# question about git and remote repositories

3 messages from 2008-04-08 to 2008-04-08. Participants: Ittay Dror, Michele Ballabio, Avery Pennarun.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/13023

## Ittay Dror, 2008-04-08 19:08

Subject: question about git and remote repositories
Message-ID: <47FBC2C9.6060702@tikalk.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/47FBC2C9.6060702%40tikalk.com

```
Hi,

If I want to start working on a project that uses git (and I want to use 
git also), I first need to clone the project's repo. That is very slow 
(using the git:// protocol). Are there alternatives? For example, as far 
as I understand, if all I want is to get the latest commit in HEAD, 
branch from it and start working, then all git really needs to have is 
all objects referenced from that commit (commit, trees, blobs) and 
that's it, right? (as long as I don't expect to see full log of past 
operations)

Thanks,
Ittay

-- 
Ittay Dror <ittayd@tikalk.com>
Tikal <http://www.tikalk.com>
Tikal Project <http://tikal.sourceforge.net>

```

## Michele Ballabio, 2008-04-08 20:08

Subject: Re: question about git and remote repositories
Message-ID: <200804082208.26220.barra_cuda@katamail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200804082208.26220.barra_cuda%40katamail.com
In-Reply-To: <47FBC2C9.6060702@tikalk.com>

```
On Tuesday 08 April 2008, Ittay Dror wrote:
> If I want to start working on a project that uses git (and I want to use 
> git also), I first need to clone the project's repo. That is very slow 
> (using the git:// protocol). Are there alternatives? For example, as far 
> as I understand, if all I want is to get the latest commit in HEAD, 
> branch from it and start working, then all git really needs to have is 
> all objects referenced from that commit (commit, trees, blobs) and 
> that's it, right? (as long as I don't expect to see full log of past 
> operations)

In git terms, that is called a "shallow clone". For example:

git clone --depth 5 git://site.com/repo.git

would clone all the heads of repo.git along with their 5 most
recent commits.

You can make history deeper with

git-fetch --depth 20 git://site.com/repo.git branch

See the glossary, technical/shallow.txt, git-clone and git-fetch
man pages.

```

## Avery Pennarun, 2008-04-08 20:24

Subject: Re: question about git and remote repositories
Message-ID: <32541b130804081324q7555aff5ia123512db014e24f@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/32541b130804081324q7555aff5ia123512db014e24f%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <47FBC2C9.6060702@tikalk.com>

```
On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 3:08 PM, Ittay Dror <ittayd@tikalk.com> wrote:
> For example, as far as
> I understand, if all I want is to get the latest commit in HEAD, branch from
> it and start working, then all git really needs to have is all objects
> referenced from that commit (commit, trees, blobs) and that's it, right? (as
> long as I don't expect to see full log of past operations)

It can be quite addictive to have the entire revision history of the
entire project sitting locally on your disk.  Once you've tried it,
it's hard to go back. :)

But if you still want only the last few revisions, try using the
--depth option to git-clone.

Have fun,

Avery

```