Re: Composing git repositories

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 27, 2013, 19:26 UTC
Message-ID: <20130327192630.GF28148@google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CALkWK0nARWAtC-D3UiNLccuaSwjR6meJb+Cu590N=8Ti8O7OMg@mail.gmail.com>

Ramkumar Ramachandra wrote:

>                        Even then, working with one worktree embedded
> inside another is something git never designed for: it explains why I
> have to literally fight with git when using submodules

Do you mean that you wish you could ignore subrepository boundaries and use commands like

	git clone --recurse-submodules http://git.zx2c4.com/cgit
	cd cgit
	vi git/cache.h
	... edit edit edit ...
	git add --recurse-submodules git/cache.h
	git commit --recurse-submodules
	git push --recurse-submodules

, possibly with configuration to allow the --recurse-submodules to be implied, and have everything work out well?

I think something like that is a goal for submodules in the long term, with a caveat that there are complications in that different projects (the parent project and subproject) can have different contribution guidelines, review and release schedules, and so on.

If submodules are not working for you today, you may find some of Jens's submodule improvement patches interesting, or you may want to look into alternatives that make different assumptions, such as entirely independent repositories and tools like "mr" that iterate over them.

Hope that helps, Jonathan