Re: [bitbake-devel] [PATCH 1/1] bitbake: add BB_GIT_SHALLOW_SKIP_FAST to disable fast shallow mode

[Richard Purdie <richard.purdie@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Thu, 2026-04-30 at 13:38 +0100, Marcio Henriques via lists.openembedded.org wrote:
> In some CI environments, shallow tarballs are preferred as fallback artifacts,
> not as the primary source path.
> 
> Today, enabling shallow mode also enables an initial fast shallow path that may
> avoid creating/using the regular local clone flow in DL_DIR. This can reduce
> the effectiveness of incremental fetches and lead to larger re-downloads.
> 
> Add BB_GIT_SHALLOW_SKIP_FAST as an opt-in switch. When set to 1, the fetcher
> skips the fast shallow path from initialization and proceeds with the regular
> clone/update flow, while still allowing shallow behavior and tarball fallback.
> 
> Default behavior is preserved when the variable is unset.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Marcio Henriques <marcio.henriques@ctw.bmwgroup.com>
> ---
>  .../bitbake-user-manual-ref-variables.rst     | 19 +++++++++++++++++++
>  lib/bb/fetch2/git.py                          |  4 +++-
>  2 files changed, 22 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

I'm wondering why you wouldn't just turn off shallow clones in this
scenario?

I'm also conscious of not wanting to add too many options to the
fetcher, it makes the code more of a labyrinth and harder to
test/maintain. Would it make sense to use BB_GENERATE_MIRROR_TARBALLS
here to change behaviour?

That option is usually set for people wanting to build source
mirrors...


Cheers,

Richard