Re: [PATCHv5 8/8] clone: recursive and reference option triggers submodule alternates

[Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 4:03 PM, Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> wrote:
>>> +
>>> +       if (option_recursive) {
>>> +               if (option_required_reference.nr &&
>>> +                   option_optional_reference.nr)
>>> +                       die(_("clone --recursive is not compatible with "
>>> +                             "both --reference and --reference-if-able"));
>>
>> So if you have multiple references that don't all match we basically
>> just refuse to allow recursive?
>>
>> Would it be better to simply assume that we want to die on missing
>> references instead of failing the clone here?
>
> The new config options are per repo (or even set globally), and not
> per alternate. And as we communicate the [if-able] part via the config
> options to the submodules it is not feasible to transport both
> kinds of (reference-or-die and reference-but-ignore-misses).
>
> That is why I introduced this check in the first place. If we'd go back
> to the drawing board and come up with a solution that is on a
> "per alternate" basis we could allow such things.
>
>> That is, treat it so
>> that multiple reference and reference-if-able will die, and only info
>> if we got only reference-if-able?
>>
>> Probably what's here is fine, and mixing reference and
>> reference-if-able doesn't make much sense.
>
> I think the reference-if-able doesn't make sense for one project alone
> as you can easily script around that, but is only useful if you have
> submodules in a partially checked out superproject that you want
> to reference to.
>
> Thanks,
> Stefan

I'm not sure there is a better design.  How are alternates stored? In
a config section? Or is there some way we can store the is-able per
alternate and look it up when adding them to submodule?

Thanks,
Jake