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@prestwich
Last active November 25, 2022 17:15
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How to break up a monorepo :)

How to break up a monorepo using git subtree:

  1. Set up some basic stuff:
    • These should be independent, not nested
$ NEW_REPO_PATH=
$ OLD_REPO_PATH=
  1. isolate the files inside a branch
    • make your preferred file tree
    • choose a folder to isolate (e.g. my-cool-crate)
    • for convenience, you can make the branch name the same as the folder :)
$ FOLDER_TO_ISOLATE=my-cool-crate
$ git subtree split -P $FOLDER_TO_ISOLATE -b $FOLDER_TO_ISOLATE
  1. add the old monorepo as a remote in your new repo
$ mkdir -p $NEW_REPO_PATH
$ cd $NEW_REPO_PATH
$ git init
$ git remote add old_repo $OLD_REPO_PATH 
  1. Pull the monorepo branch into your new repo on main
$ git pull old_repo $FOLDER_TO_ISOLATE
  1. Push the contents to github
$ git push -u origin main
  1. Clean up the isolated branch
$ cd $OLD_REPO
$ git branch -D $FOLDER_TO_ISOLATE

to port a PR easily:

  1. perform the steps above to create the new isolated repo

  2. check out your PR branch

$ cd $OLD_REPO_PATH
$ PR_BRANCH=prestwich/my-pr-branch
$ git checkout $PR_BRANCH
  1. push the subtree to the new repo
    • the arguments are isolated folder name, new repo location, branch name
$ git subtree push --prefix $FOLDER_TO_ISOLATE $NEW_REPO_PATH $PR_BRANCH
  1. Push the new branch to the new github repo
$ cd $NEW_REPO_PATH
$ git switch $PR_BRANCH
$ git push -u origin $PR_BRANCH
  1. Open the PR on in the new repo on github as normal
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