[Tip] Access UEs git history quicker with less files & net usage

[UE4SS]

Typically you would do something like: git clone [email protected]:EpicGames/UnrealEngine.git ue to clone the entire repo.
This is problematic if you already have the source files downloaded and all you want is the git history, and you don't feel like waiting an hour for a full clone to complete (and inevitably fail causing you to reclone).

You can use this procedure to download the minimal amount to allow IDEs like CLion and Rider to pick up on the git history even if the project was originally not downloaded from git.
I downloaded Epics official zip file for the 5.4.1 release, and used this to get the git history later.

1. git clone --bare --filter=blob:none [email protected]:EpicGames/UnrealEngine.git ue_history
   This will take some time to complete, but not nearly as long as a regular clone.
   It also won't give you any of the files in the repo, it will only give you the git files that normally go in the .git directory, except it will go directly in the ue_history directory instead.
2. Copy ue_history to wherever you have your UE source files (the directory that contains the Engine directory), and then rename it to .git.
3. You should now have access to the git history in your IDE.