NAME

git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules

SYNOPSIS

git submodule [--quiet] [--cached]
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] set-branch [<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>…​]

DESCRIPTION

Inspects, updates and manages submodules.

For more information about submodules, see gitsubmodules[7].

COMMANDS

With no arguments, shows the status of existing submodules. Severalsubcommands are available to perform operations on the submodules.

• add [-b ] [-f|—force] [—name ] [—reference ] [—depth ] [—] []
• Add the given repository as a submodule at the given pathto the changeset to be committed next to the currentproject: the current project is termed the "superproject".

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 remoterepository (Please note that to specify a repository foo.git_which is located right next to a superproject _bar.git, you’llhave to use ../foo.git instead of ./foo.git - as one might expectwhen following the rules for relative URLs - because the evaluationof relative URLs in Git is identical to that of relative directories).

The default remote is the remote of the remote-tracking branchof the current branch. If no such remote-tracking branch exists orthe HEAD is detached, "origin" is assumed to be the default remote.If the superproject doesn’t have a default remote configuredthe superproject is its own authoritative upstream and the currentworking directory is used instead.

The optional argument is the relative location for the clonedsubmodule to exist in the superproject. If is not given, thecanonical part of the source repository is used ("repo" for"/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" for "host.xz:foo/.git"). If exists and is already a valid Git repository, then it is stagedfor commit without cloning. The is also used as the submodule’slogical name in its configuration entries unless —name is usedto specify a logical name.

The given URL is recorded into .gitmodules for use by subsequent userscloning the superproject. If the URL is given relative to thesuperproject’s repository, the presumption is the superproject andsubmodule repositories will be kept together in the same relativelocation, and only the superproject’s URL needs to be provided.git-submodule will correctly locate the submodule using the relativeURL in .gitmodules.

• status [—cached] [—recursive] [—] […​]
• Show the status of the submodules. This will print the SHA-1 of thecurrently checked out commit for each submodule, along with thesubmodule path and the output of git describe for theSHA-1. Each SHA-1 will possibly be prefixed with - if the submodule isnot initialized, + if the currently checked out submodule commitdoes not match the SHA-1 found in the index of the containingrepository and U if the submodule has merge conflicts.

If —recursive is specified, this command will recurse into nestedsubmodules, and show their status as well.

If you are only interested in changes of the currently initializedsubmodules with respect to the commit recorded in the index or the HEAD,git-status[1] and git-diff[1] will provide that informationtoo (and can also report changes to a submodule’s work tree).

• init [—] […​]
• Initialize the submodules recorded in the index (which wereadded and committed elsewhere) by setting submodule.$name.urlin .git/config. It uses the same setting from .gitmodules asa template. If the URL is relative, it will be resolved usingthe default remote. If there is no default remote, the currentrepository will be assumed to be upstream.

Optional arguments limit which submodules will be initialized.If no path is specified and submodule.active has been configured, submodulesconfigured to be active will be initialized, otherwise all submodules areinitialized.

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/configfor your local setup and proceed to git submodule update;you can also just use git submodule update —init withoutthe explicit init step if you do not intend to customizeany submodule locations.

See the add subcommand for the definition of default remote.

• deinit [-f|—force] (—all|[—] …​)
• Unregister the given submodules, i.e. remove the wholesubmodule.$name section from .git/config together with their worktree. Further calls to git submodule update, git submodule foreachand git submodule sync will skip any unregistered submodules untilthey are initialized again, so use this command if you don’t want tohave 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 willbe removed even if it contains local modifications.

If you really want to remove a submodule from the repository and committhat use git-rm[1] instead. See gitsubmodules[7] for removaloptions.

• update [—init] [—remote] [-N|—no-fetch] [—[no-]recommend-shallow] [-f|—force] [—checkout|—rebase|—merge] [—reference ] [—depth ] [—recursive] [—jobs ] [—] […​]

Update the registered submodules to match what the superprojectexpects by cloning missing submodules and updating the working tree ofthe submodules. The "updating" can be done in several ways dependingon command line options and the value of submodule.<name>.updateconfiguration variable. The command line option takes precedence overthe configuration variable. If neither is given, a checkout is performed.The update procedures supported both from the command line as well asthrough the submodule.<name>.update configuration are:

• checkout
• the commit recorded in the superproject will bechecked out in the submodule on a detached HEAD.

If —force is specified, the submodule will be checked out (usinggit checkout —force), even if the commit specifiedin the index of the containing repository already matches the commitchecked out in the submodule.

• rebase

• the current branch of the submodule will be rebasedonto the commit recorded in the superproject.

• merge

• the commit recorded in the superproject will be mergedinto the current branch in the submodule.

The following update procedures are only available via thesubmodule.<name>.update configuration variable:

• custom command

• arbitrary shell command that takes a singleargument (the sha1 of the commit recorded in thesuperproject) is executed. When submodule.<name>.updateis set to !command, the remainder after the exclamation markis the custom command.

• none

• the submodule is not updated.

If the submodule is not yet initialized, and you just want to use thesetting as stored in .gitmodules, you can automatically initialize thesubmodule with the —init option.

If —recursive is specified, this command will recurse into theregistered submodules, and update any nested submodules within.

• set-branch -d|—default)|(-b|—branch [—]

• 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..branch configurationkey, which causes the tracking branch to default to master.

