Re: [PATCH v4] clone: update submodule.recurse in config when using --recurse-submodule

[Mahi Kolla <mahikolla@google.com>]

Hi Phillippe and Junio,

On Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 4:04 PM Philippe Blain
<levraiphilippeblain@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Junio,
>
> Le 2021-08-10 à 14:36, Junio C Hamano a écrit :
> > Mahi Kolla <mahikolla@google.com> writes:
> >
> >>> Is it possible to avoid changing the behaviour unconditionally and
> >>> potentially breaking existing users by making it an opt-in feature,
> >>> e.g. "git clone --recurse-submodules" would work as the current
> >>> users would expect, while "git clone --recurse-submodules=sticky"
> >>> would set submodule.recurse to true, or something?
> >>
> >> As mentioned, the `submodule.recurse=true` will only apply to active
> >> submodules specified by the user. Setting this config value when the
> >> user runs their initial `git clone` minimizes the number of times a
> >> developer must use the `--recurse-submodule` option on other commands.
> >>
> >> However, this is a behavior change that may be surprising for
> >> developers. To ensure a smooth rollout and easy adoption, I think
> >> adding a message using an `advice.*` config setting would be useful.
> >
> > It may be better than nothing, but that still is a unilateral
> > behaviour change.  Can't we come up with a way to make it an opt-in
> > feature?  I've already suggested to allow the "--recurse-submodules"
> > option of "git clone" to take an optional parameter (e.g. "sticky")
> > so that the user can request configuration variable to be set, but
> > you seem to be ignoring or skirting it.
>
> The '--recures-submodule' option in 'git clone' already takes an optional
> argument, which is a pathspec and if given, only submodules matching the given
> pathspec will be initialized (as opposed to all submodules if the flag is given without
> an argument). So, it does not seem to be possible to use this
> flag as a way to also set 'submodule.recurse'.
>

Because of the optional pathspec argument, adding a `=sticky` argument
to the option may be hard to implement. That was my initial hesitation
to the opt in design.

> When Emily (CC'ed) sent her roadmap for submodule enhancements in [1], the enhancement
> that Mahi is suggesting was explicitely mentioned:
>
> > - git clone
> ...
> > What doesn't already work:
> >
> >    * --recurse-submodules should turn on submodule.recurse=true
>
> I don't know if Mahi is part of this effort or just came up with the same idea,
> but in any case maybe Emily would be able to add more justification for this change.
>

I am part of the team and am implementing that exact feature from the
roadmap :)

> > Even though I am not
> > married to the "give optional parameter to --recurse-submodules"
> > design, unconditionally setting the variable, with or without advice
> > or warning, is a regression we'd want to avoid.
> >
>
> In my opinion, it would not be a regression; it would a behaviour change that
> would be a *vast improvement* for the majority of projects that use submodules, at
> least those that use non-optional submodules (which, I believe, is the vast majority
> of projects that use submodules, judging by what I've read on the web over the past 3
> years of my interest in the subject.)
>
> As soon as you use submodules in a non-optional way, you really *want* submodule.recurse=true,
> because if not:
>
> 1. 'git checkout' does not recursively check out your submodules, which probably breaks your build.
>     You have to remember to always run 'git checkout --recurse-submodules' or run 'git submdule update'
>     after each checkout, and teach your team to do the same.
> 2. 'git pull' fetches submodules commits, but does not recursively check out your submodules,
>     which also probably breaks your build. You have to remember to always run 'git pull --recurse-submodules',
>     or run 'git submodule update' after each pull, and also teach your team to do so.
> 3. If you forget to do 1. or 2., and then use 'git commit -am "some message" (as a lot
>     of Git beginners unfortunately do), you regress the submodule commit, creating a lot
>     of problems down the line.
>
> These are the main reasons that I think Git should recurse by default. Setting 'submodule.recurse'
> also brings other niceties, like 'git grep' recursing into submodules.
>

I completely agree with this! These are a lot of the reasons why the
feature was initially suggested. An alternative path forward the team
discussed was testing `submodule.recurse=true` under
`feature.experimental`. This way we can collect feedback from
developers before making this the default config value.

> If we can agree that the behaviour *should* change eventually, then at least
> 'git clone --recurse-submodules' could be changed *right now* to suggest setting
> 'submodule.recurse' using the advice API, and stating that this will be the default
> some day.
>
> Even if we don't agree that the behaviour should enventually change, I think
> having this advice would be a strict improvement because
> it would help user discover the setting, which would already go a long way.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Philippe.
>
>
> [1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/YHofmWcIAidkvJiD@google.com/

I agree that adding an advice message when a user runs `git clone
--recurse-submodules` would at least alert users of their options,
giving them the choice to set `submodule.recurse` accordingly.

Thanks!

Best,
Mahi Kolla