GIT-SUBMODULE(1)GIT-SUBMODULE(1)NAMEgit-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules
SYNOPSIS
git submodule [--quiet] add [-b branch] [-f|--force]
[--reference <repository>] [--] <repository> [<path>]
git submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] update [--init] [-N|--no-fetch] [--rebase]
[--reference <repository>] [--merge] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] summary [--cached|--files] [--summary-limit <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command>
git submodule [--quiet] sync [--] [<path>...]
DESCRIPTION
Submodules allow foreign repositories to be embedded within a dedicated
subdirectory of the source tree, always pointed at a particular commit.
They are not to be confused with remotes, which are meant mainly for
branches of the same project; submodules are meant for different pro-
jects you would like to make part of your source tree, while the his-
tory of the two projects still stays completely independent and you
cannot modify the contents of the submodule from within the main pro-
ject. If you want to merge the project histories and want to treat the
aggregated whole as a single project from then on, you may want to add
a remote for the other project and use the subtree merge strategy,
instead of treating the other project as a submodule. Directories that
come from both projects can be cloned and checked out as a whole if you
choose to go that route.
Submodules are composed from a so-called gitlink tree entry in the main
repository that refers to a particular commit object within the inner
repository that is completely separate. A record in the .gitmodules
file at the root of the source tree assigns a logical name to the sub-
module and describes the default URL the submodule shall be cloned
from. The logical name can be used for overriding this URL within your
local repository configuration (see submodule init).
This command will manage the tree entries and contents of the gitmod-
ules file for you, as well as inspect the status of your submodules and
update them. When adding a new submodule to the tree, the add subcom-
mand is to be used. However, when pulling a tree containing submodules,
these will not be checked out by default; the init and update subcom-
mands will maintain submodules checked out and at appropriate revision
in your working tree. You can briefly inspect the up-to-date status of
your submodules using the status subcommand and get a detailed overview
of the difference between the index and checkouts using the summary
subcommand.
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GIT-SUBMODULE(1)GIT-SUBMODULE(1)COMMANDS
add Add the given repository as a submodule at the given path to the
changeset to be committed next to the current project: the cur-
rent project is termed the "superproject".
This requires at least one argument: <repository>. The optional
argument <path> is the relative location for the cloned submod-
ule to exist in the superproject. If <path> is not given, the
"humanish" part of the source repository is used ("repo" for
"/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" for "host.xz:foo/.git").
<repository> is the URL of the new submodule’s origin
repository. This may be either an absolute URL, or (if it begins
with ./ or ../), the location relative to the superpro-
ject’s origin repository.
<path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule to
exist in the superproject. If <path> does not exist, then the
submodule is created by cloning from the named URL. If <path>
does exist and is already a valid git repository, then this is
added to the changeset without cloning. This second form is pro-
vided to ease creating a new submodule from scratch, and pre-
sumes the user will later push the submodule to the given URL.
In either case, the given URL is recorded into .gitmodules for
use by subsequent users cloning the superproject. If the URL is
given relative to the superproject’s repository, the pre-
sumption is the superproject and submodule repositories will be
kept together in the same relative location, and only the super-
project’s URL needs to be provided: git-submodule will
correctly locate the submodule using the relative URL in .git-
modules.
status Show the status of the submodules. This will print the SHA-1 of
the currently checked out commit for each submodule, along with
the submodule path and the output of git describe for the SHA-1.
Each SHA-1 will be prefixed with - if the submodule is not ini-
tialized and + if the currently checked out submodule commit
does not match the SHA-1 found in the index of the containing
repository. This command is the default command for git submod-
ule.
If --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into
nested submodules, and show their status as well.
init Initialize the submodules, i.e. register each submodule name and
url found in .gitmodules into .git/config. The key used in
.git/config is submodule.$name.url. This command does not alter
existing information in .git/config. You can then customize the
submodule clone URLs in .git/config for your local setup and
proceed to git submodule update; you can also just use git sub-
module update --init without the explicit init step if you do
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GIT-SUBMODULE(1)GIT-SUBMODULE(1)
not intend to customize any submodule locations.
update Update the registered submodules, i.e. clone missing submodules
and checkout the commit specified in the index of the containing
repository. This will make the submodules HEAD be detached
unless --rebase or --merge is specified or the key submod-
ule.$name.update is set to rebase or merge.
