submodules: overhaul documentation

This patch aims to detangle (a) the usage of `git-submodule`
from (b) the concept of submodules and (c) how the actual
implementation looks like, such as where they are configured
and (d) what the best practices are.

To do so, move the conceptual parts of the 'git-submodule'
man page to a new man page gitsubmodules(7). This new page
is just like gitmodules(5), gitattributes(5), gitcredentials(7),
gitnamespaces(7), gittutorial(7), which introduce a concept
rather than explaining a specific command.

Signed-off-by: Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

1 files changed, 10 insertions, 34 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/git-submodule.txt b/Documentation/git-submodule.txt
index 74bc6200d5..9ffd129bbc 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-submodule.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-submodule.txt
@@ -24,37 +24,7 @@ DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 Inspects, updates and manages submodules.
 
-A submodule allows you to keep another Git repository in a subdirectory
-of your repository. The other repository has its own history, which does not
-interfere with the history of the current repository. This can be used to
-have external dependencies such as third party libraries for example.
-
-When cloning or pulling a repository containing submodules however,
-these will not be checked out by default; the 'init' and 'update'
-subcommands will maintain submodules checked out and at
-appropriate revision in your working tree.
-
-Submodules are composed from a so-called `gitlink` tree entry
-in the main repository that refers to a particular commit object
-within the inner repository that is completely separate.
-A record in the `.gitmodules` (see linkgit:gitmodules[5]) file at the
-root of the source tree assigns a logical name to the submodule and
-describes the default URL the submodule shall be cloned from.
-The logical name can be used for overriding this URL within your
-local repository configuration (see 'submodule init').
-
-Submodules are not to be confused with remotes, which are other
-repositories of the same project; submodules are meant for
-different projects you would like to make part of your source tree,
-while the history of the two projects still stays completely
-independent and you cannot modify the contents of the submodule
-from within the main project.
-If you want to merge the project histories and want to treat the
-aggregated whole as a single project from then on, you may want to
-add a remote for the other project and use the 'subtree' merge strategy,
-instead of treating the other project as a submodule. Directories
-that come from both projects can be cloned and checked out as a whole
-if you choose to go that route.
+For more information about submodules, see linkgit:gitsubmodules[7].
 
 COMMANDS
 --------
@@ -149,15 +119,17 @@ deinit [-f|--force] (--all|[--] <path>...)::
 	tree. Further calls to `git submodule update`, `git submodule foreach`
 	and `git submodule sync` will skip any unregistered submodules until
 	they are initialized again, so use this command if you don't want to
-	have a local checkout of the submodule in your working tree anymore. If
-	you really want to remove a submodule from the repository and commit
-	that use linkgit:git-rm[1] instead.
+	have a local checkout of the submodule in your working tree anymore.
 +
 When the command is run without pathspec, it errors out,
 instead of deinit-ing everything, to prevent mistakes.
 +
 If `--force` is specified, the submodule's working tree will
 be removed even if it contains local modifications.
++
+If you really want to remove a submodule from the repository and commit
+that use linkgit:git-rm[1] instead. See linkgit:gitsubmodules[7] for removal
+options.
 
 update [--init] [--remote] [-N|--no-fetch] [--[no-]recommend-shallow] [-f|--force] [--checkout|--rebase|--merge] [--reference <repository>] [--depth <depth>] [--recursive] [--jobs <n>] [--] [<path>...]::
 +
@@ -435,6 +407,10 @@ This file should be formatted in the same way as `$GIT_DIR/config`. The key
 to each submodule url is "submodule.$name.url".  See linkgit:gitmodules[5]
 for details.
 
+SEE ALSO
+--------
+linkgit:gitsubmodules[7], linkgit:gitmodules[5].
+
 GIT
 ---
 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite