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[PATCH v2 6/6] submodule: look up remotes by URL first

From
Jacob Keller <jacob.e.keller@intel.com>
Date
Jun 17, 2025, 21:30 UTC
Message-ID
<20250617-jk-submodule-helper-use-url-v2-6-04cbb003177d@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<20250617-jk-submodule-helper-use-url-v2-0-04cbb003177d@gmail.com>
From: Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@gmail.com>

The get_default_remote_submodule() function performs a lookup to find the appropriate remote to use within a submodule. The function first checks to see if it can find the remote for the current branch. If this fails, it then checks to see if there is exactly one remote. It will use this, before finally falling back to "origin" as the default.

If a user happens to rename their default remote from origin, either manually or by setting something like clone.defaultRemoteName, this fallback will not work.

In such cases, the submodule logic will try to use a non-existent remote. This usually manifests as a failure to trigger the submodule update.

The parent project already knows and stores the submodule URL in either .gitmodules or its .git/config.

Add a new repo_remote_from_url() helper which will iterate over all the remotes in a repository and return the first remote which has a matching URL.

Refactor get_default_remote_submodule to find the submodule and get its URL. If a valid URL exists, first try to obtain a remote using the new repo_remote_from_url(). Fall back to the repo_default_remote() otherwise.

The fallback logic is kept in case for some reason the user has manually changed the URL within the submodule. Additionally, we still try to use a remote rather than directly passing the URL in the fetch_in_submodule() logic. This ensures that an update will properly update the remote refs within the submodule as expected, rather than just fetching into FETCH_HEAD.

Signed-off-by: Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@gmail.com>
---
 remote.h                    |  1 +
 builtin/submodule--helper.c | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 remote.c                    | 15 +++++++++++++++
 t/t7406-submodule-update.sh | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 73 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/remote.h b/remote.h
index 672e8e893b8243c09145c340f412aa0eae8d562f..59033d5d82dd81d79174f265c1d501ee5653a6ec 100644
--- a/remote.h
+++ b/remote.h
@@ -340,6 +340,7 @@ const char *pushremote_for_branch(struct branch *branch, int *explicit);
 char *remote_ref_for_branch(struct branch *branch, int for_push);
 
 const char *repo_default_remote(struct repository *repo);
+const char *repo_remote_from_url(struct repository *repo, const char *url);
 
 /* returns true if the given branch has merge configuration given. */
 int branch_has_merge_config(struct branch *branch);
diff --git a/builtin/submodule--helper.c b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
index 1aa87435c2000e94f43da94c5ef88a307f6f3f4a..84a96d300d9489706fb16280f03aea02f87f1657 100644
--- a/builtin/submodule--helper.c
+++ b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
@@ -72,16 +72,40 @@ static char *resolve_relative_url(const char *rel_url, const char *up_path, int
 
 static int get_default_remote_submodule(const char *module_path, char **default_remote)
 {
+	const struct submodule *sub;
 	struct repository subrepo;
+	const char *remote_name = NULL;
+	char *url = NULL;
+
+	sub = submodule_from_path(the_repository, null_oid(the_hash_algo), module_path);
+	if (sub && sub->url) {
+		url = xstrdup(sub->url);
+
+		/* Possibly a url relative to parent */
+		if (starts_with_dot_dot_slash(url) ||
+		    starts_with_dot_slash(url)) {
+			char *oldurl = url;
+
+			url = resolve_relative_url(oldurl, NULL, 1);
+			free(oldurl);
+		}
+	}
 
 	if (repo_submodule_init(&subrepo, the_repository, module_path,
 				null_oid(the_hash_algo)) < 0)
 		return die_message(_("could not get a repository handle for submodule '%s'"),
 				   module_path);
 
-	*default_remote = xstrdup(repo_default_remote(&subrepo));
+	/* Look up by URL first */
+	if (url)
+		remote_name = repo_remote_from_url(&subrepo, url);
+	if (!remote_name)
+		remote_name = repo_default_remote(&subrepo);
+
+	*default_remote = xstrdup(remote_name);
 
 	repo_clear(&subrepo);
+	free(url);
 
 	return 0;
 }
diff --git a/remote.c b/remote.c
index 94b31f4c23057a247a968fc0ebe2e5170e99614d..706c25af0c27aaa9090197e93e87c2a612497172 100644
--- a/remote.c
+++ b/remote.c
@@ -1796,6 +1796,21 @@ const char *repo_default_remote(struct repository *repo)
 	return remotes_remote_for_branch(repo->remote_state, branch, NULL);
 }
 
