How can I make individual git folders inside a git repository

Question

I have this folder layout:

workspace_folder (git repository)
  *  project1 
  *  project2 
  *  project3
  *  ...

workspace_folder is a git repository, hence the project folders are already version controlled. There have been quite a lot of modifications inside.

How can I make them individual git repositories, while keeping their history?

You can't. A git repository is an atomic unit, that does not support nested repos. You can follow the instructions here: [Create a submodule repository from a folder and keep its git commit history](https://stackoverflow.com/q/17413493) and extract it into a submodule. — Madara's Ghost, Jul 27 '16 at 09:27

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 27 '16 at 09:38

You can use git submodules and organize the repository like a "super project":

|- superproject
  |- project1 (git archive) [a]
  |- project2 [b]
  |- project3 [c]
  |- ...

The workflow git submodules may sound a bit tricky but it lets you to track changes in 2 levels (on superproject and on every submodule):

Do your change in the submodule project
git commit your change in submodule
git commit your change in superproject
git submodule update to push change to the individual repositories that predate the superproject.

You can find more about submodules on the Pro Git book https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Submodules.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 27 '16 at 10:33

This might sound crazy and most probably there is a better solution.

Try getting all the commits that touched one of your subprojects first
```
git log --pretty=format:%H -- projectA/ > <all-the-commits>
```

This should write all commit hashes doing changes to this folder into the file all-the-commits.

Then create a new orphan branch (meaning that it does not have any parent commits)
```
git checkout --orphan <new-branch-name>
```
Then cherry-pick all those commits you obtained onto this new branch
```
cat <all-the-commits> | xargs -n 1 git cherry-pick
```
Check and correct the current working directory
Last but not least create a new repo and push this single branch to the other repository
```
git push <new-repo> <new-branch-name>
```

The end result should be, that in the new repository you have only files from you subproject together with all commits that changes files in this folder (and only those commits).

I had no chance to test these steps, if this sounds like a viable solution I will check and elaborate more if needed.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 27 '16 at 10:36

I think you are looking for repo.

Repo is open source tool built on top of git by Google team.

Repo helps us manage the many Git repositories, does the uploads to our revision control system, and automates parts of the Android development workflow. Repo is not meant to replace Git, only to make it easier to work with Git in the context of Android. The repo command is an executable Python script that you can put anywhere in your path.

Though google designed it for their android development workflow, it is generic and servers the similar purpose needs.

How can I make individual git folders inside a git repository

3 Answers3