git@vger.kernel.org mailing list mirror (one of many)
 help / color / mirror / code / Atom feed
* [RFC 00/10] Make .the gitmodules file path configurable
@ 2018-04-12 22:20 Antonio Ospite
  2018-04-12 22:20 ` [RFC 01/10] submodule: add 'core.submodulesFile' to override the '.gitmodules' path Antonio Ospite
                   ` (9 more replies)
  0 siblings, 10 replies; 28+ messages in thread
From: Antonio Ospite @ 2018-04-12 22:20 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: git; +Cc: Richard Hartmann, Antonio Ospite

Hi,

vcsh[1] uses bare git repositories and detached work-trees to manage
*distinct* sets of configuration files directly into $HOME.

In general, submodules have worked perfectly fine with detached
work-trees for some time[2,3,4].

However when multiple repositories take turns using the same directory
as their work-tree, and more than one of them want to use submodules,
there could still be conflicts about the '.gitmodules' file because git
hardcodes this path.

For comparison, in case of '.gitignore' a similar conflict might arise,
but git has alternative ways to specify exclude files, so vcsh solves
this by setting core.excludesFile for each repository and track ignored
files somewhere else (in ~/.gitignore.d/$VCSH_REPO_NAME).

This is currently not possible with submodules configuration.

So this series proposes a mechanism to set an alternative path for the
submodules configuration file (from now on "gitmodules file").

Patches are based on fe0a9eaf31dd0c349ae4308498c33a5c3794b293.

In commit 4c0eeafe4755 (cache.h: add GITMODULES_FILE macro)[5] the
gitmodules file path definition was centralized, AFAIU this was done
mainly to prevent typos, as checking a symbolic constant is something
the compiler will do for us.

Expanding on that change the first patch in the series makes the path
customizable exposing a 'core.submodulesFile' configuration setting.

The new configuration setting can be used to set an *alternative*
location for the gitmodules file; IMHO there is no need to provide
*additional* locations like in the case of exclude files.

For instance vcsh could set the location to
'~/.gitmodules.d/$VCSH_REPO_NAME' to avoid conflicts.

Since the gitmodules file is meant to be checked in into the repository,
the overridden file path should be relative to the work-tree; is there
a way to enforce this constraint at run time (i.e. validate the config
value), or is it enough to have it documented?

The last patch adds a hacky 'test-custom-gitmodules-file.sh' script
which patches the test suite to fix all the hardcoded occurrences of
'.gitmodules' and runs it twice: once with the default value and once
with a custom path, passed via an environmental variable.

I guess in the final version just testing for a custom path (e.g.
'.gitmodules_custom') could be enough, as the default value can be seen
as a particular case.

The last thing I noticed is that git does not create config files
automatically if they are under a subdirectory which does not exist
already; for instance the following command would fail:

  git config -f newsubdir/test-config user.name Antonio

This means that if the user wanted to use something like:

  git -c core.submodulesFile=.gitmodules.d/repo_submodules ...

the subdirectory would have to be created beforehand. This is not a big
deal of course, but I was wondering if this is mentioned anywhere.
Fixing the current behavior to create the leading directories does not
seem hard, but I am not sure it is worth it.

Thanks,
   Antonio

[1] https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh
[2] http://git.661346.n2.nabble.com/git-submodule-vs-GIT-WORK-TREE-td7562165.html
[3] http://git.661346.n2.nabble.com/PATCH-Solve-git-submodule-issues-with-detached-work-trees-td7563377.html
[4] https://github.com/git/git/commit/be8779f7ac9a3be9aa783df008d59082f4054f67
[5] https://github.com/git/git/commit/4c0eeafe4755345b0f4636bf09904cf689703e11

Antonio Ospite (10):
  submodule: add 'core.submodulesFile' to override the '.gitmodules'
    path
  submodule: fix getting custom gitmodule file in fetch command
  submodule: use the 'submodules_file' variable in output messages
  submodule: document 'core.submodulesFile' and fix references to
    '.gitmodules'
  submodule: adjust references to '.gitmodules' in comments
  completion: add 'core.submodulesfile' to the git-completion.bash file
  XXX: wrap-for-bin.sh: set 'core.submodulesFile' for each git
    invocation
  XXX: submodule: fix t1300-repo-config.sh to take into account the new
    config
  XXX: submodule: pass custom gitmodules file to 'test-tool
    submodule-config'
  XXX: add a hacky script to test the changes with a patched test suite

