git clone does not work when trying to clone a TensorFlow repository

Question

When I do

~$ git clone https://github.com/tensorflow/models/tree/master/research/inception/inception

I get an error:

Cloning into 'inception'... remote: Not Found fatal: repository 'https://github.com/tensorflow/models/tree/master/research/inception/inception/' not found

And the URL actually works when I paste it into my browser. So I am confused about what the problem could be here. Thanks

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 02 '18 at 04:09

2

You are using an incorrect inner URL. With Git you cannotclone selectively.

The correct URL should be,

https://github.com/tensorflow/models.git

The command is,

git clone https://github.com/tensorflow/models.git

answered May 02 '18 at 04:09

Chathuranga Chandrasekara

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I see, but if I want to clone the sub-directories such as `inception` do I still have to use the URL above? – Huzo May 02 '18 at 04:10
1

@Huzo With git you cannot clone a part of the repository since git is a distributed repository. You have to clone the entire repository. – Chathuranga Chandrasekara May 02 '18 at 04:19

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 02 '18 at 04:40

I see, but if I want to clone the sub-directories such as inception do I still have to use the URL above?

While you would still clone the full repo, you can do a sparse checkout

mkdir myrepo
cd myrepo
git init
git config core.sparseCheckout true
git remote add -f origin https://github.com/tensorflow/models.git
echo "path/within_repo/to/desired_subdir/*" > .git/info/sparse-checkout
git checkout [branchname] # ex: master

git clone does not work when trying to clone a TensorFlow repository

2 Answers2