How to track separate projects with same core files in git

Question

I use git version controll and I have multiple projects that uses same base directory, although some changes are made project specific.

Is there a way I could track with same git repo the superfolder (root/private/core in my case) and both public and private project specific directories aswell. Also, if I make changes in one project to core files, I would like that changes are made in other projects git repo aswell.

The way i have came up is to make a git repo in the root folder and then make branches for project, and not track other project files. But with this method I have to merge core changees in other projects and there is kind of a logic error aswell, because in this case branch would be used as project.

I have looked into submodules aswell, but that seems not to be the best solution aswell. If there is a solution that requires me to change my project directory system I am able to do it, although i would like to keep public, private and core directorys separately.

Simplified example of my directory at the moment:

root
- private
  - core
  - projects
    - project1
    - project2
- public
  - project1
  - project2

In private project folder there are core php extensions that are project specific and in public project folder is only stylesheets, javascript and index.

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 13 '12 at 18:28

1

Instead of submodules (which have own limitation - "you cannot modify the contents of the submodule from within the main project" - and will change your usual Git-workflow) you can think about git-subtree, in which case core will be added as subtree (but still exist as separate repo) in all superprojects. Use-case of git-subtree in a situation reminiscent of your state

answered Dec 13 '12 at 18:28

Lazy Badger

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"you cannot modify the contents of the submodule from within the main project"? Of course, you can: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1979167/git-submodule-update/1979194#1979194 . This is for a component approach, as opposed to a system approach with subtree: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/769786/vendor-branches-in-git/769941#769941 – VonC Dec 13 '12 at 20:10
1

@VonC - read **correct** sources before answering be. Git-boys drive me nuts! I said nothing about `git update`, I quoted [git-submodule man](http://schacon.github.com/git/git-submodule.html) and this is not my wording **"...the history of the two projects still stays completely independent and you cannot modify the contents of the submodule from within the main project"**. In plain English: if you modify files **in supermodule and submodule**, you **can't** commit *all at once* (at least I read it this way) – Lazy Badger Dec 13 '12 at 20:42

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 13 '12 at 06:52

I have looked into submodules aswell, but that seems not to be the best solution as well

Yet it could be a valid solution with:

private a parent repo, including core, project1 and project2 as submodules
public a parent repo, including project1 and project2 as submodules

Each time you modify a submodule (like project1 in private), you need to:

commit, push it to an upstream repo (same for the parent repo private),
go into the same submodule of the other parent repo (public / project1)
git pull

Not exactly trivial, but that allows you to keep an exact reference to the configuration used by each parent repo ("configuration" being the exact list of SHA1 of the submodules you need)

How to track separate projects with same core files in git

2 Answers2