Re: [PATCH] Make 'submodule update' honor the 'update' setting in .gitmodules.

Mikhail Glushenkov [off-list ref] writes:

Make the 'submodule update' command honor the 'submodule.$path.update' setting
in .gitmodules unless this setting is overridden in '.git/config' or with
--rebase/--merge options.

I haven't been involved in recent updates to "git submodule", but the
change in this patch feels somewhat wrong.

The contents of in-tree .gitmodules are meant to be consulted to only
prime the settings in .git/config, and after that they are never used
without user's explicit concent (e.g. "sync").  At least that is the way I
understand how the current "git submodule" command is designed.

This change actively breaks the pattern.  It makes sense to set up values
for "submodule.*.update" when the defaults suggested by the project are
copied out of .gitmodules to prime .git/config upon "submodule init", but
not at runtime in "update" command like this.

I am puzzled.  What problem are you trying to solve?

"submodule init" seems to already copy "update" setting from .gitmodules
to .git/config.  At least, it seems to have a code to try to do so.

Perhaps you would want to (1) add the "submodule.*.update" to the set of
configurations to be copied upon "sync", not just URL? and (2) add a way
to allow users to inspect how values in .git/config and .gitmodules are
different, and update .git/config with selected values, possibly in an
interactive manner?