It's necessary to download the entire git repo when installing homebrew?

[LuisEnMarroquin]

Hi there, I am thinking if it's really necessary to download every branch and tag when installing homebrew on Mac

I didn't do anything uncommon, it's just the default behavior when installing

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Don't know how the install script works, but maybe is a good idea to use git clone --depth 1, clone only the HEAD branch and don't download tags

[carlocab]

Homebrew doesn't use shallow clones at GitHub's request.

[gromgit]

use git clone --depth 1

Please read all of #226 before continuing down this path. Barring major changes to git itself, or a major brainwave, this topic is unlikely to bear further fruit.

Clone only the HEAD branch

If you mean "clone only the most recent commit", that's basically --depth 1.

If you mean "clone only the master branch", that's what the install script already does:

$ cat install.sh
[...]
  cd "${HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY}" >/dev/null || return

  # we do it in four steps to avoid merge errors when reinstalling
  execute "git" "init" "-q"

  # "git remote add" will fail if the remote is defined in the global config
  execute "git" "config" "remote.origin.url" "${HOMEBREW_BREW_GIT_REMOTE}"
  execute "git" "config" "remote.origin.fetch" "+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*"

  # ensure we don't munge line endings on checkout
  execute "git" "config" "core.autocrlf" "false"

  execute "git" "fetch" "--force" "origin"
  execute "git" "fetch" "--force" "--tags" "origin"

  execute "git" "reset" "--hard" "origin/master"

  if [[ "${HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY}" != "${HOMEBREW_PREFIX}" ]]; then
    execute "ln" "-sf" "${HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY}/bin/brew" "${HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/bin/brew"
  fi

  if [[ ! -d "${HOMEBREW_CORE}" ]]; then
    ohai "Tapping homebrew/core"
    (
      execute "/bin/mkdir" "-p" "${HOMEBREW_CORE}"
      cd "${HOMEBREW_CORE}" >/dev/null || return

      execute "git" "init" "-q"
      execute "git" "config" "remote.origin.url" "${HOMEBREW_CORE_GIT_REMOTE}"
      execute "git" "config" "remote.origin.fetch" "+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*"
      execute "git" "config" "core.autocrlf" "false"
      execute "git" "fetch" "--force" "origin" "refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master"
      execute "git" "remote" "set-head" "origin" "--auto" >/dev/null
      execute "git" "reset" "--hard" "origin/master"

      cd "${HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY}" >/dev/null || return
    ) || exit 1
  fi
[...]

don't download tags

Zero tags aren't very useful, and can result in unexpected bloat:

$ cat clone-hb
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# clone_it <dir> <url> [<fetch_args> ...]
clone_it() {
  local dir=$1 url=$2; shift 2
  rm -fr "$dir"
  mkdir -p "$dir"
  cd "$dir"
  git init -q
  git config remote.origin.url "$url"
  git config remote.origin.fetch +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
  git config core.autocrlf false
  git fetch --force "$@" origin refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master
  cd - >&/dev/null
}
echo "===== Cloning Homebrew (original) ====="
clone_it homebrew.orig https://github.com/homebrew/brew
echo "===== Cloning Homebrew (no-tags) ====="
clone_it homebrew.notags https://github.com/homebrew/brew --no-tags
echo "===== Cloning core tap (original) ====="
clone_it homebrew-core.orig https://github.com/homebrew/homebrew-core
echo "===== Cloning core tap (no-tags) ====="
clone_it homebrew-core.notags https://github.com/homebrew/homebrew-core --no-tags
echo "===== Checking sizes ====="
du -sk homebrew*.* | sort -n

$ ./clone-hb
===== Cloning Homebrew (original) =====
remote: Enumerating objects: 186198, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (562/562), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (356/356), done.
remote: Total 186198 (delta 273), reused 442 (delta 187), pack-reused 185636
Receiving objects: 100% (186198/186198), 50.00 MiB | 8.51 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (138045/138045), done.
From https://github.com/homebrew/brew
 * [new branch]          master     -> origin/master
 * [new tag]             0.1        -> 0.1
[...]
 * [new tag]             3.2.0      -> 3.2.0
===== Cloning Homebrew (no-tags) =====
remote: Enumerating objects: 186154, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (518/518), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (287/287), done.
remote: Total 186154 (delta 273), reused 442 (delta 212), pack-reused 185636
Receiving objects: 100% (186154/186154), 49.91 MiB | 10.61 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (138053/138053), done.
From https://github.com/homebrew/brew
 * [new branch]          master     -> origin/master
===== Cloning core tap (original) =====
remote: Enumerating objects: 980370, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (1475/1475), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (633/633), done.
remote: Total 980370 (delta 887), reused 1339 (delta 841), pack-reused 978895
Receiving objects: 100% (980370/980370), 391.19 MiB | 11.01 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (668482/668482), done.
From https://github.com/homebrew/homebrew-core
 * [new branch]            master     -> origin/master
===== Cloning core tap (no-tags) =====
remote: Enumerating objects: 980370, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (1475/1475), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (632/632), done.
remote: Total 980370 (delta 887), reused 1340 (delta 842), pack-reused 978895
Receiving objects: 100% (980370/980370), 395.92 MiB | 10.98 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (668523/668523), done.
From https://github.com/homebrew/homebrew-core
 * [new branch]            master     -> origin/master
===== Checking sizes =====
56352	homebrew.notags
57364	homebrew.orig
427548	homebrew-core.orig
432388	homebrew-core.notags