Re: Projects within projects

[Avery Pennarun <apenwarr@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 2:40 PM, Nick Colgan <nick.colgan@gmail.com> wrote:
> These are the current options I have in mind:
>
> 1. Create a separate repository for each sub-project and manage each
> separately in redmine (separate bug tracker, wiki, etc.)
>
> 2. Create a single repository with a subdirectory for each sub-project.
>
> 3. Use git submodules or subversion externals to combine options 1 and 2
> by creating a separate repo for each sub-project, then creating a master
> repo with subdirectory for each sub-project that imports from their
> respective repositories.
>
> What's the best way to handle this situation? Are git submodules and/or
> svn externals sufficiently capable of dealing with this?

Every way has tradeoffs.  I'd suggest first thinking about whether
these supposedly independent projects are *really* going to be
independent or not.  If they're unlikely to ever be reused - or they
won't be for a long time - #2 is by far the easiest choice.

If you choose #2 and then choose to split the repo later, you can use
git-subtree (http://github.com/apenwarr/git-subtree) to split it
easily, so there's little sacrifice in using #2 at first and changing
your mind later.

If you choose #3, that's exactly that git-submodule and svn:externals
are for, and it seems to work okay for a lot of people.  It's more
work though, since you have to be careful to isolate commits between
one project and another, etc. Personally I prefer to use git-subtree
for this too, but it's a matter of preference.

Have fun,

Avery