How to Get Just One File from Another Branch

Better Stack Team

Updated on July 25, 2024

To get a single file from another branch in Git, you can use the git checkout command. Here’s how to do it step by step:

Identify the file and the branch:
- Determine the file you want to retrieve and the branch where it is located.
Switch to your working branch:
- Make sure you are on the branch where you want to bring the file. For example, if you are on the main branch, you can confirm this by running:
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```
git checkout main
```
Checkout the file from the other branch:
- Use the git checkout command to get the specific file from the other branch. The syntax is: Replace <branch> with the name of the branch containing the file and <file> with the path to the file. For example, to get example.txt from the feature-branch, you would run:
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```
git checkout <branch> -- <file>
```
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```
git checkout feature-branch -- path/to/example.txt
```
Add and commit the file (optional):
- After checking out the file, you might want to add and commit it to your current branch:
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```
git add path/to/example.txt
git commit -m "Add example.txt from feature-branch"
```

Let's say you are on the main branch and you want to retrieve docs/readme.txt from the develop branch. You would do the following:

Ensure you are on the main branch:
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```
git checkout main
```
Checkout the readme.txt file from the develop branch:
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```
git checkout develop -- docs/readme.txt
```

(Optional) Add and commit the file:

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git add docs/readme.txt
git commit -m "Add readme.txt from develop branch"

By following these steps, you can successfully get a single file from another branch without affecting the rest of your working directory.

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