On Sat, Sep 30, 2017 at 10:20 AM, Thadeus Fleming <thadeus.j.fleming@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I'm running git 2.14.2 on Ubuntu 16.04. > > Compare the behavior of > >> git clone --branch pu --depth 1 https://github.com/git/git git-pu > > which clones only the latest commit of the pu branch and > >> mkdir tmp && cd tmp && git init >> git submodule add --branch pu --depth 1 https://github.com/git/git \ > git-pu > > which gives the error > > fatal: 'origin/pu' is not a commit and a branch 'pu' cannot be created > from it > Unable to checkout submodule 'git-pu' > > Investigating further, there is indeed only one commit in the local repo: > >> cd git-pu >> git log --oneline | wc -l > 1 > > But that commit is the head of master. > >> git branch -a > * master remotes/origin/master > remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master > > This appears to be because git-submodule--helper does not accept a > --branch option. Using the --depth N option causes it to only clone N > commits from the default branch, which generally do not include the > desired branch. Thus, the next step, > > git checkout -f -q -B "$branch" "origin/$branch" > > fails, and provides the rather confusing error message above. > > I'd suggest that git-submodule--helper learn a --branch option > consistent with git clone, and if that is impossible, that > git submodule add rejects the simultaneous use of both the --branch and > --depth options. Adding the branch field to the submodule helper is a great idea. > > > > --tjf
