How to copy re­pos­it­or­ies with Git Clone

Git Clone allows you to copy existing re­pos­it­or­ies and work in the separate clone. You can carry out push and pull commands from the working copy there­after.

Unlike SVN, Git allows you to work in multiple re­pos­it­or­ies at the same time. This allows de­velopers to test out ad­just­ments without the risk of ruining the entire project, and it also allows teams to work at the same time without waiting for other team members to make any steps.

However, Git Clone means team do not have to start from scratch, as they have the option to copying existing re­pos­it­or­ies and con­tinu­ing to work in the copy. All of the version control processes are then managed using the new local re­pos­it­ory. The clone can be used for all de­vel­op­ment steps. However, the cloning process will auto­mat­ic­ally set a link to the original re­pos­it­ory.

It is important to note that Git makes no dis­tinc­tion between the central re­pos­it­ory and its clones. The clones are perceived as fully valid. Instead of com­mit­ting to the central, original re­pos­it­ory, commits are shared with each other using Git Push and Git Pull.

Git Clone is a simple Git Command. It is essential when working on different de­vel­op­ment steps in daily tasks. The syntax of the command is always the same. You can find it in our handy Git cheat sheet with a PDF download. The classic structure looks like this:

This command copies the sample re­pos­it­ory and saves the copy on the local machine. The original remains untouched and will not adopt any changes auto­mat­ic­ally. Re­pos­it­or­ies in the local data system and re­pos­it­or­ies on other machines are a suitable basis for Git Clone. These can be accessed using HTTP or SSH. HTTP looks like this:

This is the syntax if an SSH username is stored already:

In addition to the method described above, Git Clone also allows you to select a specific location to store the copy. This can make your work easier and it also provides a better overview. Simply place the des­tin­a­tion folder after the command to do this. This is what the command looks like:

This clones the re­pos­it­ory and stores the copy in the specified folder. All branches, files and commits are also noted and cloned.

Use “mirror” to create a copy that cannot be edited with Git Clone. This includes branches and ref­er­ences. This is what the command looks like:

The “bare” argument tells Git to copy the remote re­pos­it­ory, but to ignore the working directory. This means that you can also use the push and pull commands for the copy, but direct editing is not possible. The command looks like this:

You can also clone a single branch. Use Git Clone and the following command to do this:

The main branch is cloned in this case. Cloning another branch must be ex­pli­citly stated. This is the command:

However, you will not usually need to clone in­di­vidu­al branches, just copy the entire re­pos­it­ory instead.

You can also clone certain tags with Git Clone. This is what it looks like in code:

When it comes to par­tic­u­larly large re­pos­it­or­ies with numerous branches, it might make sense to only clone the files from the root directory. The argument for this is “sparse”. It makes working on a re­pos­it­ory easier, aids the overview and has a positive effect on per­form­ance. This command looks like this:

Simply use the ap­pro­pri­ate command to apply a Git template to a cloned re­pos­it­ory. It looks like this:

This clones the re­pos­it­ory and applies the desired template directly to the local branch.