What is git sparse checkout and what are situations where it is useful?

Question

I am quite advanced Git user, but just now I have discovered this "sparse checkout" possibility. I noticed various questions/answers here on SO that it is something that people coming from SVN missed in GIT, but I do not understand what is so useful about this. Can some explain in what situations this can be useful?

• Sparse checkout in Git 1.7.0?
• How do I clone a subdirectory only of a Git repository?
• http://schacon.github.io/git/git-read-tree.html#_sparse_checkout

Answer 1

If there is a large git repository of which you only need a subdirectory to contribute to it like the localisation subdirectory to add more translations you can only clone that part and skip the rest of the repository to conserve your diskspace and download volume.