Re: git-status for submodules

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Nov 21, 2008, 14:56 UTC
Message-ID: <7vabbtqga8.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <20081120033615.GA21128@foursquare.net>

Chris Frey <cdfrey@foursquare.net> writes:

> I'm using git 1.6.0.4 and trying to make submodules work for me.  The
> init/add/update steps are a bit tedious, but workable.  The problem I have
> is when I make a change in a submodule, then git-status does not show
> the change.

My understanding is that this is exactly by design. The supermodule tracks which commit in the subproject is bound to the tree location.

A mere act of changing something in the subproject directory is just a single, incomplete step to create a new commit in the subproject and will not be seen by the superproject's status. Instead of this workflow:

Show 7 quoted lines

> 	cd super
> 	vi newsuper
> 	vi existing_file
> 	cd sub
> 	vi newsub
> 	cd ..
> 	git status

the submodule support is geared toward supporting this layout:

	- "super" has a subproject X at "sub"

        - When you do a real work on the subproject X, you do so as if
          there is no supermodule.  IOW, subproject X has to be able to
          stand on its own.

One extreme case is you have a(nother) clone of subproject X that is independent from "super", do the real work there and create new commit, and update the subproject X inside "super". In such a workflow, "super" will never see an intermediate state between commits in the subproject directory.