Git subtree to manage vim plugins

I found those blogs http://blogs.atlassian.com/2013/05/alternatives-to-git-submodule-git-subtree and http://endot.org/2011/05/18/git-submodules-vs-subtrees-for-vim-plugins/ about how to use Git subtree. It seems straight forward, but I actually encountered a lot of errors before I successfully created one.

• You need to create a git repository using 'git init' in the dir you want to have all plugins before running 'git subtree'.

  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git subtree add --prefix ./vim-pathogen https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen.git master --squash
  fatal: Not a git repository (or any parent up to mount point /home)
  Stopping at filesystem boundary (GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM not set).
  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git init
  Initialized empty Git repository in /home/ben/git/vim-plugins/.git/
  

• You have to have at least one commit.

  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git subtree add --prefix ./vim-pathogen https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen.git master --squash
  fatal: ambiguous argument 'HEAD': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
  Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
  'git  [...] -- [...]'
  Working tree has modifications.  Cannot add.
  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ vi README.md
  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git add .
  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git commit -m "initial commit"
  [master (root-commit) 70de380] initial commit
   1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
   create mode 100644 README.md
  

• Then you might see this error. What's wrong? Don't use any path './'. I tried '$PWD/vim-pathogen', the same error. I'm using Git 1.8.3 on Fedora 19. Not sure it is a version issue or not.

  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git subtree add --prefix ./vim-pathogen https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen.git master 
  git fetch https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen.git master
  warning: no common commits
  remote: Counting objects: 499, done.
  remote: Compressing objects: 100% (235/235), done.
  remote: Total 499 (delta 148), reused 499 (delta 148)
  Receiving objects: 100% (499/499), 82.10 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
  Resolving deltas: 100% (148/148), done.
  From https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen
   * branch            master     -> FETCH_HEAD
  error: Invalid path './vim-pathogen/CONTRIBUTING.markdown'
  error: Invalid path './vim-pathogen/README.markdown'
  error: Invalid path './vim-pathogen/autoload/pathogen.vim'
  error: pathspec 'vim-pathogen' did not match any file(s) known to git.
  
  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git subtree add --prefix vim-pathogen https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen.git master 
  git fetch https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen.git master
  From https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen
   * branch            master     -> FETCH_HEAD
  Added dir 'vim-pathogen'
  

• You can define a repository using 'git remote add', then use name instead of the url.

  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git remote add hive https://github.com/autowitch/hive.vim.git
  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git subtree add -P hive.vim hive master
  git fetch hive master
  From https://github.com/autowitch/hive.vim
   * branch            master     -> FETCH_HEAD
  Added dir 'hive.vim'
  

• You may not use 'tabular/master' unless you fetch tabular.

  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git remote add tabular https://github.com/godlygeek/tabular.git
  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git subtree add -P tabular tabular/master
  'tabular/master' does not refer to a commit
  
  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git fetch tabular
  warning: no common commits
  remote: Reusing existing pack: 131, done.
  remote: Total 131 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
  Receiving objects: 100% (131/131), 32.36 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.
  Resolving deltas: 100% (48/48), done.
  From https://github.com/godlygeek/tabular
   * [new branch]      gtabularize -> tabular/gtabularize
   * [new branch]      master     -> tabular/master
   * [new branch]      pattern_reuse -> tabular/pattern_reuse
   * [new branch]      trim_1st_field -> tabular/trim_1st_field
  [ben@localhost vim-plugins]$ git subtree add -P tabular tabular/master
  Added dir 'tabular'
  

• create a file under ~/git/vim-plugins/.vimrc like below. Then make a symlink to ~/.vimrc.

  source ~/git/vim-plugins/vim-pathogen/autoload/pathogen.vim
  execute pathogen#infect('~/git/vim-plugins/{}')
  
  syntax on
  filetype plugin indent on
  set sw=2
  
  augroup filetypedetect
    au BufNewFile,BufRead *.pig set filetype=pig syntax=pig
    au BufNewFile,BufRead *.hql set filetype=hive syntax=hive
  augroup END
  

• qgit works with subtree.
• Because you have to add '--prefix name' in subtree command, you cannot pull all repos. There is not 'git subtree pull-all' yet, see http://ruleant.blogspot.nl/2013/06/git-subtree-module-with-gittrees-config.html.