+const char *repo_remote_from_url(struct repository *repo, const char *url)
+{
+	read_config(repo, 0);
+
+	for (int i = 0; i < repo->remote_state->remotes_nr; i++) {
+		struct remote *remote = repo->remote_state->remotes[i];
+		if (!remote)
+			continue;
+
+		if (remote_has_url(remote, url))
+			return remote->name;
+	}
+	return NULL;
+}
+
 int branch_has_merge_config(struct branch *branch)
 {
 	return branch && !!branch->merge;
diff --git a/t/t7406-submodule-update.sh b/t/t7406-submodule-update.sh
index 748b529745a5121f121768bb4e0cbc11bc833ea4..c09047b5f441a73a02a9fc4197e9a0ea8f39b529 100755
--- a/t/t7406-submodule-update.sh
+++ b/t/t7406-submodule-update.sh
@@ -1134,6 +1134,38 @@ test_expect_success 'setup clean recursive superproject' '
 	git clone --recurse-submodules top top-clean
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'submodule update with multiple remotes' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -fr top-cloned" &&
+	cp -r top-clean top-cloned &&
+
+	# Create a commit in each repo, starting with bottom
+	test_commit -C bottom multiple_remote_commit &&
+	# Create middle commit
+	git -C middle/bottom fetch &&
+	git -C middle/bottom checkout -f FETCH_HEAD &&
+	git -C middle add bottom &&
+	git -C middle commit -m "multiple_remote_commit" &&
+	# Create top commit
+	git -C top/middle fetch &&
+	git -C top/middle checkout -f FETCH_HEAD &&
+	git -C top add middle &&
+	git -C top commit -m "multiple_remote_commit" &&
+
+	# rename the submodule remote
+	git -C top-cloned/middle remote rename origin upstream &&
+
+	# Add another remote
+	git -C top-cloned/middle remote add other bogus &&
+
+	# Make the update of "middle" a no-op, otherwise we error out
+	# because of its unmerged state
+	test_config -C top-cloned submodule.middle.update !true &&
+	git -C top-cloned submodule update --recursive 2>actual.err &&
+	cat >expect.err <<-\EOF &&
+	EOF
+	test_cmp expect.err actual.err
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'submodule update with renamed remote' '
 	test_when_finished "rm -fr top-cloned" &&
 	cp -r top-clean top-cloned &&

-- 
2.48.1.397.gec9d649cc640
Previous: Jacob Keller
Message 18 of 18 in “submodule: improve remote lookup logic”
  1. 0/6 submodule: improve remote lookup logicJacob Keller, Jun 17, 2025
  2. 1/6 remote: fix tear down of struct branch and struct remoteJacob Keller, Jun 17, 2025
  3. Junio C HamanoJun 17, 2025
  4. Jacob KellerJun 17, 2025
  5. Junio C HamanoJun 18, 2025
  6. Junio C HamanoJun 18, 2025
  7. Jacob KellerJun 18, 2025
  8. Lidong YanJun 18, 2025
  9. Jacob KellerJun 17, 2025
  10. 2/6 dir: move starts_with_dot(_dot)_slash to dir.hJacob Keller, Jun 17, 2025
  11. 3/6 remote: remove the_repository from some functionsJacob Keller, Jun 17, 2025
  12. Junio C HamanoJun 17, 2025
  13. Jacob KellerJun 17, 2025
  14. 4/6 submodule--helper: improve logic for fallback remote nameJacob Keller, Jun 17, 2025
  15. Junio C HamanoJun 17, 2025
  16. Jacob KellerJun 17, 2025
  17. 5/6 submodule: move get_default_remote_submodule()Jacob Keller, Jun 17, 2025
  18. 6/6 submodule: look up remotes by URL firstJacob Keller, Jun 17, 2025

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