Re: [PATCH] clone: teach --single-branch and --branch during --recurse

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Jan 27, 2020, 23:00 UTC
Message-ID: <20200127230039.GA19360@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <20200127222019.GA233139@google.com>

On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 02:20:19PM -0800, Emily Shaffer wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> > It would make more sense to me to either (or both):
> > 
> >   - make sure that .gitmodules has enough information about which branch
> >     to use for each submodule
> 
> Hum. I don't work with them day to day, but aren't we already in that
> state? Is that not what the 'branch' option for each submodule means?

Probably? :) I've never used the feature myself, but it does seem like the right thing (and should definitely take precedence over any "-b" option passed to the superproject).

Show 10 quoted lines

> >   - offer an extra option for the default branch to use for any
> >     submodules. This is still not general enough to cover all situations
> >     (e.g., the bar/baz you showed above), but it at least makes it
> >     relatively easy to cover the simple cases, without breaking any
> >     existing ones.
> 
> Yeah, this is sort of the direction my mind went too - "not
> --branch recursively, but --submodule-branch". But that breaks down when you've
> got a nontrivial number of submodules, at which point you're gonna have
> a hard time unless you've got the .gitmodules configured correctly.

Right. Probably the right answer for that bar/baz case is to complain to the superproject owner that they didn't put branch fields into their .gitmodules. So...

> Well, as for this patch, let me try it with just --single-branch and see
> whether that works for the case the user reported. I can head back to
> the drawing board if not.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me.

-Peff