COMMANDS¶
With no arguments, shows the status of existing submodules.
Several subcommands are available to perform operations on the
submodules.
add [-b <branch>] [-f|--force] [--name <name>]
[--reference <repository>] [--depth <depth>] [--]
<repository> [<path>]
Add the given repository as a submodule at the given path
to the changeset to be committed next to the current project: the current
project is termed the "superproject".
<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 superproject’s default remote
repository (Please note that to specify a repository foo.git which is
located right next to a superproject bar.git, you’ll have to
use ../foo.git instead of ./foo.git - as one might expect when
following the rules for relative URLs - because the evaluation of relative
URLs in Git is identical to that of relative directories).
The default remote is the remote of the remote-tracking branch of
the current branch. If no such remote-tracking branch exists or the HEAD is
detached, "origin" is assumed to be the default remote. If the
superproject doesn’t have a default remote configured the
superproject is its own authoritative upstream and the current working
directory is used instead.
The optional argument <path> is the relative location for
the cloned submodule to exist in the superproject. If <path> is not
given, the canonical part of the source repository is used ("repo"
for "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" for
"host.xz:foo/.git"). If <path> exists and is already a valid
Git repository, then it is staged for commit without cloning. The
<path> is also used as the submodule’s logical name in its
configuration entries unless --name is used to specify a logical
name.
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 presumption is the superproject
and submodule repositories will be kept together in the same relative
location, and only the superproject’s URL needs to be provided.
git-submodule will correctly locate the submodule using the relative URL in
.gitmodules.
status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
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 possibly be prefixed with
- if the submodule is not initialized,
+ if the currently checked out submodule commit does not match the
SHA-1 found in the index of the containing repository and
U if the
submodule has merge conflicts.
If --cached is specified, this command will instead print
the SHA-1 recorded in the superproject for each submodule.
If --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into
nested submodules, and show their status as well.
If you are only interested in changes of the currently initialized
submodules with respect to the commit recorded in the index or the HEAD,
git-status(1) and git-diff(1) will provide that information
too (and can also report changes to a submodule’s work tree).
init [--] [<path>...]
Initialize the submodules recorded in the index (which
were added and committed elsewhere) by setting
submodule.$name.url in
.git/config, using the same setting from
.gitmodules as a
template. If the URL is relative, it will be resolved using the default
remote. If there is no default remote, the current repository will be assumed
to be upstream.
Optional <path> arguments limit which submodules will be
initialized. If no path is specified and submodule.active has been
configured, submodules configured to be active will be initialized,
otherwise all submodules are initialized.
It will also copy the value of submodule.$name.update, if
present in the .gitmodules file, to .git/config, but (1) this
command does not alter existing information in .git/config, and (2)
submodule.$name.update that is set to a custom command is not
copied for security reasons.
You can then customize the submodule clone URLs in
.git/config for your local setup and proceed to git submodule
update; you can also just use git submodule update --init without
the explicit init step if you do not intend to customize any
submodule locations.
See the add subcommand for the definition of default remote.
deinit [-f|--force] (--all|[--] <path>...)
Unregister the given submodules, i.e. remove the whole
submodule.$name section from .git/config together with their work tree.
Further calls to
git submodule update,
git submodule foreach and
git submodule sync will skip any unregistered submodules until they are
initialized again, so use this command if you don’t want to have a
local checkout of the submodule in your working tree anymore.
When the command is run without pathspec, it errors out, instead
of deinit-ing everything, to prevent mistakes.
If --force is specified, the submodule’s working
tree will be removed even if it contains local modifications.
If you really want to remove a submodule from the repository and
commit that use git-rm(1) instead. See gitsubmodules(7) for
removal options.
update [--init] [--remote] [-N|--no-fetch]
[--[no-]recommend-shallow] [-f|--force] [--checkout|--rebase|--merge]
[--reference <repository>] [--depth <depth>] [--recursive]
[--jobs <n>] [--[no-]single-branch] [--filter <filter spec>]
[--] [<path>...]
