How do I clone a large Git repository on an unreliable connection?

Question

I want to clone LibreOffice. From the official website, this is what\'s written:

All our source code is hosted in git:

Clone: $ git clone gi

Answer 1

The best method that I know of is to combine shallow clone (--depth 1) feature with sparse checkout, that is checking out only the subfolders or files that you need. (Shallow cloning also implies --single-branch, which is also useful.) See udondan's answer for an example.

Additionally, I use a bash loop to keep retrying until finished successfully. Like this:

#!/bin/bash

git init 
cd 
git remote add origin 

# Optional step: sparse checkout
git config core.sparsecheckout true                     # <-- enable sparse checkout
echo "subdirectory/*" >> .git/info/sparse-checkout      # <-- specify files you need

# Keep pulling until successful
until $( git pull --depth=1 origin master ); do         # <-- shallow clone
    echo "Pulling git repository failed; retrying..."
done

In this way I can eventually pull large repos even with slow VPN in China…

Importantly, by pulling this way you will still be able to push.