Subject: [PATCH] user-manual: Explain what submodules are good for.

From: Michael Smith <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:14:09 -0400

Rework the introduction to the Submodules section to explain why
someone would use them, and fix up submodule references from the
tree-object and todo sections.

Signed-off-by: Michael Smith <[email-masked]>
---
 Documentation/user-manual.txt |   25 ++++++++++++++-----------
 1 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/user-manual.txt b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
index a085ca1..bd77e62 100644
--- a/Documentation/user-manual.txt
+++ b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
@@ -2856,8 +2856,7 @@ between two related tree objects, since it can ignore any entries with
 identical object names.
 
 (Note: in the presence of submodules, trees may also have commits as
-entries.   See gitlink:git-submodule[1] and gitlink:gitmodules.txt[1]
-for partial documentation.)
+entries.  See <<submodules>> for documentation.)
 
 Note that the files all have mode 644 or 755: git actually only pays
 attention to the executable bit.
@@ -3163,12 +3162,18 @@ information as long as you have the name of the tree that it described.
 Submodules
 ==========
 
-This tutorial explains how to create and publish a repository with submodules
-using the gitlink:git-submodule[1] command.
+Some large projects are composed of smaller, self-contained parts.  For
+example, an embedded Linux distribution's source tree would include every
+piece of software in the distribution; a movie player might need to build
+against a specific, known-working version of a decompression library;
+several independent programs might all share the same build scripts.
 
-Submodules maintain their own identity; the submodule support just stores the
-submodule repository location and commit ID, so other developers who clone the
-superproject can easily clone all the submodules at the same revision.
+Git's submodule support allows a repository to contain, as a subdirectory, a
+checkout of an external project.  Submodules maintain their own identity;
+the submodule support just stores the submodule repository location and
+commit ID, so other developers who clone the superproject can easily clone
+all the submodules at the same revision.  The gitlink:git-submodule[1]
+command manages submodules.
 
 To see how submodule support works, create (for example) four example
 repositories that can be used later as a submodule:
@@ -3213,8 +3218,8 @@ The `git submodule add` command does a couple of things:
 
 - It clones the submodule under the current directory and by default checks out
   the master branch.
-- It adds the submodule's clone path to the `.gitmodules` file and adds this
-  file to the index, ready to be committed.
+- It adds the submodule's clone path to the gitlink:gitmodules[5] file and
+  adds this file to the index, ready to be committed.
 - It adds the submodule's current commit ID to the index, ready to be
   committed.
 
@@ -4277,5 +4282,3 @@ Write a chapter on using plumbing and writing scripts.
 Alternates, clone -reference, etc.
 
 git unpack-objects -r for recovery
-
-submodules
-- 
1.5.3