A co-linear common-path shearography is proposed with spatial phase shift for single-shot phase measurement. The co-linear common-path configuration brings an enhanced robustness and stability of the measuring system, because the two laterally sheared interfering object waves propagate essentially along the same path, which cancels out the disturbance and noise in surroundings. Two functional features, which break through the limitations in conventional co-linear common-path shearography, are proposed and implemented, namely the zero-approaching shear amount and the separate control of the spatial carrier. Seldom shearography configured by co-linear common-path structure possesses with these two features, because the linearly aligned optics restricts the control parameters in regards to the shear amount and the spatial carrier. In the proposed scheme, an intermediate real image plane is created in the linearly aligned light path to address the issue of zero-approaching shear amount. A 4-f imaging system is embedded with an aperture in between to implement a separate control of the spatial carrier. The zero-approaching shear amount provides the sufficiently small shear to make sure the strain or slope field of complex deformation is resolvable. Meanwhile, the separate control of the spatial carrier further guarantees a well-distributed spatial frequency spectrum when the required zero-approaching shear amount is configured.