Re: [PATCH v5 4/7] submodule: add extension to encode gitdir paths

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Dec 6, 2025, 16:38 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq8qffpnui.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <aTQanNSlj6VxDY-n@pks.im>

Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> writes:

Show 12 quoted lines

> Maybe the right approach would be to tell users to never manually enable
> the extension and instead to provide a command that both:
>
>   - Persists the submodule gitdirs for any populated submodules in the
>     gitconfig.
>
>   - Enables the repsitory extension.
>
> If we had that then we could count on the submodule gitdirs to exist in
> the gitconfig, and if they don't we would die with an error message that
> indicates that the repository is broken, maybe even with a hint for the
> user on how to fix it.

I personally like the simplicity of this approach.

I haven't however thought about operational complexity, if one has an existing user base that have been using a custom pathname munging code that needs to be migrated to the new scheme.