GIT-SUBMODULE(1) Git Manual GIT-SUBMODULE(1)
NAME
git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules
SYNOPSIS
git submodule [--quiet] add [-b <branch>] [-f|--force] [--name <name>]
[--reference <repository>] [--] <repository> [<path>]
git submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] deinit [-f|--force] [--] <path>...
git submodule [--quiet] update [--init] [--remote] [-N|--no-fetch]
[-f|--force] [--rebase] [--reference <repository>]
[--merge] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] summary [--cached|--files] [(-n|--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 projects you would like to make part of your source tree, while the history of the two
projects still stays completely independent and you cannot modify the contents of the submodule from within
the main project. 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 (see
gitmodules(5)) file at the root of the source tree assigns a logical name to the submodule 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 gitmodules 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 subcommand is to
be used. However, when pulling a tree containing submodules, these will not be checked out by default; the
init and update subcommands 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.
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 current project is termed the "superproject".
This requires at least one argument: <repository>. The optional argument <path> is the relative location
for the cloned submodule 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"). The <path> is
also used as the submodule’s logical name in its configuration entries unless --name is used to specify a
logical name.
<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 origin repository (Please note
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 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
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 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 --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
Initialize the submodules recorded in the index (which were added and committed elsewhere) by copying
submodule names and urls from .gitmodules to .git/config. Optional <path> arguments limit which submodules
will be initialized. It will also copy the value of submodule.$name.update into .git/config. The key used
in .git/config is submodule.$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 submodule update --init without the explicit init step if you
do not intend to customize any submodule locations.
deinit
Unregister the given submodules, i.e. remove the whole submodule.$name section from .git/config together
with their work tree. Further calls to git submodule update, git submodule foreach and git submodule sync
will skip any unregistered submodules until they are initialized again, so use this command if you don’t
want to have a local checkout of the submodule in your work tree anymore. If you really want to remove a
submodule from the repository and commit that use git-rm(1) instead.
If --force is specified, the submodule’s work tree will be removed even if it contains local
modifications.
update
Update the registered submodules, i.e. clone missing submodules and checkout the commit specified in the
index of the containing repository. This will make the submodules HEAD be detached unless --rebase or
--merge is specified or the key submodule.$name.update is set to rebase, merge or none. none can be
overridden by specifying --checkout.
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 --force is specified, the submodule will be checked out (using git checkout --force if appropriate),
even if the commit specified in the index of the containing repository already matches the commit checked
out in the submodule.
variables $name, $path, $sha1 and $toplevel: $name is the name of the relevant submodule section in
.gitmodules, $path is the name of the submodule directory 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 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, 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. 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.
OPTIONS
-q, --quiet
Only print error messages.
-b, --branch
Branch of repository to add as submodule. The name of the branch is recorded as submodule.<path>.branch in
.gitmodules for update --remote.
-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 work trees will be removed even if they contain
local changes. When running update, 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 master,
-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 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 and --shared
options carefully.
--recursive
This option is only valid for foreach, update and status 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).
<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 $GIT_DIR/config. The
key to each submodule url is "submodule.$name.url". See gitmodules(5) for details.
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 1.8.3.1 03/23/2016 GIT-SUBMODULE(1)
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