what did i learn today
Using git-submodule to handle plugins


  • git status : what is changed?
  • git push origin master : push your local changes to the remote master (origin/master) How can you add the plugin as a submodule to your rails project? Navigate to the root of your rails project, and execute the following commands: [bash] git submodule add git://your_repository vendor/plugins/your_plugin_name git submodule init git submodule update git status # will show the difference: only the submodule is added git commit -a -m "added plugin your-plugin-name" [/bash] How do you retrieve the lastest version of a submodule/plugin. A submodule in git is coupled to the git-repository at a specific time, so it does not automatically evolve with the remote versions of your pluging. You have to manually make a few operations, to make sure you are using the latest version. In my opinion this is an advantage, as you can keep using a known working version until you really want to upgrade. To update your submodule, go to the root of your plugin/submodule (normally RAILS_ROOT/vendor/plugins/your-plugin-name), and execute the following commands: [bash] git remote update # since your submodule is actually a git repository on its own, you can do this git merge origin/master # retrieve the remote master version cd ...... # back to RAILS_ROOT git status # your submodule is updated to the latest version [/bash] Now to edit and change the plugin/submodule, it is the easiest to work inside the plugin folder itself. To do so, you have to proceed as follows. Inside the root of your plugin (e.g. @\vendor\plugins\your-plugin@) [bash] git checkout -b your_local_branch ... do some changes git commit -a -m "something changed" git checkout master git pull git checkout your_local_branch git rebase master ... solve posslble merge-conflicts ... git checkout master git merge your_local_branch git push [/bash] then cd to RAILS_ROOT [bash] git status # => your plugin will have changed git commit -a -m "improved plugin" [/bash] I used the following sources for inspiration:
  • using git-submodules to track plugins
  • git submodules in n easy steps
  • agile git and the story branch pattern
script/plugin install from git fails

I am using ruby 1.8.7 on windows (mingw32), and all of a sudden i cannot run [ruby] c:\> ruby script/plugin install git:// Plugin not found: ["git://"] [/ruby] the suggested variations also don't work, e.g. [ruby] ruby script/plugin install ruby script/plugin install [/ruby] all give the same error. But, apparently, it has something to do with the mingw32 platform. In C:\Ruby\lib\ruby\gems\1.8\gems\activesupport-2.3.5\lib\active_support\core_ext\kernel\reporting.rb the following line can be found in function silence_stream: [ruby] stream.reopen(RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /mswin/ ? 'NUL:' : '/dev/null') [/ruby] Replace that with the correct way to check for the windows platform, and then all should be fine again :) [ruby] stream.reopen(RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /mswin|mingw/ ? 'NUL:' : '/dev/null') [/ruby] I still needed to replace git:// with http:// but now it works :) Now investigate how this can be pushed to Rails codebase?