On Fri, Mar 10, 2017 at 1:06 PM, David Turner <novalis@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Git reset --mixed ignores submodules which are not initialized. I've > attached a demo script. > > On one hand, this matches the documentation ("Resets the index but not > the working tree"). But on the other hand, it kind of doesn't: "(i.e., > the changed files are preserved but not marked for commit)". > > It's hard to figure out what a mixed reset should do. It would be > weird for it to initialize the submodule. Maybe it should just refuse > to run? Maybe there should be an option for it to initialize the > submodule for you? Maybe it should drop a special-purpose file that > git understands to be a submodule change? For instance (and this is > insane, but, like, maybe worth considering) it could use extended > filesystem attributes, where available. > > #!/bin/bash > mkdir demo > cd demo > > git init main > > ( > git init sub1 && > cd sub1 && > dd if=/dev/urandom of=f bs=40 count=1 && We prefer reproducability in tests, so if we take this into a (regression) test later we may want to s/dd.../echo "determinism!" >f/ > # commit that change on main, deinit the submodule and do a mixed > reset > ( > cd main && > git add sub1 && > git commit -m 'update sub1' && > git submodule deinit sub1 && > git reset --mixed HEAD^ && As of now most commands (including reset) are unaware of submodules to begin with. They are ignored in most cases, i.e. git-status has some tack-on to (pseudo-)report changes in submodules, but it's not really builtin. A submodule that is not initialized ( i.e. submodule.<name>.url is unset) ought to not be touched at all. This is spelled out in the man page for "submodule update" only at this point. > git status # change to sub1 is lost The change is not really lost, as you can get it via git checkout HEAD@{1} git submodule update --init This works most of the time, but it is unreliable as the submodule may have had some gc inbetween which threw away important objects. Steping back a bit, rereading the subject line, what do you think is the bug here? * git-status not reporting about uninitialized submodules? * git reset --mixed not touching the submodule worktree * lack of --recurse-submodules in git-reset? (and that not being default, see prior point) * submodules being in detached HEAD all the time? Thanks, Stefan