Re: [RFC/PATCH 0/7] Rework git core for native submodules

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Date: Apr 4, 2013, 18:40 UTC
Message-ID: <CA+55aFz1D_dMtMHHMpiGi3KL=Y-m4DVxHVr=1ZX8zYWQ2TPvwA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <1365100243-13676-1-git-send-email-artagnon@gmail.com>

On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 11:30 AM, Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

>
> The purpose of this series is to convince you that we've made a lot of
> fundamental mistakes while designing submodules, and that we should
> fix them now.  [1/7] argues for a new object type, and this is the
> core of the idea.

I don't dispute that a new link object might be a good idea, but there's no explanation of the actual format of this thing anywhere, and what the real advantages would be. A clearer "this is the design, this is the format of the link object, and this is what it buys us" would be a good idea. Also, one of the arguments against using link objects originally was that the format wasn't stable, and in particular the address of the actual submodule repository might differ for different people. So when adding a new object type, explaining *why* the format of such an object is globally stable (since it will be part of the SHA1 of the object) is a big deal.

            Linus