How do I convert full checkout to sparse checkout?

Question

Having a full checkout of a repository, how can I convert it into a sparse checkout?

Answer 1

Run

git config core.sparseCheckout true

then create .git/info/sparse-checkout

/*
!excluded-dir/

then run

git checkout master

and excluded-dir will disappear.

My problem was that I did not put a trailing slash behind the excluded directory in my .git/info/sparse-checkout Much thanks to http://www.richsomerfield.com/post/2014-03-05-adventures-in-git-sparsecheckouts/