# URL rewrites for submodules

4 messages from 2020-02-10 to 2020-02-12. Participants: Toon Claes, Junio C Hamano, Jonathan Nieder.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/52775

## Toon Claes, 2020-02-10 20:56

Subject: URL rewrites for submodules
Message-ID: <87wo8ucgar.fsf@iotcl.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/87wo8ucgar.fsf%40iotcl.com

```
Hi,

I recently learned about rewriting URLs. Pretty cool feature. Learned
about it here:
https://jonhnnyweslley.net/blog/how-to-rewrite-git-urls-to-clone-faster-and-push-safer/ 

But I've been doing some testing, and this feature does not seem to work
for git submodules. Is it like that by design, so are there technical or
practical limitation why we would not like to have this feature on
submodules too?

If it's not by design, would you consider a contribution adding this
feature? What should I then pay attention at? For example, should there
be an option to enable/disable it for submodules, something like:

[url "http://new.url.example.com"]
     insteadOf = "old.url.example.com"
     submodules = true


--
Toon

```

## Junio C Hamano, 2020-02-10 22:04

Subject: Re: URL rewrites for submodules
Message-ID: <xmqqv9oexfnr.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqqv9oexfnr.fsf%40gitster-ct.c.googlers.com
In-Reply-To: <87wo8ucgar.fsf@iotcl.com>

```
Toon Claes <toon@iotcl.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I recently learned about rewriting URLs. Pretty cool feature. Learned
> about it here:
> https://jonhnnyweslley.net/blog/how-to-rewrite-git-urls-to-clone-faster-and-push-safer/ 
>
> But I've been doing some testing, and this feature does not seem to work
> for git submodules. Is it like that by design, so are there technical or
> practical limitation why we would not like to have this feature on
> submodules too?

Wouldn't these submodules have their own .git/config where you can
define the rewrite rules?  It depends on why you use the rewriting
rules but some common reasons why you rewrite URL A to URL B would
apply regardless of which project hosted at A you are accessing,
namely, performance and convenience.  And in such a case, you do not
necessarily want to have the rewrite config in the per-repository
configuration file of the top-level superproject.  If you define
them instead in $HOME/.gitconfig, that would apply equally to all
repositories you would access.

```

## Toon Claes, 2020-02-11 21:02

Subject: Re: URL rewrites for submodules
Message-ID: <87sgjgdeh5.fsf@iotcl.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/87sgjgdeh5.fsf%40iotcl.com
In-Reply-To: <xmqqv9oexfnr.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>

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

> If you define them instead in $HOME/.gitconfig, that would apply
> equally to all repositories you would access.

Yes, that makes sense to me too. But in my testing adding URL rewrites
did not apply to submodules anyway. So that feels to me this feature is
missing, WDYT?

-- 
Toon

```

## Jonathan Nieder, 2020-02-12 01:35

Subject: Re: URL rewrites for submodules
Message-ID: <20200212013537.GA18770@google.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20200212013537.GA18770%40google.com
In-Reply-To: <87sgjgdeh5.fsf@iotcl.com>

```
Hi,

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

>> If you define them instead in $HOME/.gitconfig, that would apply
>> equally to all repositories you would access.
>
> Yes, that makes sense to me too. But in my testing adding URL rewrites
> did not apply to submodules anyway.

Hm, that doesn't match my experience --- I've been able to use URL
rewrite rules reliably.

Do you have a sequence of commands I can run to reproduce the issue
you're running into?

Thanks and hope that helps,
Jonathan

```
