[derefr]

It’s interesting that we’ve never developed the equivalent for Git of what every programming-language ecosystem has: keeping two parallel listings of dependencies, one in terms of version constraints to satisfy, and the other in terms of exact refs.

I could totally see a .gitmodules.reqs file specified in terms of semver specs against tags, or just listing a branch to check out the HEAD of; resolving to the same .gitmodules file we already have. Not even a breaking change!

[sjburt]

It would mean attaching a semantic meaning to tags, but git doesn't do that, ever, for any reference. You don't even have to have a master branch, much less tags that follow semver. Linux doesn't even use semver!

[damnyou]

Correct, this feature should be built on top of the source control system, not as part of it.