# Move some files, with all history, from one project into a new one 5 messages from 2020-04-15 to 2020-04-17. Participants: Kerry, Richard, Jeff King, Taylor Blau, Elijah Newren. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/53236 ## Kerry, Richard, 2020-04-15 08:31 Subject: Move some files, with all history, from one project into a new one Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/AM0PR02MB3715F9566BD9FEFAF832F0749CDB0%40AM0PR02MB3715.eurprd02.prod.outlook.com ``` I would like to move some files, from the project in which they have always resided into a new project. I would like to keep all their history. I don't want to waste space by also moving the rest of the old project's history, or historical file contents. We have a long-standing project, main-system. A group of files within it are designated as demo-system (sometimes whole folders, sometimes files within folders with other files). All development is done on the master branch. It has now transpired that the demo-system files are necessary, but no longer want to be within main-system but in a new project of their own. So I would like to move them from the main-system repo into a new repo of their own. I do want all their history but I don't want to take any contents from other files from main-system, which is quite big. Please can someone advise if there is a particular method I should best use for this. Do I create a new branch, then delete the rest of main-system leaving only what I want? Surely if I do that then I would end up with all the main-system file data within the new repo, which would expand its size. Is there a recommended way to extract certain files with their histories? Regards, Richard. ``` ## Jeff King, 2020-04-15 15:11 Subject: Re: Move some files, with all history, from one project into a new one Message-ID: <20200415151128.GA2464307@coredump.intra.peff.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20200415151128.GA2464307%40coredump.intra.peff.net In-Reply-To: ``` On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 08:31:35AM +0000, Kerry, Richard wrote: > I would like to move some files, from the project in which they have > always resided into a new project. I would like to keep all their > history. I don't want to waste space by also moving the rest of the > old project's history, or historical file contents. Try git-filter-branch's --subdirectory repository, which is designed to do exactly this. Or the much newer (and faster) git-filter-repo: https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo > Do I create a new branch, then delete the rest of main-system leaving > only what I want? Surely if I do that then I would end up with all > the main-system file data within the new repo, which would expand its > size. Is there a recommended way to extract certain files with their > histories? Correct; just deleting files and creating a new commit will still carry them in the history. You have to rewrite the old commits. -Peff ``` ## Taylor Blau, 2020-04-15 15:49 Subject: Re: Move some files, with all history, from one project into a new one Message-ID: <20200415154944.GA22823@syl.local> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20200415154944.GA22823%40syl.local In-Reply-To: <20200415151128.GA2464307@coredump.intra.peff.net> ``` On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 11:11:28AM -0400, Jeff King wrote: > On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 08:31:35AM +0000, Kerry, Richard wrote: > > > I would like to move some files, from the project in which they have > > always resided into a new project. I would like to keep all their > > history. I don't want to waste space by also moving the rest of the > > old project's history, or historical file contents. > > Try git-filter-branch's --subdirectory repository, which is designed to > do exactly this. > > Or the much newer (and faster) git-filter-repo: > > https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo For what it's worth, Elijah has provided some excellent documentation on how to use git-filter-repo to do exactly this here: https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo#solving-this-with-filter-repo Thanks, Taylor ``` ## Elijah Newren, 2020-04-16 06:05 Subject: Re: Move some files, with all history, from one project into a new one Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CABPp-BF7o1ba4%3DqqkqYjMm%3DYzuH5A%3DYU%2BC5zbd41g4pNY4yRKQ%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <20200415154944.GA22823@syl.local> ``` On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 8:49 AM Taylor Blau wrote: > > On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 11:11:28AM -0400, Jeff King wrote: > > On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 08:31:35AM +0000, Kerry, Richard wrote: > > > > > I would like to move some files, from the project in which they have > > > always resided into a new project. I would like to keep all their > > > history. I