git-clone

git-clone is a standalone repository downloader built on top of go-git. It is intended to be a practical drop-in replacement for common git clone workflows without requiring a full Git installation.

Where go-git supports the underlying behavior directly, the utility follows Git-compatible argument names, exit codes, destination checks, and branch or tag checkout semantics. Features that cannot be reproduced faithfully are either accepted as compatibility no-ops or rejected early with a git-like error.

Compatibility

Supported

• repo [dir]
• -v/--verbose
• -q/--quiet
• --progress, --no-progress
• -n/--no-checkout, --checkout
• --bare, --no-bare
• --mirror, --no-mirror
• -s/--shared, --no-shared
• --recursive, --no-recursive
• --recurse-submodules, --no-recurse-submodules
• -o/--origin
• -b/--branch
• --single-branch, --no-single-branch
• --depth
• --tags, --no-tags
• --shallow-submodules, --no-shallow-submodules

Supported As Compatibility No-Ops

These flags are accepted to preserve CLI compatibility, but this build does not emulate Git's transport/storage optimization behind them:

• -l/--local, --no-local
• --hardlinks, --no-hardlinks

Partial Support

• -c/--config key=value
  • applied to the local repository config after clone/pull
  • does not influence transport-time behavior the way vanilla Git can
• --recursive[=<pathspec>] / --recurse-submodules[=<pathspec>]
  • supported without a pathspec
  • pathspec form is rejected early as unsupported
• -b/--branch
  • supports both branches and tags
  • if a branch and tag share the same name, branch wins like vanilla Git

Recognized But Unsupported

These options are parsed and fail early with exit code 129 and a git-like error:

• --reject-shallow, --no-reject-shallow
• -j/--jobs, --no-jobs
• --template
• --reference
• --reference-if-able
• --dissociate
• --revision
• -u/--upload-pack
• --shallow-since
• --shallow-exclude
• --separate-git-dir
• --ref-format
• --server-option
• -4/--ipv4
• -6/--ipv6
• --filter
• --also-filter-submodules
• --remote-submodules
• --sparse, --no-sparse
• --bundle-uri

Extensions

These are intentionally outside vanilla git clone, but remain available as long-only flags so they do not collide with Git's standard short options:

• --pull
  • if destination already exists as a repository, pull instead of failing
  • plain clone behavior remains Git-compatible unless --pull is explicitly set
• --last
  • prints the latest checked out commit after clone/pull
• --identity <file>
  • uses the given SSH private key file or PEM contents
  • also respects GIT_CLONE_KEY

Behavioral Notes

• Exit codes follow Git-style conventions:
  • 0 success
  • 128 fatal runtime/semantic failure
  • 129 usage, help, unknown option, unsupported option
• Progress is written to stderr, not stdout.
• Progress is shown automatically only when stderr is a terminal, unless --progress forces it or --quiet / --no-progress disables it.
• Existing non-empty destinations now fail like vanilla git clone.
• Existing repositories are only mutated when --pull is explicitly used.

Examples

git-clone https://github.com/n0madic/git-clone.git
git-clone -b main https://github.com/n0madic/git-clone.git dst
git-clone --no-tags --depth 1 https://github.com/n0madic/git-clone.git
git-clone --recursive https://github.com/n0madic/git-clone.git
git-clone --pull https://github.com/n0madic/git-clone.git
git-clone --identity ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 git@github.com:n0madic/git-clone.git