Proper way to release in Git with submodules

Question

Im starting to work with git submodules and Im a bit confused. Basically on my project I needed a modified version of hybridauth library. So I forked hybridauth, did my changes and added it as a submodule of my repo.

Now when I try to do a release of my repo or simple download a zip copy of my master branch (I use bitbucket and sourcetree ) I get the project with an empty hybridauth folder on it.

I think I have everything configured properly. When I do changes on the submodule then I also commit then in the main repo.

But I can't download the whole project in one file to redistribute it.

How can I do it? Thanks!

Answer 1

You could build that one archive file by:

• cloning your repo
• updating your submodules (git submodule update --init)
• taring the resulting work tree (or use the git-archive-all.sh script I mentioned in "How can I use git-archive to include submodules from a bare repository")

However, that arcive is local only (not visible on BitBucket). GitHub offers a way to associate an artifact (like an archive file) to a "release".

For BitBucket, you could associate your project with a Continuous Integration (CI) service, and repeat the steps above as part of a build/packaging job, and distribute the resulting deliverable (the zipped archive) through that CI service.