Re: [PATCH 5/5] submodule: submodule_move_head omits old argument in forced case

Stefan Beller wrote:

On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 2:44 PM, Jonathan Nieder [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

  checkout -f
        I think I would expect this not to touch a submodule that
        hasn't changed, since that would be consistent with its
        behavior on files that haven't changed.

[...]

I may have a different understanding of git commands than you do,
but a plain "checkout -f" with no further arguments is the same as
a hard reset IMHO, and could be used interchangeably?

A kind person pointed out privately that you were talking about
"git checkout -f" with no further arguments, not "git checkout -f
<commit>".  In that context, the competing meanings I mentioned in
https://crbug.com/git/5 don't exist: either a given entry in the
worktree matches the index or it doesn't.

So plain "git checkout -f" is similar to plain "git reset --hard"
in that it means "make the worktree (and index, in the reset case)
look just like this".  checkout -f makes the worktree look like the
index; reset --hard makes the worktree and index look like HEAD.

In that context, more aggressively making the submodule in the
worktree get into the defined state sounds to me like a good change.

Hopefully my confusion helps illustrate what a commit message focusing
on the end user experience might want to mention.

Thanks again,
Jonathan