Git remote helper to allow for `git clone symlink:///path/to/original/repo` which simply creates a symlink to the original repo

git-remote-symlink

#!/bin/sh

# The script is called with `git-remote-<protocol> <remote_name> <remote_url>`
remote_name=$1
remote_url=$2

# The GIT_DIR is already created when this remote helper is run
original_repo=$(echo $remote_url | sed 's/^symlink:\/\///')
link_target=$(echo $GIT_DIR | sed 's/\/\.git$//')

# Everyting we echo to stderr is shown to the user. Let's us an alias for it 
alias errcho='>&2 echo'

# Now simply replace the GIT_DIR with a symlink to the original repo
errcho "Symlinking to '$original_repo'..."
rm -rf $link_target
ln -sn $original_repo $link_target

# Finally, we have to speak just enough to let Git successfully continue.
# Usually we would receive commands for import / export / etc here, but
# sine we just symlinked to an existing repo there is nothing left to do.
while read line
do
        case $line in
        '')
                exit ;;
        *)
                echo '' ;;
        esac
done