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Download a single folder or directory from a GitHub repository

How can I download only a specific folder or directory from a remote Git repository hosted on GitHub?

Say the example GitHub repository lives here:

[email protected]:foobar/Test.git

Its directory structure:

Test/
├── foo/
│ ├── a.py
│ └── b.py
└── bar/
 ├── c.py
 └── d.py

I want to download only the foo folder and not clone the whole Test project.

Answer*

**Update April 2021**: there are a few tools created by the community that can do this for you:

- [Download Directory][1] (Credits to [fregante][2])
 + It has also been [integrated][3] into the excellent [**Refined GitHub**][4] Chrome extension as a button in the GitHub web user interface.
- [GitZip][5] (Credits to [Kino][6]&mdash;see his answer [**here**][7])
- [DownGit][8] (Credits to [Minhas Kamal][9]&mdash;see his answer [**here**][10])

Note: if you're trying to download a large number of files, you may need to provide a token to these tools to avoid rate limiting.

------

**Original (manual) approach:** Checking out an individual directory is not supported by Git natively, but GitHub can do this via [Subversion][11] (SVN). If you checkout your code with Subversion, GitHub will essentially convert the repository from Git to Subversion on the backend, and then serve up the requested directory.

**Update November 2024: The Subversion support has been removed after January 8, 2024**: https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/sunsetting-subversion-support/. The rest of this answer is outdated and describes the functionality in the past.

Here's how you can use this feature to download a specific folder. I'll use the popular JavaScript library [Lodash][12] as an example.

1. **Navigate to the folder you want to download**. Let's download `/test` from `master` branch.

 [![GitHub repository URL example][13]][13]

2. **Modify the URL for subversion**. Replace `tree/master` with `trunk`.

 `https://github.com/lodash/lodash/tree/master/test` ➜

 `https://github.com/lodash/lodash/trunk/test`

3. **Download the folder**. Go to the command line and grab the folder with SVN.

 ```
 svn checkout https://github.com/lodash/lodash/trunk/test
 ```

You might not see any activity immediately because GitHub takes up to 30 seconds to convert larger repositories, so be patient.

> *Full URL format explanation:*
>
> - If you're interested in `master` branch, use `trunk` instead. So the full path is `trunk/foldername`
> - If you're interested in `foo` branch, use `branches/foo` instead. The
> full path looks like `branches/foo/foldername`
> - Pro tip: You can use `svn ls` to see available tags and branches before downloading if you wish

That's all! GitHub [supports more Subversion features][14] as well, including support for committing and pushing changes.

 [1]: https://download-directory.github.io/
 [2]: https://stackoverflow.com/users/288906/fregante
 [3]: https://github.com/sindresorhus/refined-github/pull/951
 [4]: https://github.com/sindresorhus/refined-github
 [5]: http://kinolien.github.io/gitzip
 [6]: https://stackoverflow.com/users/2238770/kino
 [7]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7106012/download-a-single-folder-or-directory-from-a-github-repo/33753575#33753575
 [8]: https://downgit.github.io
 [9]: https://stackoverflow.com/users/4684058/minhas-kamal?tab=profile
 [10]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7106012/download-a-single-folder-or-directory-from-a-github-repo/38879691#38879691
 [11]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Subversion
 [12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodash
 [13]: https://i.sstatic.net/tgGVd.png
 [14]: https://help.github.com/articles/support-for-subversion-clients/

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17

I modified this to use svn export, as I didn't want a Subversion working copy. Then I added the resulting folder in Git. (I somehow lost a large piece of my directory tree, so I exported from the repo I forked.)

Grault
– Grault

2013年12月18日 18:34:30 +00:00
Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 18:34
8

@num3ric- sorry for the late reply, but you should be able to replace "trunk" with "branches/yourbranch"

nick
– nick

2014年10月25日 21:49:05 +00:00
Commented Oct 25, 2014 at 21:49
5

Still works great as of 2020年6月18日 - downloaded a particular folder in a given branch on Windows 10 using TortoiseSVN -> Export feature (available right clicking on any File Explorer directory), Used this URL: https://github.com/$organization/$repo/branches/$branch/$directory

evaldeslacasa
– evaldeslacasa

2020年06月18日 11:11:09 +00:00
Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 11:11
10

As of 28th October 2020, if you attempt the method repo/branches/foo_branch/bar_folder you will receive a status 410, feature gone.

Hugo
– Hugo

2020年10月28日 14:59:46 +00:00
Commented Oct 28, 2020 at 14:59
16

GitHub is ending support of SVN on January 8, 2024 github.blog/2023-01-20-sunsetting-subversion-support

Hugo
– Hugo

2023年01月27日 20:13:30 +00:00
Commented Jan 27, 2023 at 20:13

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Download a single folder or directory from a GitHub repository

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