From f0a96e8d4c98c2394dc726b57b914f95cbc7a0de Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Johannes Schindelin Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2020 14:46:30 +0000 Subject: submodule: fall back to remote's HEAD for missing remote..branch When `remote..branch` is not configured, `git submodule update` currently falls back to using the branch name `master`. A much better idea, however, is to use the remote `HEAD`: on all Git servers running reasonably recent Git versions, the symref `HEAD` points to the main branch. Note: t7419 demonstrates that there _might_ be use cases out there that _expect_ `git submodule update --remote` to update submodules to the remote `master` branch even if the remote `HEAD` points to another branch. Arguably, this patch makes the behavior more intuitive, but there is a slight possibility that this might cause regressions in obscure setups. Even so, it should be okay to fix this behavior without anything like a longer transition period: - The `git submodule update --remote` command is not really common. - Current Git's behavior when running this command is outright confusing, unless the remote repository's current branch _is_ `master` (in which case the proposed behavior matches the old behavior). - If a user encounters a regression due to the changed behavior, the fix is actually trivial: setting `submodule..branch` to `master` will reinstate the old behavior. Helped-by: Philippe Blain Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- Documentation/git-submodule.txt | 12 ++++++------ 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) (limited to 'Documentation/git-submodule.txt') diff --git a/Documentation/git-submodule.txt b/Documentation/git-submodule.txt index c9ed2bf3d5..7e5f995f77 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-submodule.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-submodule.txt @@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ set-branch (-d|--default) [--] :: Sets the default remote tracking branch for the submodule. The `--branch` option allows the remote branch to be specified. The `--default` option removes the submodule..branch configuration - key, which causes the tracking branch to default to 'master'. + key, which causes the tracking branch to default to the remote 'HEAD'. set-url [--] :: Sets the URL of the specified submodule to . Then, it will @@ -284,7 +284,7 @@ OPTIONS `.gitmodules` for `update --remote`. A special value of `.` is used to indicate that the name of the branch in the submodule should be the same name as the current branch in the current repository. If the - option is not specified, it defaults to 'master'. + option is not specified, it defaults to the remote 'HEAD'. -f:: --force:: @@ -322,10 +322,10 @@ OPTIONS the superproject's recorded SHA-1 to update the submodule, use the status of the submodule's remote-tracking branch. The remote used is branch's remote (`branch..remote`), defaulting to `origin`. - The remote branch used defaults to `master`, but the branch name may - be overridden by setting the `submodule..branch` option in - either `.gitmodules` or `.git/config` (with `.git/config` taking - precedence). + The remote branch used defaults to the remote `HEAD`, but the branch + name may be overridden by setting the `submodule..branch` + option in either `.gitmodules` or `.git/config` (with `.git/config` + taking precedence). + This works for any of the supported update procedures (`--checkout`, `--rebase`, etc.). The only change is the source of the target SHA-1. -- cgit v1.3-5-g45d5