On Mon, Oct 7, 2019 at 1:08 PM Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > During the 'git sparse-checkout init' call, we must first look > to see if HEAD is valid, since 'git clone' does not have a valid > HEAD. ...does not have a valid HEAD by the time git_sparse_checkout_init() is called? > The first checkout will create the HEAD ref and update the > working directory correctly. Is this checkout you reference a manual-initiated user checkout after the clone, or the checkout performed as part of the clone? (I'm almost certain it's the latter, but your wording makes me question.)