1GIT-SUBMODULE(1) Git Manual GIT-SUBMODULE(1)
2
6 git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules
7
9 git submodule [--quiet] add [-b branch]
10 [--reference <repository>] [--] <repository> [<path>]
11 git submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
12 git submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
13 git submodule [--quiet] update [--init] [-N|--no-fetch] [--rebase]
14 [--reference <repository>] [--merge] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
15 git submodule [--quiet] summary [--cached|--files] [--summary-limit <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...]
16 git submodule [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command>
17 git submodule [--quiet] sync [--] [<path>...]
18
21 Submodules allow foreign repositories to be embedded within a dedicated
22 subdirectory of the source tree, always pointed at a particular commit.
23 They are not to be confused with remotes, which are meant mainly for
25 branches of the same project; submodules are meant for different
26 projects you would like to make part of your source tree, while the
27 history of the two projects still stays completely independent and you
28 cannot modify the contents of the submodule from within the main
29 project. If you want to merge the project histories and want to treat
30 the aggregated whole as a single project from then on, you may want to
31 add a remote for the other project and use the subtree merge strategy,
32 instead of treating the other project as a submodule. Directories that
33 come from both projects can be cloned and checked out as a whole if you
34 choose to go that route.
35 Submodules are composed from a so-called gitlink tree entry in the main
37 repository that refers to a particular commit object within the inner
38 repository that is completely separate. A record in the .gitmodules
39 file at the root of the source tree assigns a logical name to the
40 submodule and describes the default URL the submodule shall be cloned
41 from. The logical name can be used for overriding this URL within your
42 local repository configuration (see submodule init).
43 This command will manage the tree entries and contents of the
45 gitmodules file for you, as well as inspect the status of your
46 submodules and update them. When adding a new submodule to the tree,
47 the add subcommand is to be used. However, when pulling a tree
48 containing submodules, these will not be checked out by default; the
49 init and update subcommands will maintain submodules checked out and at
50 appropriate revision in your working tree. You can briefly inspect the
51 up-to-date status of your submodules using the status subcommand and
52 get a detailed overview of the difference between the index and
53 checkouts using the summary subcommand.
54
56 add
57 Add the given repository as a submodule at the given path to the
58 changeset to be committed next to the current project: the current
59 project is termed the "superproject".
60 This requires at least one argument: <repository>. The optional
62 argument <path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule
63 to exist in the superproject. If <path> is not given, the
64 "humanish" part of the source repository is used ("repo" for
65 "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" for "host.xz:foo/.git").
66 <repository> is the URL of the new submodule’s origin repository.
68 This may be either an absolute URL, or (if it begins with ./ or
69 ../), the location relative to the superproject’s origin
70 repository.
71 <path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule to exist
73 in the superproject. If <path> does not exist, then the submodule
74 is created by cloning from the named URL. If <path> does exist and
75 is already a valid git repository, then this is added to the
76 changeset without cloning. This second form is provided to ease
77 creating a new submodule from scratch, and presumes the user will
78 later push the submodule to the given URL.
79 In either case, the given URL is recorded into .gitmodules for use
81 by subsequent users cloning the superproject. If the URL is given
82 relative to the superproject’s repository, the presumption is the
83 superproject and submodule repositories will be kept together in
84 the same relative location, and only the superproject’s URL needs
85 to be provided: git-submodule will correctly locate the submodule
86 using the relative URL in .gitmodules.
87 status
89 Show the status of the submodules. This will print the SHA-1 of the
90 currently checked out commit for each submodule, along with the
91 submodule path and the output of git describe for the SHA-1. Each
92 SHA-1 will be prefixed with - if the submodule is not initialized
93 and + if the currently checked out submodule commit does not match
94 the SHA-1 found in the index of the containing repository. This
95 command is the default command for git submodule.
96 If --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into nested
98 submodules, and show their status as well.
99 init
101 Initialize the submodules, i.e. register each submodule name and
102 url found in .gitmodules into .git/config. The key used in
103 .git/config is submodule.$name.url. This command does not alter
104 existing information in .git/config. You can then customize the
105 submodule clone URLs in .git/config for your local setup and
106 proceed to git submodule update; you can also just use git
107 submodule update --init without the explicit init step if you do
108 not intend to customize any submodule locations.
109 update
111 Update the registered submodules, i.e. clone missing submodules and
112 checkout the commit specified in the index of the containing
113 repository. This will make the submodules HEAD be detached unless
114 --rebase or --merge is specified or the key submodule.$name.update
115 is set to rebase or merge.
