git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

[GSoC][PATCH v2 09/13] submodule foreach: correct '$path' in nested submodules from a subdirectory

From
Prathamesh Chavan <pc44800@gmail.com>
Date
Jul 29, 2017, 22:23 UTC
Message-ID
<20170729222401.12381-10-pc44800@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<20170729222401.12381-1-pc44800@gmail.com>

When running 'git submodule foreach' from a subdirectory of your repository, nested submodules get a bogus value for $sm_path: For a submodule 'sub' that contains a nested submodule 'nested', running 'git -C dir submodule foreach echo $path' would report path='../nested' for the nested submodule. The first part '../' is derived from the logic computing the relative path from $pwd to the root of the superproject. The second part is the submodule path inside the submodule. This value is of little use and is hard to document.

There are two different possible solutions that have more value:
(a) The path value is documented as the path from the toplevel of the
    superproject to the mount point of the submodule.
    In this case we would want to have path='sub/nested'.
(b) As Ramsay noticed the documented value is wrong. For the non-nested
    case the path is equal to the relative path from $pwd to the
    submodules working directory. When following this model,
    the expected value would be path='../sub/nested'.

The behavior for (b) was introduced in 091a6eb0fe (submodule: drop the top-level requirement, 2013-06-16) the intent for $path seemed to be relative to $cwd to the submodule worktree, but that did not work for nested submodules, as the intermittent submodules were not included in the path.

If we were to fix the meaning of the $path using (a) such that "path" is "the path from the toplevel of the superproject to the mount point of the submodule", we would break any existing submodule user that runs foreach from non-root of the superproject as the non-nested submodule '../sub' would change its path to 'sub'.

If we would fix the meaning of the $path using (b), such that "path" is "the relative path from $pwd to the submodule", then we would break any user that uses nested submodules (even from the root directory) as the 'nested' would become 'sub/nested'.

Both groups can be found in the wild. The author has no data if one group outweighs the other by large margin, and offending each one seems equally bad at first. However in the authors imagination it is better to go with (a) as running from a sub directory sounds like it is carried out by a human rather than by some automation task. With a human on the keyboard the feedback loop is short and the changed behavior can be adapted to quickly unlike some automation that can break silently.

Discussed-with: Ramsay Jones <ramsay@ramsayjones.plus.com>
Signed-off-by: Prathamesh Chavan <pc44800@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
---
 git-submodule.sh             |  1 -
 t/t7407-submodule-foreach.sh | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 2 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/git-submodule.sh b/git-submodule.sh
index a427ddafd..493a64372 100755
--- a/git-submodule.sh
+++ b/git-submodule.sh
@@ -320,7 +320,6 @@ cmd_foreach()
 				prefix="$prefix$sm_path/"
 				sanitize_submodule_env
 				cd "$sm_path" &&
-				sm_path=$(git submodule--helper relative-path "$sm_path" "$wt_prefix") &&
 				# we make $path available to scripts ...
 				path=$sm_path &&
 				if test $# -eq 1
diff --git a/t/t7407-submodule-foreach.sh b/t/t7407-submodule-foreach.sh
index 6ba5daf42..0663622a4 100755
--- a/t/t7407-submodule-foreach.sh
+++ b/t/t7407-submodule-foreach.sh
@@ -82,9 +82,9 @@ test_expect_success 'test basic "submodule foreach" usage' '
 
 cat >expect <<EOF
 Entering '../sub1'
-$pwd/clone-foo1-../sub1-$sub1sha1
+$pwd/clone-foo1-sub1-$sub1sha1
 Entering '../sub3'
-$pwd/clone-foo3-../sub3-$sub3sha1
+$pwd/clone-foo3-sub3-$sub3sha1
 EOF
 
