title: How to split up git repo and apply Maven submodules and Maven parent?
body: <p>I need some advice on how to configure multiple repo's such that they share a Maven parent and also are configured as submodules in a Maven root project.</p>
  
  <p>I'm maintaining open source project <a href="http://simplejavamail.org" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Simple Java Mail</a> and as there are optional functions that are becoming larger and larger, I'm planning to split the project up into sub-modules each in there own GIT repo.</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>My first concern is that there should be a shared <strong>Maven parent
  config</strong> that handles all default test and build config as well as
  default test and utility dependencies. That is one extra repo I can
  think of.</li>
  <li>Next, to easily build and release everything together with the same
  version numbers, I thought having a <strong>Maven submodules</strong> setup would
  be useful. How can I set this up in GIT repo's? My first thought
  would be another repo for the main/root Maven project which defines
  the submodules, then checkout this and all other repo's in the same
  folder and the main Maven project would find the module projects
  with <code>..\submodule-xyz</code> relative folders.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I have configured a similar setup before, but that was all in a single repository (in the good old Subversion days). Can anyone please advise on how to approach this best with split up repo's? Preferably I would have one repo for the parent pom and the main/root pom (is that common?). Is it preferable to combine with git submodules?</p>