How to clone/fetch a repo getting only the history

Question

Is it possible to download a repository\'s commits, branches, and tags, excluding blobs and trees? I would like to be able to view the history and whatnot without downloadin

Answer 1

We are building ghuser.io (enhanced GitHub profile pages) and any way to get the commit history without files would help us tremendously to scale.

Then you would need to setup a mirror server with GVFS (Git Virtual File System) / VFS For Git support.

Since June 2016 (the OP question) and now (Q4 2018), VFS For Git (since issue 72 is soon to be resolved) has been proposed by Microsoft (Feb. 2017), and allows you to develop with TeraBytes repos(!) without having the files downloaded.

GitHub itself should support it soon.

See more at gvfs.io, although I suspect that a domain name which is now renamed to reflect the new "VFS For Git" name: https://vfsforgit.org.
(Microsoft/VFSForGit.WWW issue 9 is closed, Nov. 28th 2018)