git: getting current revision only

Question

I'm setting up a script that downloads application source code from remote git repository and then launches the application build process. For obvious reasons I only need the current state (revision) of codebase to be downloaded - no need for history. Is there a way in git to achieve that? Cloning the whole repository is too painful.

Answer 1

You can use git clone --depth 1 ... (see FAQ: How do I do a quick clone without history revisions?)

Answer 2

You may try the --depth=1 parameter of git checkout:

git clone --depth=1 git://somehost/somerepo.git

alternatively, if your remote host support, you can use git archive:

 git archive --format=tar --remote=git://somehost/somerepo.git master  | tar -xf -