Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH 1/2] rm: don't fail when removing populated submodules

From: Jens Lehmann <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 22:23:21 +0200

Am 09.07.2012 21:38, schrieb Junio C Hamano:
> Jens Lehmann <[email-masked]> writes:
> 
>> Cool, so let's drop this patch and I'll teach "rm" to handle
>> populated submodules according to what we do for regular files:
>> Make sure there are no modifications which could get lost (unless
>> "-f") and remove all tracked files and the gitfile from the work
>> tree (unless "--cached") before removing the submodule from the
>> index. If the submodule uses the old layout with the .git
>> directory instead of a gitfile we error out just like we do today.
> 
> Alternatively we could "mv" .git directory out of the way and the
> next "git checkout" of a branch that still has the submodule can
> make a gitfile to point there, no?

Yup. That would mean a smooth transition for legacy .git-dir
submodules into the new gitfile world.

>> And we didn't talk about untracked or ignored files which may live
>> inside the submodules work tree so far, but according to what a
>> "rm -r" does in the superproject they should still be around after
>> using "rm" on a populated submodule, right?
> 
> Until we add the "precious" class, untracked and ignored files are
> expendable, so if a submodule working tree has no modification and
> only has leftover *.o files, they can be nuked as part of submodule
> removal, but if it has an untracked and unignored *.c file for
> example, the "rm" operation without "-f" should be stopped, no?

Ok, untracked files mark the submodule modified while ignored files
which are not tracked won't.

Thanks for this discussion, I'll start hacking on that.