check_submodules v0.0.5

check_submodules

Small quickly developed (means not elegant and likely full of bugs) command line utility to verify submodule references in a git repository.

What problem is it trying to solve? (#1)

Some repositories (such as https://github.com/azure/azure-iot-sdk-c) reference the same submodule at multiple places in their source tree. Sometimes it's even more complicated, for example:

a (main repository)
  -> submodule b
  -> submodule c
      -> submodule b (ie. submodule c also references b as a submodule)

In those cases it might be useful to verify that when a submodule is reused in multiple places in the source tree, all the references to that submodule point to the same commit hash.

This utility performs that check.

What problem is it trying to solve? (part deux)

Even if the submodules are consistent, it is possible for a submodule to be on a branch and later that branch could get deleted. This leaves the master in an inconstent state.

To avoid this hazard, this utility also verifies that submodules being checked in are 0 commits ahead of their own masters when merging into a branch into master.