# Decompressing a tree to a location other than the working directory 4 messages from 2010-08-06 to 2010-08-07. Participants: Joshua Shrader, Jonathan Nieder, Jakub Narebski, Michael Witten. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/24649 ## Joshua Shrader, 2010-08-06 18:43 Subject: Decompressing a tree to a location other than the working directory Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/AANLkTi%3DRjcQ_-PNUt781jhYEA-8krqXpdHRenVyR_Rc4%40mail.gmail.com ``` git checkout allows one to checkout a particular version of a certain path in the working directory. Are there accessible plumbing commands that can be used to accomplish the same thing, but change the target directory. For example, if I wanted to checkout a certain path, but wanted to check it out somewhere external to my working directory / repository? Thanks, Josh ``` ## Jonathan Nieder, 2010-08-06 18:43 Subject: Re: Decompressing a tree to a location other than the working directory Message-ID: <20100806184345.GB2985@burratino> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20100806184345.GB2985%40burratino In-Reply-To: ``` Joshua Shrader wrote: > git checkout allows one to checkout a particular version of a certain > path in the working directory. Are there accessible plumbing commands > that can be used to accomplish the same thing, but change the target > directory. I don’t know if it is plumbing, but "git archive" is very useful for that. $ git archive HEAD^:Documentation | (cd elsewhere && tar xf -) Hope that helps, Jonathan ``` ## Jakub Narebski, 2010-08-06 19:58 Subject: Re: Decompressing a tree to a location other than the working directory Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/m3mxszo6na.fsf%40localhost.localdomain In-Reply-To: ``` Joshua Shrader writes: > git checkout allows one to checkout a particular version of a certain > path in the working directory. Are there accessible plumbing commands > that can be used to accomplish the same thing, but change the target > directory. For example, if I wanted to checkout a certain path, but > wanted to check it out somewhere external to my working directory / > repository? Porcelain way: check out first example in git-archive(1) manpage EXAMPLES ======== git archive --format=tar --prefix=junk/ HEAD | (cd /var/tmp/ && tar xf -) Create a tar archive that contains the contents of the latest commit on the current branch, and extract it in the /var/tmp/junk directory. Plumbing way: after preparing index (it can be separate file than .git/index), use "git checkout-index" as desceived in second example on manpage: EXAMPLES ======== Using `git checkout-index` to "export an entire tree" The prefix ability basically makes it trivial to use git check- out-index as an "export as tree" function. Just read the desired tree into the index, and do: $ git checkout-index --prefix=git-export-dir/ -a `git checkout-index` will "export" the index into the specified direc- tory. The final "/" is important. The exported name is literally just pre- fixed with the specified string -- Jakub Narebski Poland ShadeHawk on #git ``` ## Michael Witten, 2010-08-07 03:10 Subject: Re: Decompressing a tree to a location other than the working directory Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/AANLkTi%3DiApfmo3HhDU9BgxvJuHJwuDc%3DnHFpOib9TM8x%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <20100806184345.GB2985@burratino> ``` On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 13:43, Jonathan Nieder wrote: >> git checkout allows one to checkout a particular version of a certain >> path in the working directory.  Are there accessible plumbing commands >> that can be used to accomplish the same thing, but change the target >> directory. > > I don’t know if it is plumbing, but "git archive" is very useful for > that. > >  $ git archive HEAD^:Documentation | (cd elsewhere && tar xf -) For single files (rather than directories), you could do this: git show HEAD^:path/to/file > /some/path/file ```