How to pull a git repo from github with all unlinked commits

Question

I'm wondering how to pull a repo with all of the commits that have not been gc'd, if that is possible..

is it something like:

$ git clone x
$ cd x
$ git fetch origin -f

? or something else?

Answer 1

There is no command I'm aware of which says "bring down all commit objects in the remote repository, even those that are unreferenced".

You can only bring commits with a reference in the remote repository. You can do this with the command:

git fetch [remote] [remoteBranch]:[localBranch]

The remote repository will need to create a reference to any dangling commits before you can fetch them. If you have access to the remote repository, you can do this with a command like:

git fsck --lost-found

The output will show you any dangling commits. Give them a reference with git branch [branchname] [commit sha1], then you can fetch them.

Answer 2

I don't know whether there is a way to pull all unlinked commits, but if you know the hash of a specific unlinked commit that you are interested in, then you can fetch it using git fetch origin <commitHash>:refs/remotes/origin/orphaned-commit (originally from here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25416003/clone-a-git-repository-and-keep-unreachable-commits#comment53417187_25416117 )