Git archive without first/initial commit

Question

How to make tar archive from git repository since selected commit?

This question is similar to Git archive all changes except first commit but I need .tar archive as a result not git patch file.

Explanation: I make "modules" for a strange PHP CMS where there is no real mechanism for writing extensions. To ship my modules I have to send only the modified files to clients, while I still have to have all CMS files under Git (all added only in first commit).

Answer 1

So, the recipient of this archive doesn't have the repo but does have the content of some commit, and you're sending replacements he can untar onto that?

It seems git archive's --output option on windows fails at telling the compressor about the redirection, which duly refuses to write compressed output to what it thinks is a terminal, but that's easily worked around:

git archive -o update-old-new.tgz newcommit \
         $(git diff --name-only --diff-filter=AM oldcommit..newcommit) | cat

That | cat at the end is the workaround.

I'd forgotten about archive, but using it means you don't have to checkout $newcommit first so this is much better than the earlier checkout;diff|tar combo.

Still, this can't handle an update large enough to blow command-line limits, or spaces or other annoying characters in the pathnames. The fallback is

git checkout newversion
git diff --name-only --diff-filter=AM oldversion.. \
| tar Tczf - update-old-new.tgz

Answer 2

Run this at the top level of your folders:

tar cvfz files-changed.tgz  `git diff <newrev> <oldrev> --stat --name-only `

e.g

tar cvfz files-changed.tgz  `git diff HEAD HEAD~3 --stat --name-only `