Description

Initial setup with npm run init downloads (among other things) a full git version history of Chromium project. This is is unnecessary as gclient supports --no-history option that checks only the most recent commit.

I propose creation of --no-history flag for all most frequently used commands (init, sync). I can prepare a corresponding PR, if you are interested (although, it'll take a while).

Steps to Reproduce

1. Follow installation instructions
2. Observe that npm run init at one stage in the process downloads over 17 GiB of data.

Actual result:

Over 17 GiB of data downloaded. Checkout process takes a little longer than eternity.

Expected result:

Checout without history (e.g., using GitHub mirror, git clone --depth 1 [email protected]:chromium/chromium.git) downloads less than 1 GiB of data. Checkout finishes in 3 minutes.

Reproduces how often:

Always.

Brave version (brave://version info)

N/A

Version/Channel Information:

• Can you reproduce this issue with the current release? N/A
• Can you reproduce this issue with the beta channel? N/A
• Can you reproduce this issue with the dev channel? N/A
• Can you reproduce this issue with the nightly channel? N/A

Other Additional Information:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields? N/A
• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Rewards? N/A
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome? N/A

Miscellaneous Information:

This is a major barrier to entry for outside contributors. I tried to contribute earlier and gave up. Now I use cloud VMs where initial setup time is especially important (because I try to decommission them when I'm not using them to save a couple bucks).
@ilyaigpetrov reported similar issue in #4455. Although I don't know if in the end compilation succeeded, I suspect it did not because he did not post any follow ups (e.g., PRs).