From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2016 23:17:36 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH 05/15] submodule-config: check if submodule a submodule is in a group
Message-ID: <xmqqvb34arjj.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqq37q8c6zz.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>

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

> I see room for bikeshedding here, but the material to bikeshed
> around is not even documented yet ;-)
>
>  * a token prefixed with '*' is a label.
>  * a token prefixed with './' is a path.
>  * a token prefixed with ':' is a name.
>
> Hopefully I will see some description like that in later patches.
> I'll read on.

Extending this on a bit, I would suggest tweaking the above slightly
and make the rule more like this:

  * a token prefixed with '*' is a label.

  * a token prefixed with ':' is a name.

  * everything else is a path, but "./" at the front is skipped,
    which can be used to disambiguate an unfortunate path that
    begins with ':' or '*'.

A bigger thing I am wondering is if it is bettter to do _without_
adding a new --group=X option everywhere.  I am assuming that most
if not all submodule subcommands already use "module_list" aka
"submodule--helper list" that takes paths, and to them, extending
that interface to also understand the groups and names would be a
more natural way to extend the UI, no?  e.g.

	$ git submodule update -- 'path1' 'path2'
        $ git submodule update -- '*default'
        $ git submodule update -- ':named'

instead of

	$ git submodule update -- 'path1 'path2'
        $ git submodule update --group='*default' --
        $ git submodule update --group=':named' --

which special-cases the way to specify a set of submodules by
listing their paths.