolder in my repo, ala "src/app/config"
        # repo -> git form of my repo, ala "git@github.com:myorg/myrepo.git"

	tempDir, _ := os.MkdirTemp("", "source-*")
	fs := osfs.New(tempDir)
	dot, _ := fs.Chroot(".git")
	s := filesystem.NewStorage(dot, cache.NewObjectLRUDefault())

	refspec := config.RefSpec(fmt.Sprintf("+%s:refs/remotes/origin/%s", sha, sha))
	r, _ := gogit.Init(s, fs)
	r.CreateRemote(&config.RemoteConfig{
		Fetch: []config.RefSpec{refspec},
		Name:  "origin",
		URLs:  []string{repo},
	})
	w, _ := r.Worktree()

	r.Fetch(&gogit.FetchOptions{
		Depth:           1,
		InsecureSkipTLS: false,
		Tags:            gogit.NoTags,
	})

	w.Checkout(&gogit.CheckoutOptions{
		Hash:                      plumbing.NewHash(sha),
		SparseCheckoutDirectories: []string{path},
	})

While the sample code above does not show error checking, it is present in my actual code, and no errors are coming back.

I have also tried setting path as just "src" (instead of "src/app/cfg") to match the test mentioned above, but same behavior. Also same if I add a Force: true to the CheckoutOptions.

[wilstdu]

@yordis @antonosmond

What did not work?

It looks to be working in my simple test: https://github.com/emirot/test-go-git/tree/main

@emirot for you this works, because your example doesn't have NoCheckout: true, in git.CloneOptions of git.PlainClone

[wandergeek]

Would also love this feature!