Using git to get just the latest revision

Question

I want to track a project that uses git. I don't want to clone the full repository and the full history, I just want the latest revision, and I want to be able to update to new revisions from the remote project.

I have tried using git clone, but this creates a copy of the entire repository (huge file size), and tracking changes makes the disk space even bigger (100mb of files now takes up over 2gb).

I'm not going to be submitting patches, and I don't need the history. I just want the latest version like in subversion.

Is this possible in git?

Answer 1

Use the --depth option in git clone:

Create a shallow clone with a history truncated to the specified number of revisions. A shallow repository has a number of limitations (you cannot clone or fetch from it, nor push from nor into it), but is adequate if you are only interested in the recent history of a large project with a long history, and would want to send in fixes as patches.

Answer 2

Alternate solution to doing shallow clone (git clone --depth=1 <URL>) would be, if remote side supports it, to use --remote option of git archive:

$ git archive --format=tar --remote=<repository URL> HEAD | tar xf -

Or, if remote repository in question is browse-able using some web interface like gitweb or GitHub, then there is a chance that it has 'snapshot' feature, and you can download latest version (without versioning information) from web interface.