Splitting Off a Folder Into Its Own Repo - Git

Background¶

We had a folder on a project which contains all the front-end code. We wanted this folder to be split off into its own GitHub repo so a new front-end developer, a contractor, wouldn't have access to the back end code. This is the procedure that was done.

Reference¶

https://docs.github.com/en/github/creating-cloning-and-archiving-repositories/duplicating-a-repository
https://docs.github.com/en/github/getting-started-with-github/splitting-a-subfolder-out-into-a-new-repository
- NOTE: This article did NOT give us the desired results!
  - Only the "master" branch existed in the new repo
  - After the above issue was resolved, back end code still existed on branches besides "master".
  - The procedure below has been adapted to address these issues.

Procedure¶

Sync with GitHub
- Pull all commits
- Commit and push all local changes
Make a full backup of the repo (optional)
- GitHub
  - Create new repo > "MyRepo.Backup"
- Git Bash
  - cd "/C/Users/JohnDoe/Documents/MyRepo.Backup"
  - git clone --bare https://github.com/soltechinc/MyRepo.git
  - cd "MyRepo.git"
  - git push --mirror https://github.com/soltechinc/MyRepo.Backup.git
Split the repo
- GitHub
  - New repo > MyRepo.FrontEnd
- Git Bash
  - cd "/C/Users/JohnDoe/Documents/MyRepo.FrontEnd"
  - git clone --bare https://github.com/soltechinc/MyRepo.git
  - cd "MyRepo.git"
  - The next step took about 14 minutes
  - git filter-branch --prune-empty --subdirectory-filter front-end-folder-name -- --all
  - git remote -v
  - git remote set-url origin https://github.com/soltechinc/MyRepo.FrontEnd.git
  - git remote -v
  - git push --mirror https://github.com/soltechinc/MyRepo.FrontEnd.git