How to add a shallow branch to a repo without SSH access

Question

I have a shallow clone that I need to push to a remote repository (the remote repository does not contain any of the history from that branch). When I try to push it, it gives me an error about "Shallow update not allowed".

I tried to do it on a "local" remote repository I just created and I (of course) get the same error. I did find OTOH that I can eliminate the error if I first copy the .git/shallow to the destination repository. But my "real" remote repository is one to which I do not have shell access, so I cannot just scp the file to it. How can I convince the remote Git to create this .git/shallow file for me?

Answer 1

It depends on the remote server, but you also have, on that remote server, the option to set in the target bare repository the receive.shallowUpdate option:

git config --local --add receive.shallowUpdate true

And locally, you can try first a git fetch --update-shallow to accept refs that require updating .git/shallow.

If you cannot do those two option (one remote, one local), then you need to git fetch --unshallow and work from there.

Answer 2

You don't. A shallow clone is made at git clone time, by creating a .git/shallow file with the right contents (commit hash IDs). The git push command is unable to create or update this file; only git fetch can update it, or remove it entirely, when changing the depth of, or "un-shallowing", a clone (with --depth, --deepen, or --unshallow). The git init command that creates a new, empty repository never creates this file; only git clone (which runs git fetch internally) and git fetch can create or update it.

Your best bet is to find or create some full clone, and use that to push to the remote repository to which you have git push access, then git push your new commits from the existing shallow repository. If the full clone is very large (occupies too much space on your laptop for instance), you can remove it after copying it this way.

Side note: Git does not use the phrase shallow branch, only shallow clone or shallow repository. That's because the word branch, whatever you mean by it—different people mean different things at different times—doesn't really fit well here.