Eric Blake wrote: > git 1.6.4 learned 'git submodule add --reference dir' as a means to make > initializing git submodules use (MUCH) less bandwidth and disk space by > borrowing references from an existing on-disk repository, rather than > cloning from scratch. I would like to modify the bootstrap script to > honor $GNULIB_SRCDIR, if set, as the argument to the --reference > directory, to take advantage of this git feature. Keep in mind that if > someone sets GNULIB_SRCDIR, it should be to a master repository that does > not get rewound, to avoid issues with the client repositories ever > depending on references that might go stale during garbage collection in > the reference repository (but with gnulib's linear development model, that > is probably not too much of a concern). Any objections?
Good idea. I will use it, and end up saving at least 5 copies worth. > Additionally, the m4 bootstrap script (m4 does not use the gnulib > bootstrap script) is able to perform the same operation even with older > git-submodule that does not support the --reference action, by breaking > things down into multiple steps and using git-clone --reference instead. > Is that worth incorporating into my proposed patch for gnulib's bootstrap, > or should we just assume that git 1.6.4 or newer is widespread enough to > not be worth the hassle? I'd prefer to assume git 1.6.4 to keep things simpler, at least until someone comes up with a compelling reason to add code to support older git.
