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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-23T04:39:10+00:00

I’m a little confused about how EGit workes. I have an existing git repository

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I’m a little confused about how EGit workes.

I have an existing git repository on Github and want to clone it into my workspace.
My goal is to have the local repository directly stored inside my workspace-folder but I don’t get it working with EGit.

When I want to clone the github repo with EGit, I have to choose a directory as destination. The suggested directory is in my homedir (not in my workspace). When I choose this directory I can see the project in Eclipse but it is not stored in my workspace-folder. Instead it is stored in my home dir.

When I choose a directory directly inside my workspace, later when it comes to import the project it says that there is already a directory with this name.

I don’t know how to solve this. I thought this would be a common scenario. In the past I have used hgEclipse (Mercurial) and it was working exactly the way I thought it should be so I’m confused EGit doesn’t. Maybe I misunderstood something.

Probably this is important to know: In the github repository there are no .project or .settings files from eclipse. I have them on my .gitignore and so in the import-dialog I have to choose “Import as General Project” and not “Import Existing Projects”. But I think this shouldn’t matter?

I hope someone can help me or explain me why the EGit plugin doesn’t clone the repository directly into the workspace by default.

My Eclipseversion is 3.6, I have installed EGit over the markedplace.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    As mentioned in this EGit tutorial, the destination directory you mention when importing (cloning) a Git repo is any directory you want, in which the .git will be created:

    Import Git Repository

    You don’t have to select the workspace itself (at least, you should select the workspace/myproject subdirectory, in order to not make the all Eclipse workspace a Git repo.

    And you can select any other directory outside the workspace: the Eclipse workspace should only contain meta-data about Eclipse projects and settings.
    When declaring a new project, you will be able to select the project directory, making that directory the parent for .classpath and .project.
    Your workspace will list that new project, even though it lives outside the workspace.

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