Update the registered submodules to match what the
superproject expects by cloning missing submodules, fetching missing commits
in submodules and updating the working tree of the submodules. The
"updating" can be done in several ways depending on command line
options and the value of
submodule.<name>.update configuration
variable. The command line option takes precedence over the configuration
variable. If neither is given, a
checkout is performed. (note: what is
in
.gitmodules file is irrelevant at this point; see
git submodule
init above for how
.gitmodules is used). The
update
procedures supported both from the command line as well as through the
submodule.<name>.update configuration are:
checkout
the commit recorded in the superproject will be checked
out in the submodule on a detached HEAD.
If --force is specified, the submodule will be checked out
(using git checkout --force), even if the commit specified in the
index of the containing repository already matches the commit checked out in
the submodule.
rebase
the current branch of the submodule will be rebased onto
the commit recorded in the superproject.
merge
the commit recorded in the superproject will be merged
into the current branch in the submodule.
The following update procedures have additional limitations:
custom command
mechanism for running arbitrary commands with the commit
ID as an argument. Specifically, if the submodule.<name>.update
configuration variable is set to !custom command, the object name of
the commit recorded in the superproject for the submodule is appended to the
custom command string and executed. Note that this mechanism is not
supported in the .gitmodules file or on the command line.
none
the submodule is not updated. This update procedure is
not allowed on the command line.
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.
If --filter <filter spec> is specified, the given
partial clone filter will be applied to the submodule. See
git-rev-list(1) for details on filter specifications.
set-branch (-b|--branch) <branch> [--] <path>,
set-branch (-d|--default) [--] <path>
Sets the default remote tracking branch for the
submodule. The --branch option allows the remote branch to be
specified. The --default option removes the
submodule.<name>.branch configuration key, which causes the tracking
branch to default to the remote HEAD.
set-url [--] <path> <newurl>
Sets the URL of the specified submodule to
<newurl>. Then, it will automatically synchronize the submodule’s
new remote URL configuration.
summary [--cached|--files] [(-n|--summary-limit) <n>]
[commit] [--] [<path>...]
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).
Using the --submodule=log option with git-diff(1)
will provide that information too.
foreach [--recursive] <command>
Evaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out
submodule. The command has access to the variables $name, $sm_path,
$displaypath, $sha1 and $toplevel: $name is the name of the relevant submodule
section in
.gitmodules, $sm_path is the path of the submodule as
recorded in the immediate superproject, $displaypath contains the relative
path from the current working directory to the submodules root directory,
$sha1 is the commit as recorded in the immediate superproject, and $toplevel
is the absolute path to the top-level of the immediate superproject. Note that
to avoid conflicts with
$PATH on Windows, the
$path variable is
now a deprecated synonym of
$sm_path variable. Any submodules defined
in the superproject but not checked out are ignored by this command. Unless
given
--quiet, foreach prints the name of each submodule before
evaluating the command. If
--recursive is given, submodules are
traversed recursively (i.e. the given shell command 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, the command below will show the path and currently
checked out commit for each submodule:
git submodule foreach 'echo $sm_path `git rev-parse HEAD`'
sync [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
Synchronizes submodules' remote URL configuration setting
to the value specified in
.gitmodules. It will only affect those
submodules which already have a URL entry in .git/config (that is the case
when they are initialized or freshly added). This is useful when submodule
URLs change upstream and you need to update your local repositories
accordingly.
git submodule sync synchronizes all submodules while git
submodule sync -- A synchronizes submodule "A" only.
If --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into
the registered submodules, and sync any nested submodules within.
absorbgitdirs
If a git directory of a submodule is inside the
submodule, move the git directory of the submodule into its
superproject’s
$GIT_DIR/modules path and then connect the git
directory and its working directory by setting the
core.worktree and
adding a .git file pointing to the git directory embedded in the superprojects
git directory.
A repository that was cloned independently and later added as a
submodule or old setups have the submodules git directory inside the
submodule instead of embedded into the superprojects git directory.
This command is recursive by default.
OPTIONS¶
-q, --quiet
Only print error messages.
--progress
This option is only valid for add and update commands.
Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by default when it is
attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This flag forces progress
status even if the standard error stream is not directed to a terminal.
