Re: [PATCH 8/9] fetch: retry fetching submodules if needed objects were not fetched

>
> > > Another thing you need to clarify is what happens if the fetch-by-commit
> > > fails. Right now, it seems that it will make the whole thing fail, which
> > > might be a surprising change in behavior.
> >
> > But a positive surprise, I would assume?
>
> Whether positive or negative, I think that this needs to be mentioned in
> the commit message.
>
> As for positive or negative, I tend to agree that it's positive - sure,
> some previously successful fetches would now fail, but the results of
> those fetches could not be recursively checked out anyway.
>
> > > The test stores the result in a normal branch, not a remote tracking
> > > branch. Is storing in a normal branch required?
> >
> > In the test we fetch from another repository, such that in the
> > repository-under-test this will show up in a remote tracking branch?

> If that were true, I would expect that when this line:
>
> > git fetch --recurse-submodules --recurse-submodules-default on-demand origin refs/changes/2:refs/heads/my_branch &&
>
> is replaced by this line:
>
> > git fetch --recurse-submodules --recurse-submodules-default on-demand origin refs/changes/2 &&
>
> then things would still work. The tests pass with the first line (after
> I fixed a type mismatch) but not with the second. (Also I don't think a
> remote-tracking branch is generated here - the output printed doesn't
> indicate so, and refs/changes/2 is not a branch anyway.)

> > > Also, do you know why this is required? A naive reading of the patch
> > > leads me to believe that this should work even if merely fetching to
> > > FETCH_HEAD.
> >
> > See the next patch, check_for_new_submodule_commits() is missing
> > for FETCH_HEAD.
>
> I see in the next patch that there is an "if" branch in
> store_updated_refs() without update_local_ref() in which
> "check_for_new_submodule_commits(&rm->old_oid)" needs to be inserted. I
> think this is a symptom that maybe check_for_new_submodule_commits()
> needs to be extracted from update_local_ref() and put into
> store_updated_refs() instead? In update_local_ref(), it is called on
> ref->new_oid, which is actually the same as rm->old_oid anyway (there is
> an oidcpy earlier).

> > > What is a "default" submodule and why would you need one?
> >
> > s/default/artificial/. Such a submodule is a submodule that has no
> > config in the .gitmodules file and its name == path.
> > We need to keep those around for historic reasons AFAICT, c.f.
> > c68f837576 (implement fetching of moved submodules, 2017-10-16)
>
> Ah, OK. I would call it a fake submodule then, and copy over the "No
> entry in .gitmodules?" comment.