How to tag a single file? or How do I download a s

Question

I would like to add a tag to a file to easily download that file and not the entire branch.

How do I download a specific file in GIT?

Answer 1

I am not aware of any way to tag specific files in git.

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For the second question: How do I download a specific file in git?

The following works only if you mean "download while in a git repository" (That's how I understand your question, if you mean with git without having the repository see Get a single file from a remote git repository or Not able to extract single file from remote git server )

$ git checkout tagged-commit -- path/to/file.example

Where tagged-commit can be a lot of things, among others:

• A commit hash
• A git tag
• A branch name
• For more ways see gitrevisions

Answer 2

For GitLab specifically, downloading a single file is now explicitly supported, since GitLab 11.2 (August 22nd, 2018), thank to Kia Mei Somabes .

See "Download individual repository files":

When browsing through a project repository on GitLab, the need to download a specific file frequently arises. Until now, this was only possible within the GitLab interface by viewing the file in a new browser tab and then saving it.

GitLab 11.2 introduces a new “Download” button in the file viewer interface, available for each individual repository file, allowing you to download any file directly from the application more easily.

• See documentation,
• see issue,
• see merge-request.

Answer 3

The way git works is by adding a tag to the entire tree at the state of the commit. There is no way to add a tag to a single file.

Since you are using gitlab, you can just download the file in the right revision from the web interface.