Re: [PATCH] git-submodule: Fix typo 'url' which should be '$url'

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 3, 2008, 02:19 UTC
Message-ID: <7vy790k0qu.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <1204509798-671-1-git-send-email-pkufranky@gmail.com>

Ping Yin <pkufranky@gmail.com> writes:

> More thinking, why does empty url mean uninitialized? How about the
> case that the submodule url is deleted from .git/config?

That means the user is not interested in that subproject.

In-tree .gitmodules is merely a place a user who is interested in a partcular module described in it will pick up a _hint_ about attributes (currently, URL but there may be others) on the module from, when showing and recording his interest.

Notice I said "hint"; .gitmodules is _not_ meant as "default" in the sense that "if the user does not have it in .git/config then read from it".

"Is it checked-out", would be a good indication of user's interest when you talk about the current status (like "git submodule summary"), but if you think about the case of switching between branches that has and does not have a module, you would realize that "is it checked-out?" cannot be the authoritative and only place to record the user's interest.