• summary [—cached|—files] [(-n|—summary-limit) ] [commit] [—] […​]

• Show commit summary between the given commit (defaults to HEAD) andworking tree/index. For a submodule in question, a series of commitsin the submodule between the given super project commit and theindex or working tree (switched by —cached) are shown. If the option—files is given, show the series of commits in the submodule betweenthe 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 anexplicit commit).

Using the —submodule=log option with git-diff[1] will provide thatinformation too.

• foreach [—recursive]
• Evaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out submodule.The command has access to the variables $name, $smpath, $displaypath,$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 immediatesuperproject, $displaypath contains the relative path from thecurrent working directory to the submodules root directory,$sha1 is the commit as recorded in the immediatesuperproject, and $toplevel is the absolute path to the top-levelof the immediate superproject.Note that to avoid conflicts with $PATH on Windows, the $pathvariable is now a deprecated synonym of $smpath variable.Any submodules defined in the superproject but not checked out areignored by this command. Unless given —quiet, foreach prints the nameof 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 causesthe 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 currentlychecked out commit for each submodule:

git submodule foreach 'echo $path `git rev-parse HEAD`'

• sync [—recursive] [—] […​]
• Synchronizes submodules' remote URL configuration settingto the value specified in .gitmodules. It will only affect thosesubmodules which already have a URL entry in .git/config (that is thecase when they are initialized or freshly added). This is useful whensubmodule URLs change upstream and you need to update your localrepositories accordingly.

git submodule sync synchronizes all submodules whilegit submodule sync — A synchronizes submodule "A" only.

If —recursive is specified, this command will recurse into theregistered 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 andits working directory by setting the core.worktree and addinga .git file pointing to the git directory embedded in thesuperprojects git directory.

A repository that was cloned independently and later added as a submodule orold setups have the submodules git directory inside the submodule instead ofembedded 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 streamby default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -qis specified. This flag forces progress status even if thestandard error stream is not directed to a terminal.

• —all

• This option is only valid for the deinit command. Unregister allsubmodules 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 toindicate that the name of the branch in the submodule should be thesame name as the current branch in the current repository. If theoption is not specified, it defaults to master.

• -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 evenif they contain local changes.When running update (only effective with the checkout procedure),throw away local changes in submodules when switching to adifferent commit; and always run a checkout operation in thesubmodule, even if the commit listed in the index of thecontaining repository matches the commit checked out in thesubmodule.

• —cached

• This option is only valid for status and summary commands. Thesecommands typically use the commit found in the submodule HEAD, butwith this option, the commit stored in the index is used instead.

• —files

• This option is only valid for the summary command. This commandcompares the commit in the index with that in the submodule HEADwhen 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. Thesize is always limited to 1 for added/deleted/typechanged submodules.

• —remote

• This option is only valid for the update command. Instead of usingthe superproject’s recorded SHA-1 to update the submodule, use thestatus of the submodule’s remote-tracking branch. The remote usedis branch’s remote (branch.<name>.remote), defaulting to origin.The remote branch used defaults to master, but the branch name maybe overridden by setting the submodule.<name>.branch option ineither .gitmodules or .git/config (with .git/config takingprecedence).

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 upstreamsubmodule 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 —remotefetches the submodule’s remote repository before calculating theSHA-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 withyour submodule’s current HEAD. Alternatively, you can run git pullfrom the submodule, which is equivalent except for the remote branchname: update —remote uses the default upstream repository andsubmodule.<name>.branch, while git pull uses the submodule’sbranch.<name>.merge. Prefer submodule.<name>.branch if you wantto distribute the default upstream branch with the superproject andbranch.<name>.merge if you want a more native feel while working inthe 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 HEADin the submodule. This is the default behavior, the main use ofthis option is to override submodule.$name.update when set toa value other than checkout.If the key submodule.$name.update is either not explicitly set orset 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 branchof the submodule. If this option is given, the submodule’s HEAD willnot be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you willhave to resolve the resulting conflicts within the submodule with theusual conflict resolution tools.If the key submodule.$name.update is set to merge, this option isimplicit.

• —rebase

• This option is only valid for the update command.Rebase the current branch onto the commit recorded in thesuperproject. If this option is given, the submodule’s HEAD will notbe detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will haveto resolve these failures with git-rebase[1].If the key submodule.$name.update is set to rebase, this option isimplicit.

• —init

• This option is only valid for the update command.Initialize all submodules for which "git submodule init" has not beencalled so far before updating.

• —name

• This option is only valid for the add command. It sets the submodule’sname to the given string instead of defaulting to its path. The namemust be valid as a directory name and may not end with a /.

• —reference

• This option is only valid for add and update commands. Thesecommands 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 notefor git-clone[1]'s —reference, —shared, and —dissociateoptions carefully.

• —dissociate
• This option is only valid for add and update commands. Thesecommands 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 notonly in the submodules of the current repo, but alsoin 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 recommendedsubmodule.<name>.shallow as provided by the .gitmodules fileby default. To ignore the suggestions use —no-recommend-shallow.

• -j

• —jobs

• This option is only valid for the update command.Clone new submodules in parallel with as many jobs.Defaults to the submodule.fetchJobs option.

• …​

• Paths to submodule(s). When specified this will restrict the commandto 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 directoryof the containing repository is used to find the url of each submodule.This file should be formatted in the same way as $GIT_DIR/config. The keyto each submodule url is "submodule.$name.url". See gitmodules[5]for details.

SEE ALSO

gitsubmodules[7], gitmodules[5].

GIT

Part of the git[1] suite