I’m learning about new things everyday… and today I learned a nice trick on how to deal with github repository inside another repository… my way.

Image via CrunchBase

You see, I have had this problem: my LODGrefine github repository contains code of Google Refine (GR), code of my GR extension –  which is another github repository – and some other stuff. Some people might have GR already installed and therefore separate repository for the extension makes sense. I didn’t like the idea of a “proper” submodule for the extension, because: 1) it shows up as links on github , 2) when cloning the main repo, extension’s folder was empty – additional command is needed to pull the submodule from the github. It’s complicated.

Today I found this great solution of using fake submodule. It works swell! Code of the extension is visible in the main repo and I have all the code in one place… It’s a little more work updating it – calling git commit and git push twice – in main repo folder and in extension folder, but what a small price to pay for such a great solution! :D

Related articles

• Git submodules workflow when modifying third party code (stackoverflow.com)