[Xcb] Are the util-common-m4 submodules relative on purpose?

[Dirk Wallenstein]

On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 09:34:30AM +0100, Arnaud Fontaine wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>     > On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 12:21:39AM -0700, Jamey Sharp wrote:
>     > Regarding the original question: As far as I can tell, you weren't
>     > asking because  of an actual problem with  this setup, but instead
>     > because of  curiosity about the motivation for  it, right Dirk? As
>     > long as the  current setup doesn't actually inconvenience anybody,
>     >  I'm  inclined  to  leave  it  the  way  the  de-facto  maintainer
>     > apparently prefers it. :-)
> 
>     >> On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 8:22 AM, Dirk Wallenstein <halsmit at t-online.de> wrote:
>     >> Initially I thought it would be interesting to let submodules use
>     >>  local mirrors if  the supermodule  has a  local origin.   But it
>     >> poses too much restrictions on  where the mirror is and how it is
>     >> named (the relative URL in  .gitmodules).  I can make it work but
>     >> it  seems very  brittle and so,  Arnaud, I  would like to  ask to
>     >> reconsider  that setup.  I  think the disadvantages  outweigh the
>     >> advantages.
> 
> I tend to agree with Jamey  about leaving it this way, perhaps because I
> don't really understand what are the disadvantages...

At every location that is used as origin for a clone operation (online
or local on a users harddrive), there has to be a util-common-m4
repository "around the corner" at exactly the location specified in
.gitmodules (../util-common-m4.git).  If someone wants to publicize some
ideas in a fork, the first commit will probably be changing the relative
URL in .gitmodules to an absolute one, because creating an unmodified
util-common-m4 next to it would be unnecessary.

For a cloner who can't use git, a global url.<base>.insteadOf
configuration would be generally more convenient.  I tested it with:

[url "http://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/"]
    insteadOf = git://anongit.freedesktop.org/

You have to start with a '.git' suffixed URL:
  $> git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/xcb/util.git

With that, I don't see an advantage of the relative URL.

-- 
Cheers,
  Dirk