On Sat, Aug 6, 2016 at 10:29 AM, Junio C Hamano <gits...@pobox.com> wrote: > Stefan Beller <sbel...@google.com> writes: > >> Some submodules in the referenced superproject may not be there, >> (they are just not initialized/cloned/checked out), which yields >> an error for now. > > Perhaps you can teach "git clone --reference" an new option > (--reference-if-able) to do this? Then > > When `--reference` is given together with `--recursive`, > the reference repository is assumed to contain the submodules > as well and the submodules are setup as alternates of the > submodules in the given reference project. > > in which "assumed" is a horrible wording (leave the reader > wondering: "so what happens to my data when the assumption does not > hold") can become a lot more reasonable > > When using --reference with --recursive, the --reference is used > to specify a repository that has a copy of the superproject. If > that copy has submodules cloned for itself in its $GIT_DIR/modules, > they are used as --reference when cloning submodules in the > resulting clone. > > and readers expectation would match with the reality. Their > submodules would be cloned in a regular fashion if the central > mirror does not have it, and would take advantage of it if there is > already a clone.
That makes sense. > > Come to think of it, do we even need --super-reference? "git clone > --reference --recursive" is a two step process, in that first the > superproject is cloned while creating objects/info/alternates, and > then submodules are cloned (via "update --init"). Can we make the > procedure to clone a submodule always look at the reference of the > superproject (i.e. objects/info/alternates) and try to borrow from > the place in it that corresponds to the submodule? That way, not > just "git clone --reference --recursive" would take advantage of the > existing mirrors of submodules, a user who does this: > > $ git clone --reference $URL super > $ cd super > $ git submodule update --init ... > > would be able to take advantage of the "what the mirror the > superproject uses already has" when cloning the submodules, no? That would work, too. I'll implement that. Thanks, Stefan -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majord...@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
