# Re: Cleaning up git user-interface warts

- From: Carl Worth \<hidden\>
- Date: 2016-08-11 19:39:07 
- List: git
- Page: https://ratatoskr.run/git/2016/08/7689161
- Thread: https://ratatoskr.run/git/2016/08/7692636/t.md

```text
On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 09:17:32 -0800 (PST), Linus Torvalds wrote:
> So the way you'd normally set up a single repo that contains multiple
> other existing repositories is to basically start with one ("git clone")
> and then add the other branches and "git fetch" them.

For that we'd also need a way for clone to be able to fetch just a
single branch, and not all of them as well.

There is some clone vs. fetch asymmetry here that has annoyed me for a
while, and that I don't think has been mentioned in this thread
yet. Namely:

clone: can only be executed once, fetches all branches, "remembers"
       URLs for later simplified use

fetch: can be executed many times, fetches only named branches,
       doesn't remember anything for later

I've often been in the situation where I cloned a long time ago, but
I'd like to be able to fetch everything that I would get if I were to
start a fresh clone.

-Carl
```

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