Fezcodex Stories with git subtree

Let's cover how we integrate fezcodex.stories repo to store and show our stories (dnd) section.

Integrating External Content Seamlessly with Git Subtree: A Practical Guide

In modern web development, it's common to need to incorporate content or even entire sub-projects from external Git repositories into your main project. Whether it's a shared library, documentation, or, as in our case, a collection of stories or blog posts, managing this external content efficiently is key. Git offers a couple of powerful tools for this: git submodule and git subtree.

While git submodule is excellent for managing distinct project dependencies, git subtree often shines when you want to integrate external content directly into your repository as if it were always part of it, especially when you need to easily pull updates. Let's dive into how git subtree can help you manage external content like your fezcodex.stories within your public/stories directory.

Why Choose Git Subtree?

When deciding between git submodule and git subtree, consider these advantages of git subtree for content integration:

• Integrated History: The content of the external repository becomes a part of your main repository's history. This means anyone cloning your main repository gets all the content directly, without needing extra steps.
• Simpler Cloning: A regular git clone of your main repository will fetch all the subtree content. No special commands like git submodule update --init --recursive are required for collaborators.
• Easy Updates: Keeping your integrated content up-to-date with the original source is straightforward with a single git subtree pull command.
• No .gitmodules: git subtree doesn't introduce additional configuration files like .gitmodules, keeping your repository root cleaner.
• Works with Existing Tools: Since the content is fully integrated, all your existing Git tools and workflows (like git grep, git log) work seamlessly across your entire project, including the subtree content.

Setting Up Your Git Subtree: Step-by-Step

Let's walk through the process of adding the fezcodex.stories repository into your public/stories directory.

Prerequisites:

Before you begin, ensure your working directory is clean. Git commands like git subtree add prefer a state where there are no uncommitted changes to prevent conflicts.

• Check your status: Run git status to see if you have any pending changes.
• Commit or Stash: If you have modifications, either commit them (git add . && git commit -m "WIP: Prepare for subtree addition") or temporarily stash them (git stash).

Step 1: Add the External Repository as a Remote

First, we'll add the external repository as a remote to your current Git project. This gives it a short, memorable name that you can use to reference it later.

Important Note for Collaborators: Since Git does not track remotes in the repository itself, every time you clone this project fresh, you must re-run this step to enable syncing. In this project, we've simplified this with a command: npm run init-stories.

Explanation: This command tells your local Git repository about the existence of the fezcodex.stories repository and associates it with the name fezcodex-stories. This makes it easier to fetch from or push to this external repository without typing out the full URL every time.

Command:

Step 2: Add the Remote as a Subtree

Now, we'll integrate the content from the fezcodex-stories remote into a specific directory within your project (public/stories).

Explanation:

• git subtree add: This is the core command to add a subtree.
• --prefix public/stories: This specifies the local directory within your main project where the content from the external repository will reside. Git will create this directory if it doesn't exist.
• fezcodex-stories: This is the name of the remote you defined in Step 1.
• main: This indicates the branch from the fezcodex-stories remote that you want to pull. Important: Double-check the default branch name of the external repository (it might be master instead of main).
• --squash: This option is highly recommended. It squashes all the commits from the external repository's history into a single commit when adding it to your main repository. This keeps your main project's commit history cleaner, preventing it from being flooded with potentially hundreds of commits from the external source.

Command:

Managing Your Git Subtree

Once your subtree is set up, here's how you'll typically interact with it.

Pulling Updates from the Subtree Source

The primary reason for using git subtree for content is to easily keep it updated. When the original fezcodex.stories repository has new content, you can pull those changes into your project.

Explanation: This command is very similar to the add command, but pull fetches the latest changes from the specified remote and branch, and then merges them into your local subtree directory. The --squash option again helps to keep your history tidy by squashing the incoming changes into a single merge commit.

Command:

Making Changes within the Subtree and Pushing Back (Optional)

Sometimes, you might make modifications to the files within your public/stories directory (the subtree content) and wish to contribute those changes back to the original fezcodex.stories repository.

Explanation:

• First, commit your changes in your main repository as you normally would.
• Then, use git subtree push. This command takes the commits related to your public/stories directory and pushes them to the main branch of the fezcodex-stories remote.
• Important: You must have push access to the original https://github.com/fezcode/fezcodex.stories repository for this to work. If you don't, you'd typically fork the original repository, push to your fork, and then open a pull request.

Command:

Removing a Git Subtree (If Needed)

If you ever need to remove the subtree, it's a multi-step process:

Explanation:

1. git rm -r public/stories: This removes the directory and its contents from your working tree and stages the deletion.
2. git commit -m "Remove subtree public/stories": Commits the removal.
3. git remote rm fezcodex-stories: Removes the remote reference you added earlier.
4. You might also want to clean up any leftover Git configuration related to the subtree, though git remote rm handles the main part.

Commands:

Conclusion

git subtree provides a robust and integrated way to manage external content within your main Git repository. It simplifies collaboration by making external content directly available upon cloning and streamlines the update process. By following these steps, you can effectively incorporate and maintain your fezcodex.stories content, or any other external project, within your public/stories directory.