git pull from remote... can I pull a specific commit?

Question

I create an empty new repository locally, I add a remote repository. Now I want to get a specific commit from the remote repository without downloading the whole remote repository with all its branches!

How do I do that?

Solution

Answer is

git fetch origin 96de5297df870:refs/remotes/origin/D-commit

See Retrieve specific commit from a remote Git repository

Comments

[Jack O'Connor]

This command only seems to work when I already have that commit hash locally, so it can create a remote reference but it can't seem to fetch anything new. Does it work for anyone else?

[vitaut]

No, it doesn't work for me either.

[ocroquette]

It doesn't work if the commit is not already in the repository. It prints nothing but gives back an exit code 1.

[basZero]

This works for me and I use it regularly.