submodule update: add --remote for submodule's upstream changes

The current `update` command incorporates the superproject's gitlinked
SHA-1 ($sha1) into the submodule HEAD ($subsha1).  Depending on the
options you use, it may checkout $sha1, rebase the $subsha1 onto
$sha1, or merge $sha1 into $subsha1.  This helps you keep up with
changes in the upstream superproject.

However, it's also useful to stay up to date with changes in the
upstream subproject.  Previous workflows for incorporating such
changes include the ungainly:

  $ git submodule foreach 'git checkout $(git config --file $toplevel/.gitmodules submodule.$name.branch) && git pull'

With this patch, all of the useful functionality for incorporating
superproject changes can be reused to incorporate upstream subproject
updates.  When you specify --remote, the target $sha1 is replaced with
a $sha1 of the submodule's origin/master tracking branch.  If you want
to merge a different tracking branch, you can configure the
`submodule.<name>.branch` option in `.gitmodules`.  You can override
the `.gitmodules` configuration setting for a particular superproject
by configuring the option in that superproject's default configuration
(using the usual configuration hierarchy, e.g. `.git/config`,
`~/.gitconfig`, etc.).

Previous use of submodule.<name>.branch
=======================================

Because we're adding a new configuration option, it's a good idea to
check if anyone else is already using the option.  The foreach-pull
example above was described by Ævar in

  commit f030c96d8643fa0a1a9b2bd9c2f36a77721fb61f
  Author: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
  Date:   Fri May 21 16:10:10 2010 +0000

    git-submodule foreach: Add $toplevel variable

Gerrit uses the same interpretation for the setting, but because
Gerrit has direct access to the subproject repositories, it updates
the superproject repositories automatically when a subproject changes.
Gerrit also accepts the special value '.', which it expands into the
superproject's branch name.

Although the --remote functionality is using `submodule.<name>.branch`
slightly differently, the effect is the same.  The foreach-pull
example uses the option to record the name of the local branch to
checkout before pulls.  The tracking branch to be pulled is recorded
in `.git/modules/<name>/config`, which was initialized by the module
clone during `submodule add` or `submodule init`.  Because the branch
name stored in `submodule.<name>.branch` was likely the same as the
branch name used during the initial `submodule add`, the same branch
will be pulled in each workflow.

Implementation details
======================

In order to ensure a current tracking branch state, `update --remote`
fetches the submodule's remote repository before calculating the
SHA-1.  However, I didn't change the logic guarding the existing fetch:

  if test -z "$nofetch"
  then
    # Run fetch only if $sha1 isn't present or it
    # is not reachable from a ref.
    (clear_local_git_env; cd "$path" &&
      ( (rev=$(git rev-list -n 1 $sha1 --not --all 2>/dev/null) &&
       test -z "$rev") || git-fetch)) ||
    die "$(eval_gettext "Unable to fetch in submodule path '\$path'")"
  fi

There will not be a double-fetch, because the new $sha1 determined
after the `--remote` triggered fetch should always exist in the
repository.  If it doesn't, it's because some racy process removed it
from the submodule's repository and we *should* be re-fetching.

Signed-off-by: W. Trevor King <wking@tremily.us>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 5 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/gitmodules.txt b/Documentation/gitmodules.txt
index ab3e91c05..52d7ae431 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitmodules.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitmodules.txt
@@ -49,6 +49,11 @@ submodule.<name>.update::
 	This config option is overridden if 'git submodule update' is given
 	the '--merge', '--rebase' or '--checkout' options.
 
+submodule.<name>.branch::
+	A remote branch name for tracking updates in the upstream submodule.
+	If the option is not specified, it defaults to 'master'.  See the
+	`--remote` documentation in linkgit:git-submodule[1] for details.
+
 submodule.<name>.fetchRecurseSubmodules::
 	This option can be used to control recursive fetching of this
 	submodule. If this option is also present in the submodules entry in