How to Update a Shallow Git Repository

You’re asking how to update a shallow clone (a repo cloned with limited history using --depth) with the latest commit from the remote. Here’s how you do that.

✅ Update a shallow repo with the latest commit

If you’ve done a shallow clone like:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/example/repo.git

You can pull the latest commit like this:

cd repo
git fetch --depth=1
git pull --ff-only

This fetches only the newest commit and updates your shallow repo without downloading the full history.

🔄 Update to a specific branch or commit

To update a specific branch (e.g., main):

git fetch --depth=1 origin main
git checkout main
git pull --ff-only origin main

This ensures you’re on the correct branch and fast-forwards to the latest commit, keeping the history shallow.

🧼 Limitations and how to get full history

Note: In a shallow repo, operations like rebase, cherry-pick, or merge may not work due to missing history. To convert your shallow clone into a full clone:

git fetch --unshallow

This command downloads the entire history, removing the depth limitation.