English ▾ Topics ▾ Version 2.51.0 ▾ git-submodule last updated in 2.54.0

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] set-url [--] <path> <newurl>
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. Several subcommands are available to perform operations on the submodules.

add [-b <branch>] [-f|--force] [--name <name>] [--reference <repository>] [--ref-format <format>] [--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.

If --ref-format <format> is specified, the ref storage format of newly cloned submodules will be set accordingly.

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)