If the submodule is not yet initialized, and you just want to
use the setting as stored in .gitmodules, you can automatically
initialize the submodule with the --init option.
If --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into the
registered submodules, and update any nested submodules within.
summary
Show commit summary between the given commit (defaults to HEAD)
and working tree/index. For a submodule in question, a series of
commits in the submodule between the given super project commit
and the index or working tree (switched by --cached) are shown.
If the option --files is given, show the series of commits in
the submodule between the index of the super project and the
working tree of the submodule (this option doesn’t allow
to use the --cached option or to provide an explicit commit).
foreach
Evaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out submod-
ule. The command has access to the variables $name, $path, $sha1
and $toplevel: $name is the name of the relevant submodule sec-
tion in .gitmodules, $path is the name of the submodule direc-
tory relative to the superproject, $sha1 is the commit as
recorded in the superproject, and $toplevel is the absolute path
to the top-level of the superproject. Any submodules defined in
the superproject but not checked out are ignored by this com-
mand. Unless given --quiet, foreach prints the name of each sub-
module before evaluating the command. If --recursive is given,
submodules are traversed recursively (i.e. the given shell com-
mand is evaluated in nested submodules as well). A non-zero
return from the command in any submodule causes the processing
to terminate. This can be overridden by adding || : to the end
of the command.
As an example, git submodule foreach 'echo $path `git rev-parse
HEAD`' will show the path and currently checked out commit for
each submodule.
sync Synchronizes submodules' remote URL configuration setting to the
value specified in .gitmodules. This is useful when submodule
URLs change upstream and you need to update your local reposito-
ries accordingly.
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GIT-SUBMODULE(1)GIT-SUBMODULE(1)
"git submodule sync" synchronizes all submodules while "git sub-
module sync -- A" synchronizes submodule "A" only.
OPTIONS-q, --quiet
Only print error messages.
-b, --branch
Branch of repository to add as submodule.
-f, --force
This option is only valid for the add command. Allow adding an
otherwise ignored submodule path.
--cached
This option is only valid for status and summary commands. These
commands typically use the commit found in the submodule HEAD,
but with this option, the commit stored in the index is used
instead.
--files
This option is only valid for the summary command. This command
compares the commit in the index with that in the submodule HEAD
when this option is used.
-n, --summary-limit
This option is only valid for the summary command. Limit the
summary size (number of commits shown in total). Giving 0 will
disable the summary; a negative number means unlimited (the
default). This limit only applies to modified submodules. The
size is always limited to 1 for added/deleted/typechanged sub-
modules.
-N, --no-fetch
This option is only valid for the update command. Don’t
fetch new objects from the remote site.
--merge
This option is only valid for the update command. Merge the com-
mit recorded in the superproject into the current branch of the
submodule. If this option is given, the submodule’s HEAD
will not be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process,
you will have to resolve the resulting conflicts within the sub-
module with the usual conflict resolution tools. If the key sub-
module.$name.update is set to merge, this option is implicit.
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GIT-SUBMODULE(1)GIT-SUBMODULE(1)--rebase
This option is only valid for the update command. Rebase the
current branch onto the commit recorded in the superproject. If
this option is given, the submodule’s HEAD will not be
detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will
have to resolve these failures with git-rebase(1). If the key
submodule.$name.update is set to rebase, this option is
implicit.
--reference <repository>
This option is only valid for add and update commands. These
commands sometimes need to clone a remote repository. In this
case, this option will be passed to the git-clone(1) command.
NOTE: Do not use this option unless you have read the note for
git-clone(1)'s --reference and --shared options carefully.
--recursive
This option is only valid for foreach, update and status com-
mands. Traverse submodules recursively. The operation is per-
formed not only in the submodules of the current repo, but also
in any nested submodules inside those submodules (and so on).
<path>...
Paths to submodule(s). When specified this will restrict the
command to only operate on the submodules found at the specified
paths. (This argument is required with add).
FILES
When initializing submodules, a .gitmodules file in the top-level
directory of the containing repository is used to find the url of each
submodule. This file should be formatted in the same way as
$GIT_DIR/config. The key to each submodule url is "submod-
ule.$name.url". See gitmodules(5) for details.
AUTHOR
Written by Lars Hjemli <hjemli@gmail.com: mailto:hjemli@gmail.com>
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
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