Can I use the git submodule command to import a subset of another repository?

Question

I am working on a Godot project that needs to import some open-source libraries. These libraries all share a particular folder structure which means that I can't directly import the projects with git submodule add .

Here is one such library. I created my own fork of the official repo and modified it before importing. The official repo looks something like this. I want to import the quentincaffeino-console folder from this library and add it to my project's addons folder. (I don't want to check the files into my repository directly, I would rather keep them separate.)

godot-console
├───assets*
├───gdscript-docs-maker*
└───godot*
    ├───addons
    │   └───quentincaffeino-console -- I want to import this folder only
    │       └───src                 --    (and subfolders, of course)
    ├───assets*
    ├───demo*
    └───etc...

* These folders contain unit tests, docs, etc. but should NOT be a part of my project

My solution was to create my own fork , delete all unit test and infrastructure files, and move the contents of the addons folder to the root of the repository:

quentincaffeino-console
    └───src

Now I can add the library as a subrepo to my project :

Demo
├───addons
│   ├───quentincaffeino-console -- Created with "git submodule add https://github.com/SdgGames/godot-console"
│   │   └───src
│   ├───gut                     -- Another submodule created the same way
│   ├───logger                  -- Another
│   └───sdggames-modloader      -- etc...
└───etc.

This works, but it seems a bit messy as I now have to keep multiple repository forks up to date with their upstream counterparts. Is there a way to skip the middle step and pull the folder I want into my project using a git submodule or similar command?

Extra details:

I found some similar questions here here and here . I am NOT the owner/maintainer of the library I want to import, so I can't modify that project's structure directly.

Also, this is an open source project that runs in a CICD pipeline, so I want to keep the client side easy to understand. Right now, I can clone my project with git clone and git submodule --init . I will accept "git can't do that" as an answer, I just want to hear it from an expert:-)

Edit: I just found this answer from 10 years ago that says "no, it's not possible," but more recent answers seem to indicate otherwise. Is this still true today? (Sorry if it's a duplicate)

Thanks!

Answer 1

Is this still true today?

Yes, still true today: a submodule reference a full repository.

You can configure a submodule to be sparse-checked out , in order to display only a subset of its content (see also this example ).

But in your case, you would still need a symlink (symbolic link) in order to make quentincaffeino-console visible where you want it in your main repository.