[IPython-dev] submodules over https

[W. Trevor King]

On Thu, May 02, 2013 at 07:05:11PM +0100, Aron Ahmadia wrote:
> *Even forcing people to do "git submodule init && git
> submodule update" adds friction.*
> *
> *
> Tell them to do:
> 
> git clone --recursive ipython/ipython # this does the submodule
> init/update bits for you

Brian raises a good point.  When I start working on a new project, I
usually clone upstream.  If I actually write a useful PR, I fork on
GitHub (via `hub fork`).  With this approach, the relative submodules
work fine.

If you *start* your development with a fork on GitHub and subsequent
local clone of your fork, you're going to run into problems with
relative submodule URLs.  If we already have IPythonistas that have
tripped over this problem, hard coded URLs may be the way to go.

> Submodules add an unfriendly level of complexity, but it turns out
> that version control is a hard problem :/

I think it's mostly that submodules were designed for a distribution
management perspective, so pulling in lots of optional submodules with
loose bindings between them is easy.  Making submodularization
transparent (strong bindings) is more difficult, although there's been
a lot of work upstream over the past few months to make submodules
more of a first class citizen:

  git$ git log --all --oneline --grep submodule --since=2013-02-01 | wc -l
  68

Cheers,
Trevor

-- 
This email may be signed or encrypted with GnuPG (http://www.gnupg.org).
For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/ipython-dev/attachments/20130502/3c0bb521/attachment-0001.sig>