Shallow Clone vs. Partial Clone

Shallow Clone

Definition: A shallow clone only fetches a limited history of commits.
Use Case: When you don’t need the entire commit history of a repository. Useful for saving time and disk space.
How to Create:
```
git clone --depth <depth> <repo-url>
```
- --depth 1: Only fetch the latest commit.
- Shallow clones can significantly reduce the size of the clone, but they might not support certain operations like checking out older commits or rebasing.
Example:
```
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/example/repo.git
```
- This fetches only the latest commit for each branch.

Definition: A partial clone skips fetching large objects (e.g., binaries) until they are actually needed.
Use Case: When the repository contains large files or many objects you don’t need right away (e.g., in monorepos or projects with large media assets). Saves disk space while allowing you to work with the repo.
How to Create:
```
git clone --filter=<filter> <repo-url>
```
- Common filters:
  - --filter=blob:none: Skips all blobs (file contents) and only downloads them when accessed.
Example:
```
git clone --filter=blob:none https://github.com/example/repo.git
```
- This fetches only the repository structure and metadata, downloading file content on demand.

Aspect	Shallow Clone	Partial Clone
Focus	Limited commit history	Skipping large blobs
Speed	Faster for small history clones	Faster for repos with large objects
Dis Space	Save space by reducing hisotry	Save space by delaying blob downloads
Operations Limit	Some opraions may not be supported	All operations are supported