[PATCH] clone: accept DEPTH env var as fallback for --depth

From: h8d13 via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 13, 2026, 01:39 UTC
Message-ID: <pull.2333.git.git.1781314780645.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

From: h8d13 <hadean-eon-dev@proton.me>

When git clone is run by a tool the user does not control directly (CI runners, package build scripts such as makepkg, or any wrapper that spawns nested clones), there is no way to request a shallow clone: --depth only exists as a command-line option on the process that invokes git clone, and unlike url.*.insteadOf there is no configuration key that could be injected via GIT_CONFIG_* to achieve the same effect.

Teach git clone to read a DEPTH environment variable when --depth is not given on the command line. Since environment variables propagate to child processes, exporting DEPTH=1 once makes every nested clone underneath shallow, which is useful in CI pipelines and recursive build tools. An explicit --depth on the command line still takes precedence, and the value goes through the existing validation, so a non-positive DEPTH dies with the same error as a non-positive --depth.

Signed-off-by: h8d13 <hadean-eon-dev@proton.me>
---
    clone: accept DEPTH env var as fallback for --depth

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-git-2333%2Fh8d13%2Fdepth-env-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-git-2333/h8d13/depth-env-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/git/git/pull/2333

 builtin/clone.c | 6 ++++++
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)

diff --git a/builtin/clone.c b/builtin/clone.c
index d60d1b60bc..549506f672 100644
--- a/builtin/clone.c
+++ b/builtin/clone.c
@@ -1022,6 +1022,12 @@ int cmd_clone(int argc,
 		usage_msg_opt(_("You must specify a repository to clone."),
 			builtin_clone_usage, builtin_clone_options);
 
+	if (!option_depth) {
+		const char *env_depth = getenv("DEPTH");
+		if (env_depth && *env_depth)
+			option_depth = xstrdup(env_depth);
+	}
+
 	if (option_depth || option_since || option_not.nr)
 		deepen = 1;
 	if (option_single_branch == -1)

base-commit: 3e65291872de10c3f0bf05ea8c24187e7a71ebf0

-- 
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