`gix status` shows submodule flagged with `--assume-unchanged` after replacing by symlink

[pro7onmatrix]

Current behavior 😯

I have a number of repos which share a common submodule. To save on some disk space and ensure all are on the same version without loads of pushing and pulling, I have locally flagged the submodule with git update-index --assume-unchanged and then replaced the folder by a symlink to a single local checkout of the submodule.

gix status now gives output relating to the submodule.

Some notes:

• If I only modify files within the submodule or even remove the directory altogether, nothing is shown
• If I remove the directory and replace it by a file with the same name (instead of the symlink), the same thing happens. Perhaps some logic which tells gix status to expect the path to be a directory is triggered before checking the --assume-unchanged flag?

Expected behavior 🤔

gix status should give no output relating to the submodule.

Git behavior

After following the steps to reproduce, git status shows no changes:

$ git status
On branch master
nothing to commit, working tree clean

Steps to reproduce 🕹

1. Setup:

   $ cargo install --git https://github.com/GitoxideLabs/gitoxide --tag gix-v0.79.0 gitoxide
   $ mkdir repo && cd repo
   $ git init
   $ git submodule add https://github.com/GitoxideLabs/gitoxide.git
   $ git commit -m "..."
   $ git update-index --assume-unchanged gitoxide
   

2. Remove the directory (doesn't show up in gix status):

   $ rm -rf gitoxide
   $ gix status
    17:45:59 status done 2.0 files in 0.00s (2.5k files/s)
   

3. Symlink the submodule path (now shows up in gix status):

   $ git clone https://github.com/GitoxideLabs/gitoxide.git ../gitoxide
   $ ln -s ../gitoxide
   $ gix status
    17:46:55 status done 2.0 files in 0.00s (2.5k files/s)
     ? gitoxide
   

[Byron]

Thanks a lot for reporting and for the detailed steps for reproduction!

Indeed, it looks like assume-unchanged is checked too late here which is why it shows up. Maybe a simple fix.