Please consider adding a -f switch to git-clone (or something similar)

Hello,

I was thinking about creating a new repository in my home dir so that I could keep my dot files in it.

However, I found that I can't do a `git clone url:user/repo.git .` in a non-empty directory.

Is there a possibility of implementing a -f switch to git-clone so that when I use that, git would still clone the repo in the non-empty directory and keep the untracked files untracked/unstaged? (just as if I copied files to the git repo).

I know I could git-init in a empty directory and then copy the .git dir to the non-empty directory as a workaround, but I like the idea of cloning better.

My C skills aren't that great or I would have sent a patch already.

Thanks,

Diego

Diego Viola <diego.viola@gmail.com> writes:

You can also git init a non-empty directory.

Andreas.

On Sat, Mar 07, 2015 at 11:26:28PM +0100, Andreas Schwab wrote:

I have a script to set up a new throwaway VM with my dotfiles using git. It looks a bit like the following ($BRANCH != master):

  SSH="ssh $DEST"
  
  $SSH "cd; $GIT init"
  git push --receive-pack=$GIT-receive-pack $DEST:~/.git $BRANCH
  $SSH "
      $GIT pull . $BRANCH
      $GIT submodule update --init
  "

It relies on the ability to git init a non-empty directory. $BRANCH can be master if you use the new updateInstead functionality in git 2.3.0, and you can use git pull from a remote location instead of the push/pull pair if that suits you better.

Sorry, I wanted to say: I know I can git-clone in a empty directory and then move the files over to $HOME.

I know I can git init in a non-empty directory. :-)

Thanks,

Diego

On Sat, Mar 7, 2015 at 7:26 PM, Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org> wrote:

Something like this is the scenario I'm talking about:

$ mkdir non-empty-dir
$ cd non-empty-dir
$ touch foo bar baz
$ git clone -f url:user/dotfiles.git .
$ git status
On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)

    bar
    baz
    foo

nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

On Sat, Mar 7, 2015 at 9:02 PM, Diego Viola <diego.viola@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mar 7, 2015, at 17:53, Diego Viola wrote:

Have you considered using an alias?

git config --global alias.irfc \
   '!sh -c '\''git init && git remote add origin "$1" && git fetch &&  
git checkout "${2:-master}"'\'' sh'

(You'll likely have to carefully unwrap that line above.)

Then you get

   git irfc <URL> [<branch>]

where <branch> defaults to master. So your scenario would become just:

$ mkdir non-empty-dir
$ cd non-empty-dir
$ touch foo bar baz
$ git irfc url:user/dotfiles.git
$ git status
On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)

    bar
    baz
    foo

nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

-Kyle

P.S. irfc = init, remote, fetch, checkout. But do make up a better name. :)

Kyle,

Thanks, I suppose that works well enough for my needs. I wasn't aware that aliases were that flexible in git.

I also have no problem to git-init and do all the other steps manually.

Thanks,

Diego

On Sat, Mar 7, 2015 at 11:32 PM, Kyle J. McKay <mackyle@gmail.com> wrote: