Proper use of submodules in .NET solutions

Question

I have a library I wrote with a structure like this:

SolutionA\
--Source\
  --Core\
  --Tests\
--Tools\
  --TestFramework\
  --MockTool\
SolutionA.sln

I want to include this as a submodule for SolutionB. If I use this entire structure as a submodule, it would get a bunch of stuff that SolutionB doesn't care about; it doesn't care about SolutionA.sln; it doesn't care about Tests\; it doesn't care about Tools\. Really, SolutionB only cares about Core\.

It looks like I need a separate repository for Core\. So is it usual practice to have two repositories for .NET solutions whose source is used by other solutions? One for only the (non-test) code itself (plus needed libraries), and one for the test tools and solution file?

Answer 1

Solutions are simply containers for one or more projects; which may fall under the same "solution" folder or somewhere externally.

If you have a project, in this case "Core" then you can reference that project source directly from one or more solutions. In this case, SolutionA and SolutionB.

The extraneous stuff like Tests\, TestFramework\, MockTool\, etc, unless required by Core, don't have to be included in your other solution.

Make sense?