Does anyone know a reliable way of having a dub package that contains git submodules and is to be used as a dependency?

I am looking for a way to ensure the submodules are initialised before a build.

On Monday, 4 November 2019 at 13:37:47 UTC, Sebastiaan Koppe wrote:
> Does anyone know a reliable way of having a dub package that contains git submodules and is to be used as a dependency?
>
> I am looking for a way to ensure the submodules are initialised before a build.

You can use the "preGenerateCommands" to launch the adequate git commands. The submodule needs to be indicated using the "path" property :

      "preGenerateCommands" : ["git submodule update --init --recursive"],
      "dependencies" : {
        "theGitSubModule" : {
          "path" : "./theGitSubModulePath"
        },

I have done this before and while it worked I had to "dub build" twice because the project needed to be read a second time to discover new source files generated by the commands.

There's a PR that is supposed to fix that: https://github.com/dlang/dub/pull/1708
But more likely at some point git submodules will be supported natively.

On Tuesday, 5 November 2019 at 19:26:54 UTC, user5678 wrote:
> On Monday, 4 November 2019 at 13:37:47 UTC, Sebastiaan Koppe wrote:
>> Does anyone know a reliable way of having a dub package that contains git submodules and is to be used as a dependency?
>>
>> I am looking for a way to ensure the submodules are initialised before a build.
>
> You can use the "preGenerateCommands" to launch the adequate git commands. The submodule needs to be indicated using the "path" property :
>
>       "preGenerateCommands" : ["git submodule update --init --recursive"],
>       "dependencies" : {
>         "theGitSubModule" : {
>           "path" : "./theGitSubModulePath"
>         },
>
> I have done this before and while it worked I had to "dub build" twice because the project needed to be read a second time to discover new source files generated by the commands.
>
> There's a PR that is supposed to fix that: https://github.com/dlang/dub/pull/1708
> But more likely at some point git submodules will be supported natively.

I noticed 1 thing with preGenerateCommands. They are executed "every time" even if nothing has to be rebuild. The preBuildCommands are executed only if there is a build needed.

The mentioned pr only takes care about the preGenerateCommands but not preBuildCommands.

Kind regards
Andre

On Tuesday, 5 November 2019 at 20:28:49 UTC, Andre Pany wrote:
> On Tuesday, 5 November 2019 at 19:26:54 UTC, user5678 wrote:
>> On Monday, 4 November 2019 at 13:37:47 UTC, Sebastiaan Koppe wrote:
>>> Does anyone know a reliable way of having a dub package that contains git submodules and is to be used as a dependency?
>>>
>>> I am looking for a way to ensure the submodules are initialised before a build.
>>
>> You can use the "preGenerateCommands" to launch the adequate git commands. The submodule needs to be indicated using the "path" property :
>>
>>       "preGenerateCommands" : ["git submodule update --init --recursive"],
>>       "dependencies" : {
>>         "theGitSubModule" : {
>>           "path" : "./theGitSubModulePath"
>>         },
>>
>> I have done this before and while it worked I had to "dub build" twice because the project needed to be read a second time to discover new source files generated by the commands.
>>
>> There's a PR that is supposed to fix that: https://github.com/dlang/dub/pull/1708
>> But more likely at some point git submodules will be supported natively.
>
> I noticed 1 thing with preGenerateCommands. They are executed "every time" even if nothing has to be rebuild. The preBuildCommands are executed only if there is a build needed.

I didn't know that but I think this is necessary, isn't it ?
If the command creates or update a few D sources then how would DUB knows that everything is up-to-date ? (in an ideal world, were the double dub build would not be necessary).

For the purpose of pulling one can obviously optimize using more complex commands in a script. In my case I used the date of the last pull so that finally the submodule got pulled only once per day.

The command is still executed but you save the useless web request.

> The mentioned pr only takes care about the preGenerateCommands but not preBuildCommands.
>
> Kind regards
> Andre

Thanks for the replies!