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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | COMMANDS | OPTIONS | FILES | GIT | COLOPHON |
GIT-SUBMODULE(1) Git Manual GIT-SUBMODULE(1)
git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules
git submodule [--quiet] add [<options>] [--] <repository> [<path>]
git submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] deinit [-f|--force] (--all|[--] <path>...)
git submodule [--quiet] update [<options>] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] summary [<options>] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command>
git submodule [--quiet] sync [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] absorbgitdirs [--] [<path>...]
Inspects, updates and manages submodules.
A submodule allows you to keep another Git repository in a
subdirectory of your repository. The other repository has its own
history, which does not interfere with the history of the current
repository. This can be used to have external dependencies such as
third party libraries for example.
When cloning or pulling a repository containing submodules however,
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.
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).
Submodules are not to be confused with remotes, which are other
repositories 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.
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 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 [--] [<path>...]
Initialize the submodules recorded in the index (which were added
and committed elsewhere) by setting submodule.$name.url in
.git/config. It uses the same setting from .gitmodules as a
template. If the URL is relative, it will be resolved using the
default remote. If there is no default remote, the current
repository will be assumed to be upstream.
Optional <path> arguments limit which submodules will be
initialized. If no path is specified and submodule.active has
been configured, submodules configured to be active will be
initialized, otherwise all submodules are initialized.
When present, it will also copy the value of
submodule.$name.update. 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.
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. If you really want to remove a
submodule from the repository and commit that use git-rm(1)
instead.
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.
update [--init] [--remote] [-N|--no-fetch] [--[no-]recommend-shallow]
[-f|--force] [--checkout|--rebase|--merge] [--reference <repository>]
[--depth <depth>] [--recursive] [--jobs <n>] [--] [<path>...]
Update the registered submodules to match what the superproject
expects by cloning missing 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. update procedures
supported both from the command line as well as setting
submodule.<name>.update:
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 if appropriate), 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 procedures are only available via the
submodule.<name>.update configuration variable:
custom command
arbitrary shell command that takes a single argument (the
sha1 of the commit recorded in the superproject) is executed.
When submodule.<name>.update is set to !command, the
remainder after the exclamation mark is the custom command.
none
the submodule is not updated.
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 [--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, $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, the command below will show the path and currently
checked out commit for each submodule:
git submodule foreach 'echo $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 superprojects
$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.
-q, --quiet
Only print error messages.
--all
This option is only valid for the deinit command. Unregister all
submodules in the working tree.
-b, --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.
-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 master, 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 and --shared options carefully.
--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.
<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).
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.
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Git 2.13.2.556.g5116f7 07/05/2017 GIT-SUBMODULE(1)
Pages that refer to this page: git(1), git-config(1), git-diff(1), git-diff-files(1), git-diff-index(1), git-diff-tree(1), git-log(1), git-rm(1), git-show(1), git-status(1), gitmodules(5)