116 If the submodule is not yet initialized, and you just want to use
118 the setting as stored in .gitmodules, you can automatically
119 initialize the submodule with the --init option.
120 If --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into the
122 registered submodules, and update any nested submodules within.
123 summary
125 Show commit summary between the given commit (defaults to HEAD) and
126 working tree/index. For a submodule in question, a series of
127 commits in the submodule between the given super project commit and
128 the index or working tree (switched by --cached) are shown. If the
129 option --files is given, show the series of commits in the
130 submodule between the index of the super project and the working
131 tree of the submodule (this option doesn’t allow to use the
132 --cached option or to provide an explicit commit).
133 foreach
135 Evaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out submodule.
136 The command has access to the variables $name, $path and $sha1:
137 $name is the name of the relevant submodule section in .gitmodules,
138 $path is the name of the submodule directory relative to the
139 superproject, and $sha1 is the commit as recorded in the
140 superproject. Any submodules defined in the superproject but not
141 checked out are ignored by this command. Unless given --quiet,
142 foreach prints the name of each submodule before evaluating the
143 command. If --recursive is given, submodules are traversed
144 recursively (i.e. the given shell command is evaluated in nested
145 submodules as well). A non-zero return from the command in any
146 submodule causes the processing to terminate. This can be
147 overridden by adding || : to the end of the command.
148 As an example, git submodule foreach ´echo $path `git rev-parse
150 HEAD`´ will show the path and currently checked out commit for each
151 submodule.
152 sync
154 Synchronizes submodules´ remote URL configuration setting to the
155 value specified in .gitmodules. This is useful when submodule URLs
156 change upstream and you need to update your local repositories
157 accordingly.
158 "git submodule sync" synchronizes all submodules while "git
160 submodule sync — A" synchronizes submodule "A" only.
161
163 -q, --quiet
164 Only print error messages.
165 -b, --branch
167 Branch of repository to add as submodule.
168 --cached
170 This option is only valid for status and summary commands. These
171 commands typically use the commit found in the submodule HEAD, but
172 with this option, the commit stored in the index is used instead.
173 --files
175 This option is only valid for the summary command. This command
176 compares the commit in the index with that in the submodule HEAD
177 when this option is used.
178 -n, --summary-limit
180 This option is only valid for the summary command. Limit the
181 summary size (number of commits shown in total). Giving 0 will
182 disable the summary; a negative number means unlimited (the
183 default). This limit only applies to modified submodules. The size
184 is always limited to 1 for added/deleted/typechanged submodules.
185 -N, --no-fetch
187 This option is only valid for the update command. Don’t fetch new
188 objects from the remote site.
189 --merge
191 This option is only valid for the update command. Merge the commit
192 recorded in the superproject into the current branch of the
193 submodule. If this option is given, the submodule’s HEAD will not
194 be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will
195 have to resolve the resulting conflicts within the submodule with
196 the usual conflict resolution tools. If the key
197 submodule.$name.update is set to merge, this option is implicit.
198 --rebase
200 This option is only valid for the update command. Rebase the
201 current branch onto the commit recorded in the superproject. If
202 this option is given, the submodule’s HEAD will not be detached. If
203 a merge failure prevents this process, you will have to resolve
204 these failures with git-rebase(1). If the key
205 submodule.$name.update is set to rebase, this option is implicit.
206 --reference <repository>
208 This option is only valid for add and update commands. These
209 commands sometimes need to clone a remote repository. In this case,
210 this option will be passed to the git-clone(1) command.
211 NOTE: Do not use this option unless you have read the note for git-
213 clone(1)´s --reference and --shared options carefully.
214 --recursive
216 This option is only valid for foreach, update and status commands.
217 Traverse submodules recursively. The operation is performed not
218 only in the submodules of the current repo, but also in any nested
219 submodules inside those submodules (and so on).
220 <path>...
222 Paths to submodule(s). When specified this will restrict the
223 command to only operate on the submodules found at the specified
224 paths. (This argument is required with add).
225
227 When initializing submodules, a .gitmodules file in the top-level
228 directory of the containing repository is used to find the url of each
229 submodule. This file should be formatted in the same way as
230 $GIT_DIR/config. The key to each submodule url is
231 "submodule.$name.url". See gitmodules(5) for details.
232
234 Written by Lars Hjemli <hjemli@gmail.com[1]>
235
237 Part of the git(1) suite
238
240 1. hjemli@gmail.com
241 mailto:hjemli@gmail.com
242Git 1.7.1 08/16/2017 GIT-SUBMODULE(1)