From: Xavier Morel <xmo@odoo•com>
To: git@vger•kernel.org
Subject: git submodule using worktrees?
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:13:12 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <5152ce98-b0ce-42f2-bd34-1cc324042f88@odoo.com> (raw)
I have a number of fairly large projects I work with, for that reason I
have a bare clone for each and fork off worktrees as needed in order to
avoid unnecessary duplication and pulls between them. That works just fine.
However when I tried to use submodules to provide a unified view of some
of those projects I found out that there's seemingly no way to have
submodules created as worktrees (off of a shared repository), at least
not built-in. It seems like the submodules do set up some sort of bare
repository / worktree situation but do not support passing in an
existing repository to worktree off of.
`--reference` with `--dissociate` does avoid unnecessary fetches on the
initial clone, but they do duplicate objects (and without `--dissociate`
has all the issues of a non-static shared alternate), and do require
duplicate fetches afterwards to update the submodules, even if the
central local repository already has everything.
Q1: is there any way to massage the submodules into working off of a
central shared repository? Poking around and messing with `.git/modules`
didn't really work out but I may have just not poked the right bit,
having to set up the submodules by hand (or via a bespoke script) is no
issue.
Q2: is there any chance submodules will gain more first-class support
for worktree-ing off of a local repository in the future
next reply other threads:[~2026-03-12 8:13 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-03-12 8:13 Xavier Morel [this message]
2026-03-12 8:20 ` git submodule using worktrees? Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-03-12 8:29 ` Xavier Morel
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