Re: bootstrap: allow more than one submodule

[Eric Blake]

On 03/16/2010 04:16 AM, Bruno Haible wrote:
> Hi Eric,
> 
>> What's the use case for updating some, but not all, submodules?
> 
> Imagine a package that has submodules 'gnulib', 'libxml', 'libcroco'
> (like GNU gettext might have). It would be perfectly normal for the
> developer to stay with the last known good libxml and libcroco but
> try the newest gnulib.
> 
> Or a package that has submodules 'readline' and 'gnulib' (GNU bash may
> come to mind). It would be reasonable for this developer to update
> readline to the newest development version but stay at a stable gnulib.

Indeed, bison already uses multiple submodules (gnulib and autoconf),
and has done for more than a year.  It may be worth getting Joel's
opinions here, as the maintainer of the only GNU package that I am aware
of that currently tracks multiple submodules.  But my experience from
browsing the bison lists is that ./bootstrap is for getting the package
into the shape that upstream left it, then git commands are for getting
one (or both) submodules updated to a newer state, because updating a
submodule often implies updating other code as part of the same commit
in order to work cleanly with upstream changes.  Since bootstrap cannot
make those other changes, and since committing a gnulib update in
isolation might result in a commit that fails during bisection testing,
it seems better to not make bootstrap the driving force that updates
submodule state.

-- 
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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