Git submodules — exclude specific files/directories

Question

I\'m attempting to use Gits \'submodules\' feature to include 3rd party code in a project. I only need a couple of files from the submodule and wish to exclude all the docs, etc

Answer 1

In my submodule I had an /examples folder I wanted deleted locally to prevent those files being seen by an autogenerated makefile; origin had to remain oblivious to the deletion.

In git CLI:

git update-index --assume-unchanged

To track local changes once again:

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged

Or in SourceTree, create a custom action as per Fabian Blechschmidt's answer.

NOTE This is not the same as "Stop tracking", where origin will indeed also stop tracking the file on commit - not what you want.