Cloning a Git repository with JGit

Git is the popular version control system that developers use to manage and track the changes in their codebases. We can use git using Java with the feature called JGit. In this article, we will learn to clone the Git repository using JGit.

Prerequisites

• Basic Understanding of the Java and Git.
• Java Development Kit installed in your local system.
• Maven for building dependency management.

Git Repository with JGit

Cloning the repository can involve creating a local copy of the remote repository. This is useful for various reasons such as:

• Working on the project locally
• Backing up the repository
• Sharing the repository with others in different locations

With the JGit, the process of cloning the repository is similar to using the git clone command but is done programmatically. The Git.cloneRepository() method from JGit API can be used to clone the repository.

Steps to Implement of JGit

1. Set the Repository URL: This is the URL of the remote Git repository that you want to clone.
2. Set the Local Directory: This is the path to the directory on the local system where the repository will be cloned.
3. Invoke the Clone Operation: Using the Git.cloneRepository() method, we can initiate the cloning process of a repository.

Implementation of Cloning a Git repository with JGit

Step 1: Create the Maven Project

Create the maven project using IntelliJ Idea. Once create the project then the file structure looks like the below image.

Step 2: Add the JGit Dependency

Open the pom.xml and add the below JGit dependency into the project.

 <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.eclipse.jgit/org.eclipse.jgit -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.eclipse.jgit</groupId>
            <artifactId>org.eclipse.jgit</artifactId>
            <version>6.9.0.202403050737-r</version>
        </dependency>

Step 3: Create the Main Class

package org.example;

import org.eclipse.jgit.api.Git;
import org.eclipse.jgit.api.errors.GitAPIException;

import java.io.File;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String repoUrl = "https://github.com/iammahesh123/Inventory-Management";
        String cloneDirectoryPath = "C:\\Users\\Mahesh\\Desktop\\local-git";

        try {
            System.out.println("Cloning repository from " + repoUrl + " to " + cloneDirectoryPath);
            Git.cloneRepository()
                    .setURI(repoUrl)
                    .setDirectory(new File(cloneDirectoryPath))
                    .call();
            System.out.println("Repository cloned successfully.");
        } catch (GitAPIException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
    }

pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="https://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="https://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>org.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>JGit-Clone-Demo</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <properties>
        <maven.compiler.source>17</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>17</maven.compiler.target>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.eclipse.jgit/org.eclipse.jgit -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.eclipse.jgit</groupId>
            <artifactId>org.eclipse.jgit</artifactId>
            <version>6.9.0.202403050737-r</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>


</project>

Step 4: Run the application

It will show the Repository cloned successfully in console that means the remote repository cloned successfully into the local system.

Cloned Repository

Conclusion

In this article, we can covered the how to clone the Git repository using the JGit. We set up the necessary environment, add the dependencies and implemented the cloning logic in the step by step manner. JGit can provides the powerful way to interact with the Git repositories programmatically in Java.