Re: [PATCH] Teach git submodule update to use distributed repositories

From: Petr Baudis <pasky@suse.cz>
Date: Jul 18, 2008, 10:00 UTC
Message-ID: <20080718100048.GN10151@machine.or.cz>
In-Reply-To: <320075ff0807180236u4e7f5f9bm81b702d14c052de8@mail.gmail.com>

On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 10:36:51AM +0100, Nigel Magnay wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 10:16 AM, Petr Baudis <pasky@suse.cz> wrote:
> > snip
> >
> >        "How do we mass-supply custom submodule URLs when publishing the
> >        customized main repository at a custom location too?"
> >
> Yes - that is an additional problem.

Wait, I'm lost again - _additional_ problem? How does it differ from the _original_ problem, how does it differ from what you're explaining below and how does what you're explaining below differ from the original problem?

Or are we talking exclusively about what I summed up above now?

Show 6 quoted lines

> If I may expand the usecase just so it's clear (and to check we're
> talkiing the same language)
> 
> I do something like
> $ git remote add fred git://fredcomputer/superproject/.git
> $ git fetch --submodules fred

I think you mean git pull --submodules fred. Well, actually, you want to pull the main repository, then submodule update (_not_ pull in the submodules). See? This is part of the "semantic swamp" I mentioned before.

I think it should be somehow part of the _main_ project's fred branch that in this branch, the subprojects should be fetched from a different location; thus, you would still do

	$ git remote add fred git://fredcomputer/superproject/.git
	$ git pull fred
	$ git submodule update

where either the submodule update takes the info from fred's adjusted .gitmodules, or it is an implicit part of the branch as in fred tells you to run the update command with some extra arguments.

However, I still believe the information should primarily stem from the main repository; consider e.g. if you do not have some of the submodules checked out when you switch to fred, then figure out that in fred's branch, you really do want them checked out.

-- 
				Petr "Pasky" Baudis
GNU, n. An animal of South Africa, which in its domesticated state
resembles a horse, a buffalo and a stag. In its wild condition it is
something like a thunderbolt, an earthquake and a cyclone. -- A. Pierce