Subject: Re: [RFC/PATCH] clone: introduce clone.submoduleGitDir to relocate $GITDIR

From: Marc Branchaud <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:46:07 -0400

On 13-04-16 04:17 AM, Ramkumar Ramachandra wrote:
> Marc Branchaud wrote:
>> If "git add" is all about specifying what lives under paths in the worktree,
>> what's wrong with letting "git add" go beyond specifying just files?
>>
>> Syntax aside for the moment, I think a command like
>>         git add git-repo-reference foo
>> is perfectly natural:  It specifies what is inside worktree path foo.
> 
> I never said "just files".  Files, directories, symlinks and
> submodules are all "things in the worktree", and all fine.  Remote
> URLs, on the other hand, have nothing to do with the worktree.

But they have everything to do with submodules.  You need a URL to identify a
submodule.  If you want a submodule in your worktree, at some point you have
to specify the submodule's URL.

I really feel like I'm missing something here.  You seem to be saying that
it's wrong to let "git add" interpret a URL as a submodule.  Instead you seem
to want to have some other mechanism create the files, directories and
symlinks that make up a submodule, so that "git add" can then operate with
the purity you desire.  That's what I don't understand.

As a submodule user, I want to "git add" a submodule.  I don't see why it's
necessary to have more than one command to do that.  But if you're saying
that it's fine for "git add" to work this way, then I don't see the point of
the proposed change to "git clone".

		M.