Re: [PATCH 1/2] clone: Fix error message for reference repository

Aaron Schrab [off-list ref] writes:

At 16:48 -0700 07 Apr 2013, Jonathan Nieder [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

quoted

Do not report an argument to clone's --reference option is not a local
directory.  Nothing checks for the actual directory so we have no way to
know if whether or not exists.  Telling the user that a directory doesn't
exist when that isn't actually known may lead him or her on the wrong
path to finding the problem.

I don't understand the above explanation.  Could you give an example?

I originally noticed this while trying to use a submodule as a
reference repository.

I do agree that it would be nice to dereference .git gitfile when we
deal with --reference argument, but you do not want to use in-tree
repository of a submodule working tree.  What happens when you have
to check out a version of the containing superproject that did not
have the submodule you are borrowing from?  The directory will
disappear, leaving the borrowing repository still pointing at it
with its .git/objects/info/alternates file, no?

At 06:58 -0700 08 Apr 2013, Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] wrote:

I do agree that it would be nice to dereference .git gitfile when we
deal with --reference argument, but you do not want to use in-tree
repository of a submodule working tree.  What happens when you have
to check out a version of the containing superproject that did not
have the submodule you are borrowing from?  The directory will
disappear, leaving the borrowing repository still pointing at it
with its .git/objects/info/alternates file, no?

No, submodule directories don't get removed when you checkout a version 
which didn't contain that submodule.  I believe that there are plans to 
change that for submodules which store the repository data under the 
containing project's .git directory; but removing the submodule working 
tree would not affect a repository using that submodule as a reference, 
since the reading of the .git file is only done during the initial 
clone.  I don't think that the risk of such a repository being deleted 
or moved is substantially higher than for any other repository.