From: Pushkar Singh Date: Wed, 08 Jul 2026 17:48:03 GMT Subject: Re: [RFC] clone: allow sparse-checkout paths to be specified during clone Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <20260630053235.GB2495216@coredump.intra.peff.net> Hi Jeff, Thanks for taking the time to look at this, and sorry for the delayed reply. > IIRC the sparseness is contained in a patterns file, so I'd have > expected the first level of fix to be "you can provide that file at > clone time, rather than afterwards". That's a good point. My thinking was mainly from the perspective of someone using the existing "git sparse-checkout" workflow instead of editing the patterns file directly. Personally, I've always used "git sparse-checkout set" and never really edited the patterns file myself. So I was thinking of this as a convenience layer over the existing workflow rather than exposing the patterns file itself. > You might try cc-ing folks who worked on sparse checkouts, especially > Stolee. Thanks for the suggestion! I've cc'd Derrick here in case he has any thoughts on this :-) > One final thought from a non-sparse-checkout user: you're coming at it > from the point of view of ergonomics (it is annoying to clone and then > set up sparsity separately) but there is also a performance question. I was mostly thinking about the workflow rather than the performance side. My main goal was just to make the workflow a bit simpler and more intuitive. Internally, I was still thinking of it as using the existing sparse-checkout machinery after clone. If there is a way to make use of the selected paths earlier in the clone process as well, that would definitely be a nice bonus, although I haven't looked into whether that's practical. > Like I said, I don't have any experience. :) Even then, I really appreciate you taking the time to read through the RFC and share your thoughts :-) Thanks again! - Pushkar