Re: [RFC] Submodules in GIT

[Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>]

On Fri, 1 Dec 2006, sf wrote:
> Linus Torvalds wrote:
> ...
> > In contrast, a submodule that we don't fetch is an all-or-nothing 
> > situation: we simply don't have the data at all, and it's really a matter 
> > of simply not recursing into that submodule at all - much more like not 
> > checking out a particular part of the tree.
> 
> If you do not want to fetch all of the supermodule then do not fetch the
> supermodule.

So why do you want to limit it? There's absolutely no cost to saying "I 
want to see all the common shared infrastructure, but I'm actually only 
interested in this one submodule that I work with".

Also, anybody who works on just the build infrastructure simply may not 
care about all the submodules. The submodules may add up to hundreds of 
gigs of stuff. Not everybody wants them. But you may still want to get the 
common build infrastructure.

In other words, your "all or nothing" approach is
 (a) not friendly
and
 (b) has no real advantages anyway, since modules have to be independent 
     enough that you _can_ split them off for other reasons anyway.

So forcing that "you have to take everything" mentality onyl has 
negatives, and no positives. Why do it?