Subject: Re: cloning empty repo

From: Josh Triplett <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:32:21 -0700

Shawn O. Pearce wrote:
> "Marijn Schouten (hkBst)" <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> is there any reason why cloning an empty repository should result in an error
>> instead of a succesfully cloned empty repo?
> 
> There's nothing to clone.  The repository is empty.
> 
> If you create a Git repository using `git init` and then create
> another one also using `git init` then both repositories are empty,
> and an empty repository is identical to every other empty repository.
> 
> So if you want to setup an empty repository and then clone nothing,
> you actually can just setup another empty repository and configure
> the 'origin' remote:
> 
> 	mkdir a; cd a; git init; cd ..
> 
> 	mkdir b; cd b; git init
> 	# now a and b are identical
> 
> 	git remote add origin ../a/.git
> 	# now b is a "clone" of a's nothingness...

You can also simulate a clone of any other repository by using a similar
series of commands; git clone exists so that you don't have to.  Why not allow
cloning an empty repository, which would give you an empty repository with the
correct origin remote?

- Josh Triplett