don't want to waste space by also moving the rest of the > > > old project's history, or historical file contents. > > > > Try git-filter-branch's --subdirectory repository, which is designed to > > do exactly this. > > > > Or the much newer (and faster) git-filter-repo: > > > > https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo > > For what it's worth, Elijah has provided some excellent documentation on > how to use git-filter-repo to do exactly this here: > > https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo#solving-this-with-filter-repo That particular example might be for a different case than what Richard requested, though. Let's say the original repo had a file structure like the following: module/ foo.c bar.c otherDir/ blah.config stuff.txt zebra.jpg If the request is to e.g. take module/ and all files within it with their history and make a new repository out of it, with module/ being remapped to the root of the repository, then you would want: git filtrer-repo --subdirectory-filter module and yes, this looks exactly like filter-branch; that's the one flag I copied from it. So this one usecase maps directly between the two tools. In contrast, if you wanted to keep all files from the original repo but move everything into a subdirectory named "myProject" (so that e.g. module/foo.c became myProject/module/foo.c), possibly in preparation for merging your repo into some larger monorepo, then you'd want to pass `--to-subdirectory-filter myProject` as in the link you pointed out. filter-branch doesn't have an equivalent. Hope that helps, Elijah ``` ## Kerry, Richard, 2020-04-17 13:48 Subject: RE: Move some files, with all history, from one project into a new one Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/AM0PR02MB37156EF466D56AAD182666609CD90%40AM0PR02MB3715.eurprd02.prod.outlook.com In-Reply-To: ``` Thanks All. I've cloned git-filter-repo and I shall shortly give it a try. First step is to get Python 3 installed (I'm on Windows). Regards, Richard. -----Original Message----- From: Elijah Newren Sent: 16 April 2020 07:06 To: Taylor Blau Cc: Jeff King ; Kerry, Richard ; git@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Move some files, with all history, from one project into a new one Caution! External email. Do not open attachments or click links, unless this email comes from a known sender and you know the content is safe. On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 8:49 AM Taylor Blau wrote: > > On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 11:11:28AM -0400, Jeff King wrote: > > On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 08:31:35AM +0000, Kerry, Richard wrote: > > > > > I would like to move some files, from the project in which they > > > have always resided into a new project. I would like to keep all > > > their history. I don't want to waste space by also moving the > > > rest of the old project's history, or historical file contents. > > > > Try git-filter-branch's --subdirectory repository, which is designed > > to do exactly this. > > > > Or the much newer (and faster) git-filter-repo: > > > > > > https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgi > > thub.com%2Fnewren%2Fgit-filter-repo&data=02%7C01%7Crichard.kerry > > %40atos.net%7Cf28b944624e04084395f08d7e1cc7b35%7C33440fc6b7c7412cbb7 > > 30e70b0198d5a%7C0%7C0%7C637226140664962267&sdata=pb2EnEADuC9Bdi5 > > JU2So3DK6VyEcsEH5X5kybFAw9%2FM%3D&reserved=0 > > For what it's worth, Elijah has provided some excellent documentation > on how to use git-filter-repo to do exactly this here: > > > https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgith > ub.com%2Fnewren%2Fgit-filter-repo%23solving-this-with-filter-repo& > data=02%7C01%7Crichard.kerry%40atos.net%7Cf28b944624e04084395f08d7e1cc > 7b35%7C33440fc6b7c7412cbb730e70b0198d5a%7C0%7C0%7C637226140664962267&a > mp;sdata=h03FogXX0iuqHB9d49CltOmzNkwGK66chC5ZvhOyWfs%3D&reserved=0 That particular example might be for a different case than what Richard requested, though. Let's say the original repo had a file structure like the following: module/ foo.c bar.c otherDir/ blah.config stuff.txt zebra.jpg If the request is to e.g. take module/ and all files within it with their history and make a new repository out of it, with module/ being remapped to the root of the repository, then you would want: git filtrer-repo --subdirectory-filter module and yes, this looks exactly like filter-branch; that's the one flag I copied from it. So this one usecase maps directly between the two tools. In contrast, if you wanted to keep all files from the original repo but move everything into a subdirectory named "myProject" (so that e.g. module/foo.c became myProject/module/foo.c), possibly in preparation for merging your repo into some larger monorepo, then you'd want to pass `--to-subdirectory-filter myProject` as in the link you pointed out. filter-branch doesn't have an equivalent. Hope that helps, Elijah ```