diff --git a/public_html/deployment/classes/vcs.git.class.php b/public_html/deployment/classes/vcs.git.class.php
index af89c12a13283eef48f1ff3b892f399d830492cd..bb3c67e2e370e05da846acc227f746af8fce9562 100644
--- a/public_html/deployment/classes/vcs.git.class.php
+++ b/public_html/deployment/classes/vcs.git.class.php
@@ -444,12 +444,20 @@ class vcs implements iVcs {
         $sBranchname = str_replace("origin/", "", $this->_sCurrentBranch);
 
         $sGitCmd = 'export GIT_SSH="' . $this->_sWrapper . '" ; export PKEY="' . $this->_sKeyfile . '" ; ';
-        $sGitCmd .= 'echo git clone --depth 1 --recursive --branch "' . $sBranchname . '" "' . $this->getUrl() . '" "' . $sWorkDir . '" ; ';
-        $sGitCmd .= 'git clone --depth 1 --recursive --branch "' . $sBranchname . '" "' . $this->getUrl() . '" "' . $sWorkDir . '" 2>&1; ';
+        
+        // this does not checkout tags in git v1.7 - only branches:
+        // $sGitCmd .= 'echo git clone --depth 1 --recursive --branch "' . $sBranchname . '" "' . $this->getUrl() . '" "' . $sWorkDir . '" ; ';
+        // $sGitCmd .= '     git clone --depth 1 --recursive --branch "' . $sBranchname . '" "' . $this->getUrl() . '" "' . $sWorkDir . '" 2>&1; ';
+        // 
+        $sGitCmd .= 'echo git clone "' . $this->getUrl() . '" "'.$sWorkDir.'" 2>&1 \&\& cd  "'.$sWorkDir.'" \&\& git checkout "' . $sBranchname . '" ; ';
+        $sGitCmd .= '     git clone "' . $this->getUrl() . '" "'.$sWorkDir.'" 2>&1 && cd  "'.$sWorkDir.'" && git checkout 2>&1 ';
         $this->log(__FUNCTION__." start command $sGitCmd");
-        $sReturn = shell_exec($sGitCmd);
+        // $sReturn = shell_exec($sGitCmd);
+        exec($sGitCmd, $sReturn, $iRc);
+        
+        echo print_r($sReturn, 1) . "<br>rc=$rc<br>";
         $this->log(__FUNCTION__." end command $sGitCmd");
-        return $sReturn;
+        return implode("\n", $sReturn). "\nrc=$iRc";
     }
 
     /**