diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ff95a42..ad82bdc 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -6,10 +6,12 @@ speeding it up on complicated DWARF frames
 
 ## Compiling
 
-Clone the
-[Linux kernel repository](https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git)
-or get a tarball of its source tree,
-then replace the `tools/perf` directory with a clone of this repo.
+Clone the [Linux kernel
+repository](https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git)
+or get a tarball of its source tree, then replace the `tools/perf` directory
+with a clone of this repo. If you wish to clone the Linux source tree, and if
+you're not going to work on it, you might consider passing `--depth=1` to `git
+clone`, in order not to download the history, to keep the download light.
 Then, `cd tools/perf` and `make`, without forgetting to give the compilation
 tools the right version of `libunwind`, eg. by setting `LD_RUN_PATH` and
 `LIBUNWIND_DIR`: