[IPython-dev] submodules over https

[Dave Hirschfeld]

If you're behind a firewall or otherwise can't use the git protocol but 
instead use https access you may get an error message similar to below when 
trying to update to the latest IPython:

updating git submodules
Submodule 'components' (git://github.com/ipython/ipython-components.git) 
registered for path 'IPython/frontend/html/notebook/stat
ic/components'
Cloning into 'IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/components'...
fatal: unable to connect to github.com:
github.com[0: 204.232.175.90]: errno=No error

Clone of 'git://github.com/ipython/ipython-components.git' into submodule 
path 'IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/components' failed
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "setupegg.py", line 6, in <module>
    execfile('setup.py')
  File "setup.py", line 129, in <module>
    ensure_submodules_exist()
  File "setup.py", line 127, in ensure_submodules_exist
    update_submodules()
  File "C:\dev\code\ipython\setupbase.py", line 396, in update_submodules
    subprocess.check_call('git submodule update --recursive'.split())
  File "C:\dev\bin\Python27\lib\subprocess.py", line 511, in check_call
    raise CalledProcessError(retcode, cmd)
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['git', 'submodule', 'update', '--
recursive']' returned non-zero exit status 1


To fix this you'll need to edit your config file which can be found in the 
top-level .git folder. The [submodule "components"] section which looks 
like:

[submodule "components"]
	url = git://github.com/ipython/ipython-components.git


...needs to be changed to:


[submodule "components"]
	url = https://github.com/ipython/ipython-components.git


If you immediately try to update the submodules you'll likely get the 
following error:

C:\dev\code\ipython [master +1 ~0 -0 !]> git submodule update --recursive
fatal: Needed a single revision
Unable to find current revision in submodule path 
'IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/components'


Translated, this means that there's a failed submodules checkout blocking 
the update and you need to delete the 
IPython\frontend\html\notebook\static\components directory.

After that the error message you get will change to:

C:\dev\code\ipython [master +1 ~0 -1 !]> git submodule update --recursive
fatal: unable to connect to github.com:
github.com[0: 204.232.175.90]: errno=No error

Unable to fetch in submodule path 
'IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/components'


...which means you need to edit the config file for the specific submodule, 
in this case it can be found in the .git\modules\components\config 
directory.

The [remote "origin"] section which looks like:

[remote "origin"]
	fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
	url = git://github.com/ipython/ipython-components.git


...needs to be changed to:


[remote "origin"]
	fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
	url = https://github.com/ipython/ipython-components.git


After all this it should hopefully work!

Since this is a bit of a hassle it might be nice if the https url could be 
used by default for submodules as I assume it will just work for everyone 
and anyone who cares is probably the most capable of switching it back.

HTH,
Dave