Re: [PATCH] submodule : Add --no-separate-git-dir option to add and update command.

From: Jens Lehmann <jens.lehmann@web.de>
Date: Mar 5, 2014, 18:13 UTC
Message-ID: <53176951.7000201@web.de>
In-Reply-To: <1393878866.7891.22.camel@Naugrim>

Am 03.03.2014 21:34, schrieb Henri GEIST:

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> Le lundi 03 mars 2014 à 17:45 +0000, Jens Lehmann a écrit :
>> Am 03.03.2014 14:47, schrieb Henri GEIST:
>>> This new option prevent git submodule <add|update> to clone the missing
>>> submodules with the --separate-git-dir option.
>>> Then the submodule will be regular repository and their gitdir will not
>>> be placed in the superproject gitdir/modules directory.
>>
>> And what is your motivation for this? After all submodules containing
>> a .git directory are second class citizens (because they can never be
>> safely removed by regular git commands).
>>
> 
> I recognize most people will prefer to have the .git directory separate.
> And I do not intend to make this option the default.
> 
> My reasons are:
> 
>   - As it is not clearly stated in the doc that the gitdir is separate.
>     The first time I have copied one module to an USB key I had a big
>     surprise.

Oops! Could you please help us by hinting how the documentation could be improved here?

>   - This will not change anything for people not using it.

I do not agree, as they'll be seeing a new option and might use it to "go backward" as Junio explained in his answer.

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>   - I use an other patch which I plane to send later which enable multiple
>     level of superproject to add a gitlink to the same submodule.
>     And in this case the superproject containing the separate gitdir will be
>     arbitrary and depend on the processing order of the
>     'git submodule update --recursive' command.

I don't understand that. How is that different from using different names (and thus different separate gitdirs) for that duplicated submodule? After all, the .git directory is just moved somewhere else in the superproject's work tree, and as the name defaults to the path of the submodule ...

>   - I have written this for myself and have using it since 2012 and send it in
>     the hope it could be useful for someone else even if it is only a few
>     people. But if its not the case no problem I will keep using it for myself.

Thanks.