Re: Ampersand module question

[Laine Stump]

Laird Nelson <address@hidden> writes:

> I'm curious about ampersand modules.
> 
> Once a regular module (containing another module via the "&" construct)
> is checked out, does that module actually *know* that it contains the
> contained module?
> 
> If my modules file says something like this:
> 
>   frobnicator  frobnicator &caturgiator
> 
> ...and I do this:
> 
>   cvs checkout -P frobnicator
> 
> ...then I get this (as expected):
> 
>   frobnicator/somedir
>   frobnicator/caturgiator/someotherdir
> 
> ...but now if I do this:
> 
>   cd frobnicator; rm -rf caturgiator; cd ..
> 
> ...and then do this:
> 
>   cvs -q update -d -P -A
> 
> ...then caturgiator does not reappear, suggesting that frobnicator's CVS
> directory does not record what the modules file engineered to happen. 

Correct. there isn't enough info about submodules in the upperlevel
CVS directory to bring it back, and cvs update ignores the modules file.

> The only way to set this back up would be to re-checkout the project or
> checkout the caturgiator module directly at this level.

I believe if you do cvs checkout from above the toplevel of an
existing work directory, and it will update what's already there, and
add anything new that it finds in the modules file. It won't *remove*
anything that was taken out of the modules file, though.

> Is that by design?

It seems more likely it was just an accident of implementation. The
entire modules file concept doesn't seem very well thought out to me;
more like an afterthought tacked on one rainy afternoon...