git-unrealmodule

Manage git repositories inside git repositories with Unreal Modules.

Simple alternative to the git-submodule and git-subtree. This is closer to git-subtree but does not try to merge anything. It just clones the subrepository to a directory inside the parent repository and commits the changes from the subrepository into a single commit to the parent repository.

Background

• You deploy code using git to a system where all the code must be committed inside the repository
• You want to share code between your projects
• You cannot or do not want to use git-submodule or git-subtree

Unreal Modules can help you in this situation.

Usage

Define a list of subrepositories and paths in a .unrealmodules file in the root of the parent repository.

Example

path/in/the/repo|https://github.com/epeli/git-unrealmodule|master
something/else|https://github.com/epeli/redux-render-prop

• Commit .unrealmodules into the parent repository.
• Clone the subrepositories using git unrealmodule clone
• Work on the parent and/or cloned subrepositories
• Commit the subrepositories to the parent repository with git unrealmodule commit

Now when new developers come to the project they do not have to know anything at all about the Unreal Modules. They can just clone the repository and continue as if Unreal Modules were never used. That's why they are called "Unreal".

But if they (or you with a fresh clone) want to commit code back to the subrepository upstreams they can restore the .git directories for the Unreal Modules with git unrealmodule restore.

If there has been changes to the subrepository from the parent repository the changes will appear as untracked changes in the subrepository.

Install

The git-unrealmodule is just a single POSIX shell script.

Simplest way to install it is to put in somewhere in your PATH

cd /usr/local/bin
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/epeli/git-unrealmodule/master/git-unrealmodule
chmod +x git-unrealmodule

or you can use the provided installer

git clone https://github.com/epeli/git-unrealmodule
cd git-unrealmodule
sudo make install

or you can install it with npm

npm install -g git-unrealmodule

Command documentation

From --help

Manage git subrepositories from an .unrealmodules file

    usage: git-unrealmodule [SUBCOMMAND] <PATH>

Available subcommands

    clone   - clone new git repositories from .unrealmodules
    commit  - commit changes from the subrepositories to the parent repository
    restore - restore .git directories for the subrepositories defined in .unrealmodules
    help    - show this help

Add PATH to execute command to a single subrepository

Format of the .unrealmodules

    Each line has following format

        [PATH]|[GIT_SOURCE]<|BRANCH>

    Example

        path/in/the/repo|https://github.com/epeli/git-unrealmodule|master
        # This line is a comment
        something/else|https://github.com/epeli/redux-render-prop

    The branch is optional

For more information see https://github.com/epeli/git-unrealmodule