Re: [PATCH] submodule add: improve message when resolving a relative url fails

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Marc Branchaud <marcnarc@xiplink.com> writes:

> Back when Junio accepted the original patch, he said "If you maintain and
> serve a set related projects you need to give the users a single URL (per
> where the user is and how to reach the server)."

I think it was phrased badly. At least it should have s/need/only need/;

Imagine ta project has many components, all of which are kept as
submodules of a single top-level superproject. You wrote and manage
everything; there is no borrowed code. In that context, imagine that I am
talking to the maintainer of that set of projects and calling the person
"you".

By giving the URL for the top-level superproject, without having to give
any other URL for the subprojects, you can let your users fetch from you,
as everything underneath is relative. Another convenience this may give
you and your users is when the user needs to talk to you over different
transport. You may give "git://your.site/project.git" to the users, but
they may come to "http://your.site/project.git".

By recording submodule.<path>.url as relative to where your users happen
to have fetched your project in the superproject's .gitmodules file, your
users do not have to run around fixing URLs for 47 different component
submodules.

At least I think that is what I meant back then.