diff --git a/support/download/git b/support/download/git
index 58a2c6ad9d..58dbcd211c 100755
--- a/support/download/git
+++ b/support/download/git
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ while getopts "${BR_BACKEND_DL_GETOPTS}" OPT; do
     o)  output="${OPTARG}";;
     u)  uri="${OPTARG}";;
     c)  cset="${OPTARG}";;
+    d)  dl_dir="${OPTARG}";;
     n)  basename="${OPTARG}";;
     :)  printf "option '%s' expects a mandatory argument\n" "${OPTARG}"; exit 1;;
     \?) printf "unknown option '%s'\n" "${OPTARG}" >&2; exit 1;;
@@ -39,29 +40,41 @@ _git() {
     eval ${GIT} "${@}"
 }
 
-# Try a shallow clone, since it is faster than a full clone - but that only
-# works if the version is a ref (tag or branch). Before trying to do a shallow
-# clone we check if ${cset} is in the list provided by git ls-remote. If not
-# we fall back on a full clone.
+# We want to check if a cache of the git clone of this repo already exists.
+git_cache="${dl_dir}/git"
+
+# If the cache directory doesn't exists, init a new repo, which will be
+# fetch'ed later.
+if [ ! -d "${git_cache}" ]; then
+    _git init "'${git_cache}'"
+    _git -C "'${git_cache}'" remote add origin "'${uri}'"
+fi
+
+pushd "${git_cache}" >/dev/null
+
+_git remote set-url origin "'${uri}'"
+
+# Try to fetch with limited depth, since it is faster than a full clone - but
+# that only works if the version is a ref (tag or branch). Before trying to do
+# a shallow clone we check if ${cset} is in the list provided by git ls-remote.
+# If not we fallback to a full fetch.
 #
-# Messages for the type of clone used are provided to ease debugging in case of
-# problems
+# Messages for the type of clone used are provided to ease debugging in
+# case of problems
 git_done=0
-if [ -n "$(_git ls-remote "'${uri}'" "'${cset}'" 2>&1)" ]; then
-    printf "Doing shallow clone\n"
-    if _git clone ${verbose} "${@}" --depth 1 -b "'${cset}'" "'${uri}'" "'${basename}'"; then
+if [ -n "$(_git ls-remote origin "'${cset}'" 2>&1)" ]; then
+    printf "Doing a shallow fetch\n"
+    if _git fetch "${@}" --depth 1 origin "'${cset}'"; then
         git_done=1
     else
-        printf "Shallow clone failed, falling back to doing a full clone\n"
+        printf "Shallow fetch failed, falling back to fetching all refs\n"
     fi
 fi
 if [ ${git_done} -eq 0 ]; then
-    printf "Doing full clone\n"
-    _git clone ${verbose} "${@}" "'${uri}'" "'${basename}'"
+    printf "Fetching all references\n"
+    _git fetch origin -t
 fi
 
-pushd "${basename}" >/dev/null
-
 # Try to get the special refs exposed by some forges (pull-requests for
 # github, changes for gerrit...). There is no easy way to know whether
 # the cset the user passed us is such a special ref or a tag or a sha1
@@ -86,20 +99,24 @@ if [ ${recurse} -eq 1 ]; then
     _git submodule update --init --recursive
 fi
 
-# We do not want the .git dir; we keep other .git files, in case they
-# are the only files in their directory.
+# Generate the archive, sort with the C locale so that it is reproducible.
+# We do not want the .git dir; we keep other .git files, in case they are the
+# only files in their directory.
 # The .git dir would generate non reproducible tarballs as it depends on
 # the state of the remote server. It also would generate large tarballs
 # (gigabytes for some linux trees) when a full clone took place.
-rm -rf .git
+find . -not -type d \
+	-and -not -path "./.git/*" >"${output}.list"
+LC_ALL=C sort <"${output}.list" >"${output}.list.sorted"
 
-popd >/dev/null
-
-# Generate the archive, sort with the C locale so that it is reproducible
-find "${basename}" -not -type d >"${basename}.list"
-LC_ALL=C sort <"${basename}.list" >"${basename}.list.sorted"
 # Create GNU-format tarballs, since that's the format of the tarballs on
 # sources.buildroot.org and used in the *.hash files
-tar cf - --numeric-owner --owner=0 --group=0 --mtime="${date}" --format=gnu \
-         -T "${basename}.list.sorted" >"${output}.tar"
+tar cf - --transform="s/^\.$/${basename}/" \
+	--numeric-owner --owner=0 --group=0 --mtime="${date}" --format=gnu \
+         -T "${output}.list.sorted" >"${output}.tar"
 gzip -6 -n <"${output}.tar" >"${output}"
+
+rm -f "${output}.list"
+rm -f "${output}.list.sorted"
+
+popd >/dev/null