 Documentation/config.txt                      | 18 +++--
 Documentation/git-add.txt                     |  4 +-
 Documentation/git-submodule.txt               | 45 +++++------
 Documentation/gitmodules.txt                  | 15 ++--
 Documentation/gitsubmodules.txt               | 18 ++---
 .../technical/api-submodule-config.txt        |  6 +-
 Makefile                                      |  3 +-
 builtin/fetch.c                               |  2 +-
 builtin/mv.c                                  |  3 +-
 builtin/rm.c                                  |  3 +-
 builtin/submodule--helper.c                   | 20 ++---
 cache.h                                       |  1 +
 config.c                                      | 13 ++--
 config.h                                      |  7 +-
 contrib/completion/git-completion.bash        |  1 +
 contrib/subtree/git-subtree.txt               |  2 +-
 environment.c                                 |  1 +
 git-submodule.sh                              | 24 +++---
 repository.h                                  |  2 +-
 submodule-config.c                            | 16 ++--
 submodule-config.h                            |  2 +-
 submodule.c                                   | 54 ++++++-------
 t/helper/test-submodule-config.c              |  7 ++
 t/t0001-init.sh                               |  1 +
 t/t1300-repo-config.sh                        | 26 ++++++-
 test-custom-gitmodules-file.sh                | 75 +++++++++++++++++++
 unpack-trees.c                                |  2 +-
 wrap-for-bin.sh                               |  2 +
 28 files changed, 250 insertions(+), 123 deletions(-)
 create mode 100755 test-custom-gitmodules-file.sh
 mode change 100644 => 100755 wrap-for-bin.sh

-- 
Antonio Ospite
https://ao2.it
https://twitter.com/ao2it

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
   See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 28+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2018-04-30 12:51 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 28+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2018-04-12 22:20 [RFC 00/10] Make .the gitmodules file path configurable Antonio Ospite
2018-04-12 22:20 ` [RFC 01/10] submodule: add 'core.submodulesFile' to override the '.gitmodules' path Antonio Ospite
2018-04-12 23:50   ` Stefan Beller
2018-04-16 16:37     ` Antonio Ospite
2018-04-16 21:22       ` Stefan Beller
2018-04-18 11:43         ` Antonio Ospite
2018-04-18 18:44           ` Stefan Beller
2018-04-12 22:20 ` [RFC 02/10] submodule: fix getting custom gitmodule file in fetch command Antonio Ospite
2018-04-12 23:55   ` Stefan Beller
2018-04-16 16:18     ` Antonio Ospite
2018-04-16 19:23       ` Stefan Beller
2018-04-16 20:46         ` Antonio Ospite
2018-04-12 22:20 ` [RFC 03/10] submodule: use the 'submodules_file' variable in output messages Antonio Ospite
2018-04-12 22:20 ` [RFC 04/10] submodule: document 'core.submodulesFile' and fix references to '.gitmodules' Antonio Ospite
2018-04-12 22:20 ` [RFC 05/10] submodule: adjust references to '.gitmodules' in comments Antonio Ospite
2018-04-12 22:20 ` [RFC 06/10] completion: add 'core.submodulesfile' to the git-completion.bash file Antonio Ospite
2018-04-12 23:36 ` [RFC 00/10] Make .the gitmodules file path configurable Stefan Beller
2018-04-16 11:33   ` Antonio Ospite
2018-04-16 19:22     ` Stefan Beller
2018-04-13  8:07 ` Antonio Ospite
2018-04-13  8:07 ` [RFC 07/10] FIXME: wrap-for-bin.sh: set 'core.submodulesFile' for each git invocation Antonio Ospite
2018-04-13  8:07   ` [RFC 08/10] FIXME: submodule: fix t1300-repo-config.sh to take into account the new config Antonio Ospite
2018-04-13  8:07   ` [RFC 09/10] FIXME: submodule: pass custom gitmodules file to 'test-tool submodule-config' Antonio Ospite
2018-04-13  8:07   ` [RFC 10/10] FIXME: add a hacky script to test the changes with a patched test suite Antonio Ospite
2018-04-13 20:05   ` [RFC 07/10] FIXME: wrap-for-bin.sh: set 'core.submodulesFile' for each git invocation Stefan Beller
2018-04-16 11:36     ` Antonio Ospite
2018-04-23 17:47 ` [RFC 00/10] Make .the gitmodules file path configurable Jonathan Nieder
2018-04-30 12:51   ` Antonio Ospite

Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox

	https://80x24.org/mirrors/git.git

This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).