From: Alon Bar-Lev <alon.barlev@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2025 12:40:49 GMT
Subject: Re: git submodule of reference with no branch
Message-ID: <CAOazyz3f9Ggx88akX8G5LJYzJZxCCp8VZgCPtoM0YCJ8p_UzFg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAOazyz31vWPgGAFv2AHGzXO3MBGnz-EVW_ndPNgERBvRdAFS6A@mail.gmail.com>

Hello,

Does anyone have an idea how to handle a submodule reference without a branch?
If this is not supported, will you accept a patch?

Thanks,
Alon

On Sat, 22 Nov 2025 at 04:13, Alon Bar-Lev <alon.barlev@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I use Gerrit as a code review platform, there are some events in which
> I would like to review a feature that touches two repositories, one is
> a submodule of the other.
>
> The git module reference is set correctly, but since the change is
> under refs/changes/xxx and not under refs/heads/xxx, git cannot find
> this reference when trying to check out the repository.
>
> I could not find any option to either have an explicit reference
> without a branch or somehow to tweak the configuration to search under
> refs/changes instead of refs/heads.
>
> I understand the branch concept makes sense when updating as usually
> we are following a repository branch stream, however, I do not
> understand what purpose does the branch serve during checkout. The
> checkout should be possible based on the reference regardless of the
> branch.
>
> Does anyone have an idea if it is possible to have a submodule with a
> reference only or tweak git to search a different hierarchy of refs?
>
> Thanks,
> Alon