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Every time I try to work with an artist (any artist) on my project we waste half an hour trying to figure out why their GUI git client didn't recursively pull submodules & I have no idea what to tell them because I don't know how to use their git client & I can't see their screen

mcc

@mcclure111

Jul 14, 2021

The only way I know how to use git is to type things into stack overflow and then paste them into a terminal but if someone is using a GUI program there's nothing to paste into. Git can't be learned, and it can't be made easier by making GUI wrappers.

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eater "cum carbonation"

@eatijr

Jul 14, 2021

Replying to

@mcclure111

git submodule --recursive --init ?

Replying to

I need recursive both times?

eater "cum carbonation"

@eatijr

Jul 14, 2021

Replying to

@mcclure111

so if I remember the arcane texts correctly, init only readies your environment for the submodules, and update actually fetches them, so at init it doesn't know yet about the submodule's submodules

Replying to

and

You should use `git submodule update --init --recursive` as the only way to init and update submodules. It's still a horribly broken feature. There's no way to fix the fact that it can't cope with the remote URL being changed, etc. Has to be corrected manually in each clone...

Replying to

Okay, thanks. I use mercurial where it's a little more tractable lol

Replying to

I prefer the hands off way Gerrit's git-repo deals with it where it manages a bunch of separate Git repositories in the same source tree. You can refer to external projects via revision but use branches internally for the development branch + generate frozen manifest for release.

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and

Submodules don't work properly. They're just ridiculously screwed up for rebases, merges and when the URL of a submodule remote changes or other things like that. I have a ton of experience with Git and it doesn't get better. It's horrible. It's nothing that you're doing wrong.

11:32 PM · Jul 14, 2021Twitter Web App

Replying to

and

Chromium's depot_tools stuff is as bad as dealing with submodules and potentially even worse but git-repo is actually really good. You can use it in a very sensible way, at least, and it doesn't break or get in the way. It's hands off + not opinionated but without complexity.

Replying to

and

Gerrit itself is also drastically better than GitHub model. People can submit and update pull requests directly to main repository with git alone without commit access. No remote forks to manage. Stores patch revisions, review comments, etc. as Git notes in the Git repository.