Re: [PATCH v9 0/3] teach submodules to know they're submodules

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 13, 2022, 05:43 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqpmmql860.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <220311.8635joj0lf.gmgdl@evledraar.gmail.com>

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:

> But now it's a boolean indicating "it's there, discover it", and the
> implied (but not really explicitly stated) reason in 2/3 is that it's
> purely for optimization purposes at this point.

You may know that I have a separate checkout of the 'todo' branch at path "Meta" in my working tree.

I could use the hasSuperproject=false setting there, to say "this is *NOT* a submodule, even the parent directory is a working tree of a different repository, it is not our superproject, so do *NOT* bother to go up to discover anything".

If that configuration weren't there in the "Meta/.git/config", the parent directory of "Meta" (which has its own ".git") cannot tell if that "Meta" thing is a submodule being prepared that hasn't been added yet, or it will never intended to be a submodule. I would imagine that "git add X" can later be taught to refuse to add X if there is X/.git and X/.git/config says it explicitly says that it does not have a superproject.

So, I am not sure if it is a good characterization that it is for optimization at all.