 test_expect_success 'test "submodule foreach" from subdirectory' '
@@ -196,6 +196,38 @@ test_expect_success 'test messages from "foreach --recursive" from subdirectory'
 	) &&
 	test_i18ncmp expect actual
 '
+sub1sha1=$(cd clone2/sub1 && git rev-parse HEAD)
+sub2sha1=$(cd clone2/sub2 && git rev-parse HEAD)
+sub3sha1=$(cd clone2/sub3 && git rev-parse HEAD)
+nested1sha1=$(cd clone2/nested1 && git rev-parse HEAD)
+nested2sha1=$(cd clone2/nested1/nested2 && git rev-parse HEAD)
+nested3sha1=$(cd clone2/nested1/nested2/nested3 && git rev-parse HEAD)
+submodulesha1=$(cd clone2/nested1/nested2/nested3/submodule && git rev-parse HEAD)
+
+cat >expect <<EOF
+Entering '../nested1'
+$pwd/clone2-nested1-nested1-$nested1sha1
+Entering '../nested1/nested2'
+$pwd/clone2/nested1-nested2-nested2-$nested2sha1
+Entering '../nested1/nested2/nested3'
+$pwd/clone2/nested1/nested2-nested3-nested3-$nested3sha1
+Entering '../nested1/nested2/nested3/submodule'
+$pwd/clone2/nested1/nested2/nested3-submodule-submodule-$submodulesha1
+Entering '../sub1'
+$pwd/clone2-foo1-sub1-$sub1sha1
+Entering '../sub2'
+$pwd/clone2-foo2-sub2-$sub2sha1
+Entering '../sub3'
+$pwd/clone2-foo3-sub3-$sub3sha1
+EOF
+
+test_expect_success 'test "submodule foreach --recursive" from subdirectory' '
+	(
+		cd clone2/untracked &&
+		git submodule foreach --recursive "echo \$toplevel-\$name-\$sm_path-\$sha1" >../../actual
+	) &&
+	test_i18ncmp expect actual
+'
 
 cat > expect <<EOF
 nested1-nested1
-- 
2.13.0
Previous: Prathamesh ChavanNext: Prathamesh Chavan
Message 36 of 41 in “Update: Week 10”
  1. Prathamesh ChavanJul 24, 2017
  2. [GSoC][PATCH 01/13] submodule--helper: introduce get_submodule_displaypath()Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  3. [GSoC][PATCH 02/13] submodule--helper: introduce for_each_submodule_list()Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  4. [GSoC][PATCH 03/13] submodule: port set_name_rev() from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  5. Brandon WilliamsJul 24, 2017
  6. [GSoC][PATCH 04/13] submodule: port submodule subcommand 'status' from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  7. Brandon WilliamsJul 24, 2017
  8. [GSoC][PATCH 05/13] submodule: port submodule subcommand 'sync' from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  9. Brandon WilliamsJul 24, 2017
  10. [GSoC][PATCH 06/13] submodule: port submodule subcommand 'deinit' from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  11. Brandon WilliamsJul 24, 2017
  12. [GSoC][PATCH 07/13] diff: change scope of the function count_lines()Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  13. [GSoC][PATCH 08/13] submodule: port submodule subcommand 'summary' from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  14. Brandon WilliamsJul 25, 2017
  15. [GSoC][PATCH 09/13] submodule foreach: correct '$path' in nested submodules from a subdirectoryPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  16. Brandon WilliamsJul 25, 2017
  17. [GSoC][PATCH 10/13] submodule foreach: document '$sm_path' instead of '$path'Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  18. Brandon WilliamsJul 25, 2017
  19. [GSoC][PATCH 11/13] submodule foreach: clarify the '$toplevel' variable documentationPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  20. [GSoC][PATCH 12/13] submodule foreach: document variable '$displaypath'Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  21. Brandon WilliamsJul 25, 2017
  22. [GSoC][PATCH 13/13] submodule: port submodule subcommand 'foreach' from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 24, 2017
  23. Brandon WilliamsJul 25, 2017
  24. [GSoC][PATCH v2 00/13] Update: Week 10Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  25. [GSoC][PATCH v2 01/13] submodule--helper: introduce get_submodule_displaypath()Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  26. [GSoC][PATCH v2 02/13] submodule--helper: introduce for_each_submodule_list()Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  27. [GSoC][PATCH v2 03/13] submodule: port set_name_rev() from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  28. [GSoC][PATCH v2 04/13] submodule: port submodule subcommand 'status' from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  29. Christian CouderJul 30, 2017
  30. [GSoC][PATCH v2 05/13] submodule: port submodule subcommand 'sync' from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  31. [GSoC][PATCH v2 06/13] submodule: port submodule subcommand 'deinit' from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  32. [GSoC][PATCH v2 07/13] diff: change scope of the function count_lines()Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  33. [GSoC][PATCH v2 08/13] submodule: port submodule subcommand 'summary' from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  34. Christian CouderJul 30, 2017
  35. Prathamesh ChavanJul 30, 2017
  36. [GSoC][PATCH v2 09/13] submodule foreach: correct '$path' in nested submodules from a subdirectoryPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  37. [GSoC][PATCH v2 10/13] submodule foreach: document '$sm_path' instead of '$path'Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  38. [GSoC][PATCH v2 11/13] submodule foreach: clarify the '$toplevel' variable documentationPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  39. [GSoC][PATCH v2 12/13] submodule foreach: document variable '$displaypath'Prathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  40. [GSoC][PATCH v2 13/13] submodule: port submodule subcommand 'foreach' from shell to CPrathamesh Chavan, Jul 29, 2017
  41. Brandon WilliamsJul 31, 2017

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.