Shallow update not allowed (git > 1.9)

Question

There are a lot of answers stating that git 1.9 removes limitations of shallow clones. Nevertheless, I'm using 2.6.1 and still having the following basic issue:

First, I create an empty repo somewhere:

cd /tmp
mkdir target
cd target
git init

Then, I shallow clone some repo and add the above repo as remote:

cd /tmp
git clone --depth 1 [email protected]:muennich/urxvt-perls.git
cd urxvt-perls
git remote add target /tmp/target

Finally, I push this repo to the remote:

git push target master

But then I get:

! [remote rejected] master -> master (shallow update not allowed)
error: failed to push some refs to '/tmp/target'

What am I missing here?

Answer 1

I'm answering my own question.

I tried going the other way around and adding urxvt-perls as a remote for target, then fetching from there. This fails because of the same reason but led me closer to a solution. From the git-fetch man:

  --update-shallow
       By default when fetching from a shallow repository, git fetch
       refuses refs that require updating .git/shallow. This option
       updates .git/shallow and accept such refs.

Now, using this option allows the shallow fetch. So the previous question becomes: Is it possible to specify that --update-shallow behavior while pushing? Well, there is an option for that:

receive.shallowupdate
    If set to true, .git/shallow can be updated when new refs require
    new shallow roots. Otherwise those refs are rejected.

I'm still trying to set this in github and the likes, though.