On November 10, 2021 2:35 PM, Glen Choo wrote:

Overall, I think your workflow is not too dissimilar to the UX we are proposing
:)

[off-list ref] writes:

quoted

4. If working on the submodule, use a branch, not a commit - typically off

main.

With the proposed UX, step (4) would happen automatically when using
"branch --recurse-submodules". Users would get a safer and more
convenient default.

I think this might be more reliably done using a switch in .gitconfig to enable the capabilities. Perhaps something like:

submodule.fetch-branches=true

quoted

What I could see as a possible improvement is to add the branch ref to the

submodule ref file - not replacing the commit but adding to it. I do worry that
there are unintended (unforeseen) side-effects that will result from this,
however, including potential merge conflicts. Two people working on the
same commit but different branches may mess the ref file, so not really a
good idea.

It's an interesting idea, but as you noted, it is quite thorny. I would also like to
see more information being captured by the superproject tree (instead of
just .gitmodules), but I'm also not sure how we might do that.

I'm suggesting this instead of a command-line option because this seems more like a policy-based process that you would either always want or never want. I would not like to depend on a developer making the call each time a clone occurred. I'm sad to admit that I don't really know where to start on this enhancement, though, even if approved.
-Randall