Re: [PATCH] submodule: spell out API of submodule_move_head

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> writes:

>> +/**
>> + * Move the HEAD and content of the active submodule at 'path' from object id
>> + * 'old' to 'new'.
>> + *
>> + * Updates the submodule at 'path' and files in its work tree to commit
>> + * 'new'. The commit previously pointed to by the submodule is named by
>> + * 'old'. This updates the submodule's HEAD, index, and work tree but
>> + * does not touch its gitlink entry in the superproject.
>> + *
>> + * If the submodule did not previously exist, then 'old' should be NULL.
>> + * Similarly, if the submodule is to be removed, 'new' should be NULL.
>> + *
>> + * If updating the submodule would cause local changes to be overwritten,
>> + * then instead of updating the submodule, this function prints an error
>> + * message and returns -1.
>
> This is not a new issue (the removed comment did not mention this at
> all), but is it correct to say that updates to "index and work tree"
> was as if we did "git -C $path checkout new" (and of course, HEAD in
> the $path submodule must be at 'old')?

I don't understand the question.  This comment doesn't say it's like
"git checkout" --- are you saying it should?

The function is more like "git read-tree -m -u" (or --reset when
SUBMODULE_MOVE_HEAD_FORCE is passed) than like "git checkout".
Perhaps what you are hinting at is that read-tree --recurse-submodules
is not necessarily the right primitive to implement "git checkout"
with.  But that's a separate issue from documenting the current
behavior of the function.

> What should happen if 'old' does not match reality (i.e. old is NULL
> but HEAD does point at some commit, old and HEAD are different,
> etc.)?  Should the call be aborted?

No.

Thanks,
Jonathan

>> + * If the submodule is not active, this does nothing and returns 0.
>> + */
>>  #define SUBMODULE_MOVE_HEAD_DRY_RUN (1<<0)
>>  #define SUBMODULE_MOVE_HEAD_FORCE   (1<<1)
>>  extern int submodule_move_head(const char *path,