git - Clone contents of a GitHub repository (without the folder itself)

Question

I'd like to git clone the contents of a repository I have on GitHub. When I git clone (git@github:me/name.git...) I get a folder called name/ and inside name I have my contents... How do I get JUST the contents?

Answer 1

If the current directory is empty, you can do that with:

git clone [email protected]:me/name.git .

(Note the . at the end to specify the current directory.) Of course, this also creates the .git directory in your current folder, not just the source code from your project.

This optional [directory] parameter is documented in the git clone manual page, which points out that cloning into an existing directory is only allowed if that directory is empty.