How to fix fatal: git fetch-pack: expected shallow list in Git

### Why CentOS 7 Has This Problem

CentOS 7 ships with Git 1.8.3.1 (released 2013) by default, and its repositories don't include newer versions. This is because CentOS maintains package stability over features. Git 1.8.x lacks full support for the shallow clone protocol enhancements introduced in Git 2.0.

### The Shallow Clone Protocol

Shallow clones work by having the client send a "deepen" request during fetch, telling the server how much history it wants. The server responds with a "shallow" list indicating which commits are the boundary of the shallow history. Git 1.8.x has incomplete implementation of this protocol, causing the "expected shallow list" error when the server doesn't respond as the old client expects.

### Go Module Fetching

This error commonly appears when running go get or go mod download on systems with old Git. Go uses Git internally to fetch module dependencies, and many modules are fetched as shallow clones for speed. The fix is the same: upgrade Git.

### Docker Containers

If you're running Git operations inside Docker containers:

# Use an image with recent Git
FROM alpine:latest
RUN apk add --no-cache git

# Or on CentOS-based images
FROM centos:7
RUN yum install -y https://repo.ius.io/ius-release-el7.rpm && \
    yum install -y git236

### CI/CD Best Practices

When possible, use the CI platform's native checkout actions rather than manual Git commands:

- GitHub Actions: actions/checkout@v4 handles Git properly
- GitLab CI: Uses modern Git in its runners
- CircleCI: Provides checkout step with proper Git support

These built-in steps often avoid shallow clone issues because they use appropriate Git versions and configurations.