How Do You Clone a Git Repository into a Specific Folder?
Executing the Command Git Clone: Whatever Creates a Directory in My Current Folder Named Whatever, and Drops the Contents of the Git Repository into That...
Executing the command git clone :whatever creates a directory in my current folder named whatever, and drops the contents of the Git repository into that folder:
/httpdocs/whatever/public
My problem is that I need the contents of the Git repository cloned into my current directory so that they appear in the proper location for the web server:
/httpdocs/public
I know how to move the files after I've cloned the repository, but this seems to break Git, and I'd like to be able to update just by calling git pull. How can I do this?
19 Answers
Option A:
git clone :whatever folder-name
Ergo, for right here use:
git clone :whatever .
Option B:
Move the .git folder, too. Note that the .git folder is hidden in most graphical file explorers, so be sure to show hidden files.
mv /where/it/is/right/now/* /where/I/want/it/
mv /where/it/is/right/now/.* /where/I/want/it/
The first line grabs all normal files, the second line grabs dot-files. It is also possibe to do it in one line by enabling dotglob (i.e. shopt -s dotglob) but that is probably a bad solution if you are asking the question this answer answers.
Better yet:
Keep your working copy somewhere else, and create a symbolic link. Like this:
ln -s /where/it/is/right/now /the/path/I/want/to/use
For your case this would be something like:
ln -sfn /opt/projectA/prod/public /httpdocs/public
Which easily could be changed to test if you wanted it, i.e.:
ln -sfn /opt/projectA/test/public /httpdocs/public
without moving files around. Added -fn in case someone is copying these lines (-f is force, -n avoid some often unwanted interactions with already and non-existing links).
If you just want it to work, use Option A, if someone else is going to look at what you have done, use Option C.
The example I think a lot of people asking this question are after is this. If you are in the directory you want the contents of the git repository dumped to, run:
git clone :whatever .
The "." at the end specifies the current folder as the checkout folder.
Go into the folder.. If the folder is empty, then:
git clone :whatever .
else
git init
git remote add origin PATH/TO/REPO
git fetch
git checkout -t origin/master
Basic Git Repository Cloning
You clone a repository with
git clone [url]
For example, if you want to clone the Stanford University Drupal Open Framework Git library called open_framework, you can do so like this:
$ git clone git://
That creates a directory named open_framework (at your current local file system location), initializes a .git directory inside it, pulls down all the data for that repository, and checks out a working copy of the latest version. If you go into the newly created open_framework directory, you’ll see the project files in there, ready to be worked on or used.
Robert Thorne covers electric vehicle innovations, autonomous driving systems, global mobility trends, and automotive engineering developments.
