git clone –depth 1 https://github.com/torvalds/linux.git linux_mainline
using github as it’s a mirror of mainline and depending where you’re accessing the internet from, much faster.
the –depth 1 will limit the history to 1 commit back I believe. If you’d need to view more than that then you can probably use
git log — [filename]
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/278192/view-the-change-history-of-a-file-using-git-versioning
Adhir Ramjiawan 