basics... when reading docs doesn't help

Hi all

Since it's a basic question, I couldn't search archives - cannot come up with good enough search keywords, but would be greatful for pointers.

I've been using CVS for a few years now, briefly tried a couple of other CMS, but only briefly. Now trying to get to grisps with the git... And just cannot understand how everybody does it.

The package I'm trying to handle with git is the Linux kernel.

1. Ok, I clone a repository from Linus or some else.

2. as my internet connection is not very fast, although I do have 
flatrate, I prefer keeping a virgin cloned copy somewhere, where I only do 
pulls from the original clone source, no edits.

3. then I do git clone <path to original cloned tree> <new tree>

4. create a new branch in <new tree>

5. go hack / compile in the <new tree>

6. then I decide to build practically the same kernel for another machine, 
i.e., another configuration, maybe a couple of local changes...

Now, that's the first question: suppose I want to build kernels for about 4 machines. Do you __really__ clone the whole tree 4 times??? And then I want try new versions for the same 4 machines without deleting the first ones - 4 more clones??? Now, my copy of Linus' tree was ATM 1.5GiB big... Slowly it's getting scary. Ok, if I build all that stuff on one filesystem, I can use --local to use hard links, right? But is it REALLY what everybody does?

The next thing is - I don't need all versions since 2.6.x in every copy I use to compile / test / hack - in most cases I only compare to the basis version, from which I branched. I might pull further updates into this repository, merge, etc., but I don't need all PAST commits! Can I clone starting from version x?

Ok, enough for starters:-)

Thanks Guennadi --- Guennadi Liakhovetski