Re: Reference a submodule branch instead of a commit

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 4, 2016, 19:01 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqlgy4szuu.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqshscuilh.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

Show 20 quoted lines

> Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> writes:
>
>> I wonder if we could make that convenient for users by not tracking
>> the submodule,
>> i.e.
>> * we have the information in the .gitmodules file
>> * the path itself is in the .gitignore
>> * no tree entry
>>
>> Then you can update to the remote latest branch, without Git reporting
>> a dirty submodule locally, in fact it reports nothing for the submodule.
>>
>> It sounds like a hack, but maybe it's worth looking into that when
>> people want to see that workflow.
>
> It IS a hack.  
>
> But if you do not touch .git<anything> file and instead say "clone
> this other project at that path yourself" in README, that would
> probably be sufficient.

eh,... hit send too early.

It IS a hack, but having this information in .git<something> would mean that it can be forced to be in machine readable form, unlike a mention in README. I do not know if the .gitmodules/.gitignore combination is a sensible thing to use, but it does smell like a potentially useful hack.