On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 3:00 PM, Stefan Beller <sbeller@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > So a discussing started in a Gerrit change [1] if we want to name it > submodule or subproject. > We decided to stick with the git core convention of naming it > subproject for now. > > But that lead me to the question: What is the difference of a > submodule and a subproject? > > As far as I can tell they are synonyms (internally also called > GIT_LINK, but we never expose that to the users), where the term > submodule was coined later in the game, subproject being there as the > first term introduced in version 1.5. > > So is it worth to unify that same concept hiding between two names? > I think it would be worth trying to sync up at least documentation if possible, and maybe even change the diff core output, but that depends on whether we think changing that would break anyone? I'm not sure who it would hurt to just start using "submodule" instead of "subproject" there? > Looking through the code we cannot switch to submodule as the literal > string "subproject" > is used for diffs in the plumbing layer. Is there a strong reason we can't just change the diff layer to "submodule" here? I'm not sure who or what that would hurt. > > But getting rid of submodule is also not easy, as there is > git-submodule.sh as a direct command. > I think we should stick to submodule as that is the name of the command as well as the general term understood by most users. Subproject is the older name that was used before submodule. > So then there is also git subtree, which "allow subprojects to be > included within a subdirectory of the main project, optionally > including the subproject’s entire history." (the man page) I think the term subproject used here is used in a general sense, and not in the specific sense used elsewhere. > > So can I understand a subproject as either a submodule or a subtree ? > If so would it make sense to add an entry to gitglossary to state that > subprojects are generic term for > having some kind of structure? (a subdirectory containing independent > stuff could be considered a > subproject. i.e. We could make contrib/examples the historic-git subproject ?) > In terms of git diff core, subtrees are not shown as "subproject" in the diffs at all, so I think in that sense subproject there is just an artifact of what got used in the past. > Any advice welcome! > Stefan > > [1] https://gerrit-review.googlesource.com/#/c/70948/ -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html