Re: Unmodified submodules shows up as dirty with 1.6.6.443.gd7346

From: Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se>
Date: Jan 18, 2010, 16:54 UTC
Message-ID: <4B549254.5090206@isy.liu.se>
In-Reply-To: <8c9a061001180802t5ec0d389j2cae9f1771130c36@mail.gmail.com>

Jacob Helwig wrote:

Show 18 quoted lines

> On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 07:30, Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se> wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>> I have been using submodules for a while, and been quite happy with
>> them.  Just updating to the latest next (1.6.6.443.gd7346), a strange
>> problem has occurred.  All my submodules (which are in fact unmodified)
>> show as modified and dirty
>>
>> diff --git a/extern/utils b/extern/utils
>> --- a/extern/utils
>> +++ b/extern/utils
>> @@ -1 +1 @@
>> -Subproject commit 6bad20e1419f1ca61bd5a6eef9b5937122e006f1
>> +Subproject commit 6bad20e1419f1ca61bd5a6eef9b5937122e006f1-dirty
>>
>>
> Do you have any untracked files in the submodule?  git status is
> working as I would expect with the same version (1.6.6.443.gd7346).

Yes, I do.

Show 7 quoted lines

> 
> If there is no output from git status in the submodule, then git
> status in the superproject shows the submodule as being clean.
> However, if there is _any_ output from git status (untracked files,
> modified files, deleted files, new files), then the superproject shows
> the submodule as being dirty.
>

Then the behavior of this feature differs from the one provided by GIT-VERSION-GEN that is used as part of the git build process. This is not an argument itself, but personally, I don't like this behavior, and think it should be reconsidered before inclusion into master.

I have the following use case, which is affected. I have with in a submodule some code that needs to be compiled, and hence generate some object files and other files in the process. I don't want to include these files in a .gitignore as they are named differently on different systems. Hence, I include them in my .git/info/exclude file, where I am developing the module. So now, unless I do the same thing for all places I checkout the repo as submodule, I end up with the module indicated as dirty after I compile it. This is a bit inconvenient.

Am I the only one who uses submodules this way? Is there a better way to solve my problem that would provide a better work pattern in this case?

/Gustaf