# should git-subtree ignore submodules?

2 messages from 2016-11-02 to 2017-03-29. Participants: Kirill Katsnelson, David Aguilar.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/44411

## Kirill Katsnelson, 2016-11-01 19:41

Subject: should git-subtree ignore submodules?
Message-ID: <183ca87e-1bc0-080c-3d42-87c689b9f62e@smartaction.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/183ca87e-1bc0-080c-3d42-87c689b9f62e%40smartaction.com

```
"git-subtree add" fails to add the subtree into a repository with 
submodules, reporting that the worktree is not clean, while `git status` 
says that everything is clean (including submodules). I tracked the 
problem down to the command "git index HEAD" returning all submodules as 
having the M status:

$ git diff-index HEAD
:160000 160000 d3812c9318c4d0336897fd2d666be908fa1a7953 
d3812c9318c4d0336897fd2d666be908fa1a7953 M      ext/grpc
<snip more submodules>
$ git --version
git version 2.9.2.windows.1

I worked around the problem in my local copy of git-subtree shell script 
by adding "--ignore-submodules=all" to the two invocations of `git 
diff-index` in the ensure_clean() function (direct link 
<https://github.com/git/git/blob/next/contrib/subtree/git-subtree.sh#L586>).

I am wondering, is this a defect in git-subtree? To my understanding, 
the command should not care about submodules more than ensuring their 
worktree is not in the way of new prefix, and that's a separate check. 
So *even if* the submodule is modified, this should not be a show 
stopper for "git-subtree add". Or am I missing some subtleties?

  -kkm

```

## David Aguilar, 2017-03-29 07:05

Subject: Re: should git-subtree ignore submodules?
Message-ID: <20170329070515.znaox4q52q5elkxy@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20170329070515.znaox4q52q5elkxy%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <183ca87e-1bc0-080c-3d42-87c689b9f62e@smartaction.com>

```
On Tue, Nov 01, 2016 at 12:41:50PM -0700, Kirill Katsnelson wrote:
> "git-subtree add" fails to add the subtree into a repository with
> submodules, reporting that the worktree is not clean, while `git status`
> says that everything is clean (including submodules). I tracked the problem
> down to the command "git index HEAD" returning all submodules as having the
> M status:
> 
> $ git diff-index HEAD
> :160000 160000 d3812c9318c4d0336897fd2d666be908fa1a7953
> d3812c9318c4d0336897fd2d666be908fa1a7953 M      ext/grpc
> <snip more submodules>
> $ git --version
> git version 2.9.2.windows.1
> 
> I worked around the problem in my local copy of git-subtree shell script by
> adding "--ignore-submodules=all" to the two invocations of `git diff-index`
> in the ensure_clean() function (direct link
> <https://github.com/git/git/blob/next/contrib/subtree/git-subtree.sh#L586>).
> 
> I am wondering, is this a defect in git-subtree? To my understanding, the
> command should not care about submodules more than ensuring their worktree
> is not in the way of new prefix, and that's a separate check. So *even if*
> the submodule is modified, this should not be a show stopper for
> "git-subtree add". Or am I missing some subtleties?

That sounds correct to me; subtree should ignore submodules.
-- 
David

```