Does the target directory for a git clone have to match the repo name?

Question

In other words, I have a repo up on Github called st3_packages (https://github.com/pitosalas/st3_packages).

I want to do a git clone and have it create a directory on my local computer called "Packages".
Is that possible?

Answer 1

Yes, it is possible:

git clone https://github.com/pitosalas/st3_packages Packages

You can specify the local root directory when using git clone.

<directory>

The name of a new directory to clone into.
The "humanish" part of the source repository is used if no directory is explicitly given (repo for /path/to/repo.git and foo for host.xz:foo/.git).
Cloning into an existing directory is only allowed if the directory is empty.

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As Chris comments, you can then rename that top directory.
Git only cares about the .git within said top folder, which you can get with various commands:

git rev-parse --show-toplevel
git rev-parse --git-dir