how to create a new git repository from an existing one

Question

I have a remote git repository that really replaced everything we had in another older SCM. Many projects and products have been added to the repository over the years.

There is a branch in this repo, corresponding to a product that I am interested in. I want to make a brand new git repository from this branch only, not really concerned about loss of history.

Is git remote add the solution? I want for both of these repositories to be on the same server.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

In order to create a new Git repository from an existing repository one would typically create a new bare repository and push one or more branches from the existing to the new repository.

The following steps illustrates this:

1. Create a new repository. It must be bare in order for you to push to it.

   $ mkdir /path/to/new_repo
   $ cd /path/to/new_repo
   $ git --bare init

   Note: ensure that your new repository is accessible from the existing repository. There are many ways to do this; let's assume that you have made it accessible via ssh://my_host/new_repo.

2. Push a branch from your existing repository. For example let's say we want to push the branch topic1 from the existing repository and name it master in the new repository.

   $ cd /path/to/existing_repo
   $ git push ssh://my_host/new_repo +topic1:master

This technique allows you to keep the history from the existing branch.

Note: the new repository is effectively a new remote repository. If you want to work with the new repository you must clone it. The following will clone the new repo into a local working directory called new_repo:

$ git clone ssh://my_host/new_repo

In this example, when you clone the new repository you will see that the master branch is a copy of the topic1 branch of the old repository.