git clone tag shallow

Hi all,

I notice that using git 1.8.3, I can call
git clone repo1 repo2 --branch tagname
with a tag, not a branch. Is this going to be a stable and documented feature?

cheers,
  Thibault

On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 2:13 AM, Thibault Kruse
[off-list ref] wrote:

Hi all,

I notice that using git 1.8.3, I can call
git clone repo1 repo2 --branch tagname
with a tag, not a branch. Is this going to be a stable and documented feature?

There is a test for --branch=tag in t5601, so I say it's supported. If
the document is not clear, patches are welcome.
-- 
Duy

Hi Duy,

Looking closer at the rest of the docs, I guess it is consistent, but
not terribly helpful.
Throughout the docs (--help and man), it is never very clear what
objects a command
may accept or not. here is what I get from it:

Whenever a command description involves "<branch>" this can, depending
on the command, refer to
1) a name that, when prepended with "refs/heads/", is a valid ref,
2) a name that, when prepended with "refs/heads/" or "refs/tags", is a
valid ref,
3) a name that, when prepended with "refs/[heads|tags]/", or unique in
"refs/remotes/*/" is a valid ref

Now in the docu I don't see a nice distinction between 1), 2) and 3).
I could work on a patch if someone
tells me how to clearly distinguish those cases.

Example for 1)
git clone --branch <branch>    in git 1.7.x
Example for 2)
git clone --branch <branch>    in git 1.8.x
Example for 3)
git checkout <branch>    in git 1.8.x

I would like the docs to relate to those e.g. as
1) git clone --branch <local-branch>
2) git clone --branch <local-branch-or-tag>
3) git checkout <commit-label>
or something similar, in the future. But I wont create a patch before
having some blessing on the labels to use.


On a related note, what would help my use-case would be an extension
to git clone such
that git clone [--deep] accepted also most other kinds of commit
references, such as SHA-IDs.

Such that
git clone --deep --branch 2h134vjvbc
would work. Is there a plan to introduce that as well?

cheers,
  Thibault


On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 7:49 AM, Duy Nguyen [off-list ref] wrote:

On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 2:13 AM, Thibault Kruse
[off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

Hi all,

I notice that using git 1.8.3, I can call
git clone repo1 repo2 --branch tagname
with a tag, not a branch. Is this going to be a stable and documented feature?

There is a test for --branch=tag in t5601, so I say it's supported. If
the document is not clear, patches are welcome.
--
Duy