How to extract a subproject

Sometimes, a piece of functionality is developed as part of one project, but grows so much as to warrant becoming its own, separate project.

This tutorial describes how to split part of a Git repository into its own dedicated Git repository, preserving only the history relevant to the subproject being extracted.

Extract the revision history

1. Use Git’s filter-branch feature to extract the Git history of only the subproject: git filter-branch -f –prune-empty –subdirectory-filter

   Where is the folder containing the subproject's source code.

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Update the Maven build

Assuming you are using Maven to build the subproject:

1. Add an ** section to the *pom.xml* to reflect the new remote repository's URL (see [example](https://github.com/scijava/jep/commit/b76f4a1df830c090fc96ab99bb145dd67e8e69ce)): vi pom.xml git commit -m 'Add SCM location' pom.xml
2. Replace the old ** with a new one, such as [pom-scijava](https://github.com/scijava/pom-scijava), [pom-imagej](https://github.com/imagej/pom-imagej) or [pom-fiji](https://github.com/fiji/pom-fiji) (see [example](https://github.com/scijava/jep/commit/336c0a46fad855508aaa905a9f82e5d88136df91))—or remove the ** altogether.
3. Add a ** section to the *pom.xml* to indicate the project developers (see [example](https://github.com/fiji/TrackMate/commit/f0c2cf6cca3e198ba5b9283a71fc564f41c642d5)). You can also add ** if desired and relevant.
4. Make sure the project still builds: mvn clean package
5. Add (or adjust) the .gitignore file (see example).

Push the changes

1. Make sure that all your changes look good: git status git diff

   This is good advice in general: check git status and git diff every time before you commit, to prevent making a fool out of yourself.

2. Commit everything, mentioning the commit of the parent project from which history was rewritten (see example): git add . && git commit -s
3. Create a new repository somewhere for the new project—we recommend GitHub.

4. Connect your repository with the remote one: git remote set-url origin git@github.com:my-org/my-new-project

   Where git@github.com:my-org/my-new-project is the remote URL for the new project’s dedicated repository.

5. Push the resultant history to the project’s new repository: git push -u origin master

Change any online resources

1. Edit the relevant web page(s) to reflect the new Git repository location
2. Update any other known links to the project