Re: Partial checkouts / submodules

From: Steven Grimm <koreth@midwinter.com>
Date: Nov 20, 2007, 18:26 UTC
Message-ID: <1AD9B065-647B-4672-B6B0-8D4447960913@midwinter.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0711201226320.32410@iabervon.org>

On Nov 20, 2007, at 10:03 AM, Daniel Barkalow wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> This has theoretical problems: it's going to be practically  
> impossible, in
> most cases, to write a commit message that describes changes in three
> submodules (which are sometimes used in the context of a different
> supermodule) as well as the supermodule.

I got the impression from his email that there *are* no other supermodules. The submodules are submodules purely to reduce the amount of data people have to transfer around, not because they're logically distinct from the parent.

Something like "Fix bug #10391 by closing the data file before launching the GUI" or something like that would be just as valid a commit comment in the submodules here as it would be in the supermodules.

Sounds like what he wants is actually partial checkout, but since git doesn't (yet) support that, he's emulating it as best he can using submodules.

Show 6 quoted lines

> I think it should be possible and sufficient to have "git commit"  
> able to
> recursively start a "git commit" in submodules (where you'd write a
> separate message suitable for exposure to other supermodules), so  
> you'd
> have to write 4 messages but only type one command line.

If the message in the submodule defaulted to the one from the supermodule, and there was a way to just accept it without popping up an editor N times, this might solve his problem.

-Steve