GIT submodules

[Rene Herman <rene.herman@keyaccess.nl>]

On 07-02-08 12:37, Takashi Iwai wrote:

>> I believe the git submodule stuff would also nicely allow all of ALSA to be 
>> one giant repo basically, with kernel, lib, ..., as submodules.
> 
> Just out of curiosity, what could be a merit of submodules in the case
> of ALSA?

Given that they're used for larger projects, I can't say I've used them but 
I read about them when Linus mentioned them in the context of KDE maybe 
switching:

http://lwn.net/Articles/246381/

Basically, submodules are the  actual git repositories with one organizing 
superproject. This seems to be a fairly nice description of the submodule 
support:

http://www.ishlif.org/blog/linux/git-submodules/

What they provide is stitching the parts together nicely into one coherent 
release. In this case, you'd have alsa-driver, alsa-lib, alsa-utils and so 
on repos, and an "alsa-project" superproject tying them together, where you 
could do checkouts of a complete coherent release off all the modules for 
example.

As said, I haven't actually used them, so I've added the git list (*) to see 
if anyone has something to add, correct or explain (please do!). Submodules 
seem to be intended exactly for the kind of setup that ALSA is using with 
the many semi-independent parts...

(*) git-devel: alsa-devel is moderated for non-subscribers but you'll be 
whitelisted after landing in the queue once if you're not a subscriber

Rene.