How to work with multiple git repos (tagged ones)?

Question

I'm working on a project which include multiple git repositories. The folder structure looks something like this;

repo1/
  +
  ---repo2/
  ---repo3/
  ...
  ---repo8/

So, to setup my development environment, I would need to run something like;

git clone http://path_to_git_repo.git top_folder
cd top_folder
git checkout tags/release34
git clone http://path_to_another_repo.git subfolder1
cd subfolder1
git checkout tags/release55
cd ..
git clone http://path_to_another_repo.git subfolder2
cd subfolder2
git checkout tags/rel-44-abc

... etc

A week or so later, different teams would push their own updates/tags and I'd need to re-synchronize by doing something like this;

cd top_folder
git checkout tags/release44
cd subfolder1
git checkout tags/release-bignewfeature
cd ..
cd subfolder1
git checkout tags/release-reverting_tosomethingelse
cd ..

... etc

Doing the whole re-synchronizing is very ... repetitive and tiresome. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could make things easier for myself?

I've heard (and tried) the mr tool, but it will only update to the latest HEAD version of a repo while I need to just be updating to certain tags.

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

0

You should consider using git submodules for that, which avoids the all tags/synchronization steps.

Your parent repo repo1 simply reference a collection of fixed SHA1, one for each submodule repos.

A week or so later, different teams would push their own updates/tags

You can make each submodule follow a branch, which means the resynchronization would be:

git submodule update --remote

edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

Community

1
1

answered Feb 12 '15 at 07:11

VonC

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Hmm... let me checkout submodules. Thanks! – chronodekar Feb 12 '15 at 07:37
@chronodekar note: for the branch, the developers can chose a dedicated branch used only to merge the commits that `repo1` (the parent repo) need to follow. Again, that avoid using tags. `repo1` just follows that branch for each submodule, ensuring that those submodules are updated to the latest commit merged in that special branch. – VonC Feb 12 '15 at 07:43
Now, if I understood submodules correctly, it means making changes to the top-level repo. This is not a decision I can make. Sure I can push code changes, but to keep things in sync would now mean up update the main repo. If it were a new project, I could try enforcing this, but as things are, everyone is used to using tags. So, I need a solution which uses that. :( – chronodekar Feb 12 '15 at 07:53
@chronodekar you always update a parent repo with submodules: that what submodules are: a precise reference to a SHA1 of another Git repo. You need to record and update the gitlink (http://stackoverflow.com/a/16581096/6309), a special entry in the index of the parent repo (http://stackoverflow.com/a/17442045/6309). – VonC Feb 12 '15 at 07:55
@chronodekar trying to use tag will end up having to record somehow the tags that the parent repo is using. That will try and do what submodules are natively doing. – VonC Feb 12 '15 at 07:56

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 12 '15 at 07:35

0

A better approach is to use git subtree, It easier to maintain server dependent repository.

You can read more about submodule and subtree here and here

answered Feb 12 '15 at 07:35

CodeWizard

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How to work with multiple git repos (tagged ones)?

2 Answers2