Cloning into a copy of GIT repo

I needed to get the files from under a file copy of a GIT repo. For some reason cloning into a remote repo didn't work, the remote machine kept hanging up on me. But I was able to scp into the machine and just grab the repo files. All I needed really was a quick look into someone else's work and figuring out how to properly clone the remote repo would take me longer so I figured what's the heck.

Here's my recipe:

• copy the repo to some local location. let it be <REPO>
• create a folder where you want your "true" local clone to reside. let it be <LOCAL>
• fire up git bash and CD into the <LOCAL>
• the following command sequence will get you where you want to be:
  

  $ git init
  $ git remote add main <REPO>
  $ git fetch main
  $ git checkout master
  

• That's it. I now have my repo copy "unzipped", pretty much like if the original attempt to git clone it worked

Enjoy. Drop me a line if you know of a better way to unzip a copy of a git repo.