Subject: Re: git-submodule getting submodules from the parent repository

From: Sam Vilain <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:05:49 +1300

Avery Pennarun wrote:
> I even *use* git-submodule and had to modify my build scripts because
> "git submodule init" and "git submodule update" don't seem to kick in
> automatically for some reason.

The reason is that not everyone wants that by default.  Perhaps it is a
good idea for it to be default behaviour; but all in good time.  It can
be a user-selected option to clone first.

> The ideal situation would be to have
> git just manage the version control without having to babysit it, of
> course.

I can understand the motivation to write such disparaging remarks;
however it may be more productive to come up with good ideas about how
it can be made to work better for you, without getting in the way of
other users.  patches are even better!

>>  If I understand you correctly, you want to be forced to create a
>>  branch and push to that?  I don't think that works well with many
>>  developers pushing to a shared repository (my situation),
> 
> Hmm, this is curious.  If you're *not* using submodules, then I don't
> think you can push successfully without being on a branch, can you?

Sure, you could;

  git push origin HEAD:branchname

However I think the right solution to this is to name the branch
appropriately somehow, so that the default push operation works.

> If you 'git checkout -b branchname' inside a submodule, then 'git
> push' will do the right thing, so I'm not sure what you'd want to be
> more automagical than that.

Well, where did you get the branch name from?  That's the part that
requires user intervention.  You could make an educated guess, such as
with git name-rev, but it would not necessarily be the right guess - so
user confirmation of the choice would be desirable.

Sam.