It may be useful to detatch or move a subdirectory in your repository, out to an external repository, especially if you want to re-use the contents of said subdirectories across multiple repositories. You might also consider using [Git submodules](/git/commands/git-submodule) for this purpose.

You can then commit and push updates to the subdirectory separately, and any other repositories can pull the updates, without having to maintain 3 different copies of the same code.

Using the `git subtree` function, you can easily split a subdirectory out to a new branch, create and link the new repository then push it.

### Preparing the current repository

``` bash
$ cd path/to/repository
$ git subtree split -P my-folder -b my-folder
Created branch 'my-folder'
aecbdc3c8fe2932529658f5ed40d95c135352eff
```

The name of the folder must be a relative path, starting from the root of the repository.

### Creating the new repository

```bash
$ cd my-folder
$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/adamwest/Projects/learngit/shop/my-folder/.git/
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "initial commit"
[master (root-commit) 192c10b] initial commit
 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 file
```

Here we just need to `cd` to the new folder, initialise the new repository, and commit any contents.

### Add new remote repository and push

Next, add a [remote](/git/commands/git-remote) for the new repository and [push](/git/publishing-local-changes) your first commit:

```bash
$ git remote add origin git@github.com:robertlyall/my-folder.git
$ git push origin -u master
Enumerating objects: 3, done.
Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 199 bytes | 199.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To github.com:robertlyall/my-folder.git
 * [new branch]      master -> master
Branch 'master' set up to track remote branch 'master' from 'origin'.
```

### Remove folder from main repository and push

```bash
$ cd ../
$ git rm -rf my-folder
rm 'my-folder/file'
$ git commit -m "Remove old folder"
[master 56aedbe] remove old folder
 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 my-folder/file
$ git push
Enumerating objects: 3, done.
Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
Writing objects: 100% (2/2), 217 bytes | 217.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 2 (delta 1), reused 0 (delta 0)
remote: Resolving deltas: 100% (1/1), completed with 1 local object.
To github.com:robertlyall/shop.git
   74dd8b3..56aedbe  master -> master
```

Finally, we `cd` back to the rooot directory, remove the folder from our main repository, then commit and push the change.

Now, we have the folder in our main repository but linked to a completely separate repository that can be reused across multiple projects.

Ready to streamline your Git workflow? [DeployHQ](https://www.deployhq.com) deploys your code automatically whenever you push to your repository.