If you're not excluding files with .gitattributes export-ignore then try git checkout
mkdir /path/to/checkout/
git --git-dir=/path/to/repo/.git --work-tree=/path/to/checkout/ checkout -f -q
-f
When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored.
and
-q
Avoid verbose
Additionally you can get any Branch or Tag or from a specific Commit Revision like in SVN just adding the SHA1 (SHA1 in Git is the equivalent to the Revision Number in SVN)
mkdir /path/to/checkout/
git --git-dir=/path/to/repo/.git --work-tree=/path/to/checkout/ checkout 2ef2e1f2de5f3d4f5e87df7d8 -f -q -- ./
The /path/to/checkout/ must be empty, Git will not delete any file, but will overwrite files with the same name without any warning
UPDATE:
To avoid the beheaded problem or to leave intact the working repository when using checkout for export with tags, branches or SHA1, you need to add -- ./ at the end
The double dash -- tells git that everything after the dashes are paths or files, and also in this case tells git checkout to not change the HEAD
Examples:
This command will get just the libs directory and also the readme.txt file from that exactly commit
git --git-dir=/path/to/repo/.git --work-tree=/path/to/checkout/ checkout fef2e1f2de5f3d4f5e87df7d8 -f -q -- ./libs ./docs/readme.txt
This will create(overwrite) my_file_2_behind_HEAD.txt two commits behind the head HEAD^2
git --git-dir=/path/to/repo/.git --work-tree=/path/to/checkout/ checkout HEAD^2 -f -q -- ./my_file_2_behind_HEAD.txt
To get the export of another branch
git --git-dir=/path/to/repo/.git --work-tree=/path/to/checkout/ checkout myotherbranch -f -q -- ./
Notice that ./ is relative to the root of the repository