alt Hacker NewsWhat's the advantage to using git subtree or git subrepo instead of git submodules? I've never heard of this, what's the difference between them? If it's an extension, how do people without the extensions end up downloading the code from the other repos?
How does it work with MRs, can I submit an MR which consists of changing the referenced SHA (and have it not show up as changes to every file in the referenced repo)?
They work by copying one repo inside another and providing tools to copy/sync it back out again. It's not a link, it's a copy. It's almost the same as copying the files into your repo and git add'ing them, but there are accounting and tools to pull changes from the subrepo back to the external repo.
The trade-offs are relatively obvious. It'd be a poor option for Yocto, but is a better option for most corporate repos.