--all
This option is only valid for the deinit command.
Unregister all submodules in the working tree.
-b <branch>, --branch <branch>
Branch of repository to add as submodule. The name of the
branch is recorded as submodule.<name>.branch in
.gitmodules for update --remote. A special value of . is
used to indicate that the name of the branch in the submodule should be the
same name as the current branch in the current repository. If the option is
not specified, it defaults to the remote HEAD.
-f, --force
This option is only valid for add, deinit and update
commands. When running add, allow adding an otherwise ignored submodule path.
When running deinit the submodule working trees will be removed even if they
contain local changes. When running update (only effective with the checkout
procedure), throw away local changes in submodules when switching to a
different commit; and always run a checkout operation in the submodule, even
if the commit listed in the index of the containing repository matches the
commit checked out in the submodule.
--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 submodules.
--remote
This option is only valid for the update command. Instead
of using the superproject’s recorded SHA-1 to update the submodule, use
the status of the submodule’s remote-tracking branch. The remote used
is branch’s remote (
branch.<name>.remote), defaulting to
origin. The remote branch used defaults to the remote
HEAD, but
the branch name may be overridden by setting the
submodule.<name>.branch option in either
.gitmodules or
.git/config (with
.git/config taking precedence).
This works for any of the supported update procedures
(--checkout, --rebase, etc.). The only change is the source of
the target SHA-1. For example, submodule update --remote --merge will
merge upstream submodule changes into the submodules, while submodule
update --merge will merge superproject gitlink changes into the
submodules.
In order to ensure a current tracking branch state, update
--remote fetches the submodule’s remote repository before
calculating the SHA-1. If you don’t want to fetch, you should use
submodule update --remote --no-fetch.
Use this option to integrate changes from the upstream subproject
with your submodule’s current HEAD. Alternatively, you can run git
pull from the submodule, which is equivalent except for the remote
branch name: update --remote uses the default upstream repository and
submodule.<name>.branch, while git pull uses the
submodule’s branch.<name>.merge. Prefer
submodule.<name>.branch if you want to distribute the default
upstream branch with the superproject and branch.<name>.merge
if you want a more native feel while working in the submodule itself.
-N, --no-fetch
This option is only valid for the update command.
Don’t fetch new objects from the remote site.
--checkout
This option is only valid for the update command.
Checkout the commit recorded in the superproject on a detached HEAD in the
submodule. This is the default behavior, the main use of this option is to
override submodule.$name.update when set to a value other than
checkout. If the key submodule.$name.update is either not
explicitly set or set to checkout, this option is implicit.
--merge
This option is only valid for the update command. Merge
the commit recorded in the superproject into the current branch of the
submodule. If this option is given, the submodule’s HEAD will not be
detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will have to resolve
the resulting conflicts within the submodule with the usual conflict
resolution tools. If the key submodule.$name.update is set to
merge, this option is implicit.
--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.
--init
This option is only valid for the update command.
Initialize all submodules for which "git submodule init" has not
been called so far before updating.
--name
This option is only valid for the add command. It sets
the submodule’s name to the given string instead of defaulting to its
path. The name must be valid as a directory name and may not end with a
/.
--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, --shared, and
--dissociate options carefully.
--dissociate
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: see the NOTE for the --reference option.
--recursive
This option is only valid for foreach, update, status and
sync commands. Traverse submodules recursively. The operation is performed not
only in the submodules of the current repo, but also in any nested submodules
inside those submodules (and so on).
--depth
This option is valid for add and update commands. Create
a
shallow clone with a history truncated to the specified number of
revisions. See
git-clone(1)--[no-]recommend-shallow
This option is only valid for the update command. The
initial clone of a submodule will use the recommended
submodule.<name>.shallow as provided by the .gitmodules
file by default. To ignore the suggestions use
--no-recommend-shallow.
-j <n>, --jobs <n>
This option is only valid for the update command. Clone
new submodules in parallel with as many jobs. Defaults to the
submodule.fetchJobs option.
--[no-]single-branch
This option is only valid for the update command. Clone
only one branch during update: HEAD or one specified by --branch.
<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).