speeding up git pull from a busy gerrit instance over a slow link?

Hi

I'm running git version 2.13.1 on Ubuntu 16.04 (x64)

I'm connecting over a very slow (international link) to a very busy gerrit server (gerrit.libreoffice.org) using ssh. Ping types are on the order of 200ms.

Using GIT_TRACE_PACKET=true, what I am seeing is that the bulk of the time is spent retrieving packets having to do with things which I have no interest in, i.e. the refs/changes/* stuff (see below).

Is there any way to deliberately exclude these from the pull process?

My git config looks like:
    remote.origin.url=ssh://logerrit/core
    remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
    branch.master.remote=origin
    branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master
    branch.sdrshapeid.remote=origin
    branch.sdrshapeid.merge=refs/heads/master

Thanks, Noel Grandin

--------------------- snippet of packet trace -------------------

14:20:45.705091 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< c5b026801c729ab37e2af6a610f31ca2e28b51fe refs/changes/99/29099/2 14:20:45.705093 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 931e2c40aeb4cf4591ae9fcfea1b352b966f0a32 refs/changes/99/29199/1 14:20:45.705096 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 373b44a2fcbe78e8a3ff14cd410826af151a6adf refs/changes/99/29199/2 14:20:45.705099 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 90e0db5edf83595121818627f590cc6b776f9f45 refs/changes/99/29299/1 14:20:45.705102 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 0f23647484e969fcd3c1b7e7ae72249026b20a80 refs/changes/99/29299/2 14:20:45.705104 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< c6b6e54eeb0878a63179d2827d9c1623fe6f54e9 refs/changes/99/29299/3 14:20:45.705107 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 8e466c431e6d61911b2b15895a4b63df12422057 refs/changes/99/29299/4 14:20:45.705110 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 168bb711950f175c0fc4a889b9c8d41cf35bedec refs/changes/99/29399/1 14:20:45.705114 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 6c76ade9516ada09222a18af69eb381b2e859b24 refs/changes/99/29399/2 14:20:45.705116 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< ff88d1ba10b2bfc7af7cbb518d3a3c1122d6dffc refs/changes/99/29599/1 14:20:45.705119 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 0d93900801224b797741e9a1abf305109fa35665 refs/changes/99/29599/2 14:20:45.705122 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 46f34d1b27f2056bb145cbdb526d4ed48b426f97 refs/changes/99/29699/1 14:20:45.705124 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 90d0a3d08c07d22b9a2b85ee08c72a0c047ed2d5 refs/changes/99/29699/2 14:20:45.705127 pkt-line.c:80 packet: fetch< 8821675d8e5a8b9c6f7fa5139a973394bfa67294 refs/changes/99/29699/3

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