1git-submodule(1) 2================ 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git submodule' [--quiet] add [-b branch] 13 [--reference <repository>] [--] <repository> <path> 14'git submodule' [--quiet] status [--cached] [--] [<path>...] 15'git submodule' [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...] 16'git submodule' [--quiet] update [--init] [-N|--no-fetch] [--rebase] 17 [--reference <repository>] [--merge] [--] [<path>...] 18'git submodule' [--quiet] summary [--cached] [--summary-limit <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...] 19'git submodule' [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command> 20'git submodule' [--quiet] sync [--] [<path>...] 21 22 23DESCRIPTION 24----------- 25Submodules allow foreign repositories to be embedded within 26a dedicated subdirectory of the source tree, always pointed 27at a particular commit. 28 29They are not to be confused with remotes, which are meant mainly 30for branches of the same project; submodules are meant for 31different projects you would like to make part of your source tree, 32while the history of the two projects still stays completely 33independent and you cannot modify the contents of the submodule 34from within the main project. 35If you want to merge the project histories and want to treat the 36aggregated whole as a single project from then on, you may want to 37add a remote for the other project and use the 'subtree' merge strategy, 38instead of treating the other project as a submodule. Directories 39that come from both projects can be cloned and checked out as a whole 40if you choose to go that route. 41 42Submodules are composed from a so-called `gitlink` tree entry 43in the main repository that refers to a particular commit object 44within the inner repository that is completely separate. 45A record in the `.gitmodules` file at the root of the source 46tree assigns a logical name to the submodule and describes 47the default URL the submodule shall be cloned from. 48The logical name can be used for overriding this URL within your 49local repository configuration (see 'submodule init'). 50 51This command will manage the tree entries and contents of the 52gitmodules file for you, as well as inspect the status of your 53submodules and update them. 54When adding a new submodule to the tree, the 'add' subcommand 55is to be used. However, when pulling a tree containing submodules, 56these will not be checked out by default; 57the 'init' and 'update' subcommands will maintain submodules 58checked out and at appropriate revision in your working tree. 59You can briefly inspect the up-to-date status of your submodules 60using the 'status' subcommand and get a detailed overview of the 61difference between the index and checkouts using the 'summary' 62subcommand. 63 64 65COMMANDS 66-------- 67add:: 68 Add the given repository as a submodule at the given path 69 to the changeset to be committed next to the current 70 project: the current project is termed the "superproject". 71+ 72This requires two arguments: <repository> and <path>. 73+ 74<repository> is the URL of the new submodule's origin repository. 75This may be either an absolute URL, or (if it begins with ./ 76or ../), the location relative to the superproject's origin 77repository. 78+ 79<path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule to 80exist in the superproject. If <path> does not exist, then the 81submodule is created by cloning from the named URL. If <path> does 82exist and is already a valid git repository, then this is added 83to the changeset without cloning. This second form is provided 84to ease creating a new submodule from scratch, and presumes 85the user will later push the submodule to the given URL. 86+ 87In either case, the given URL is recorded into .gitmodules for 88use by subsequent users cloning the superproject. If the URL is 89given relative to the superproject's repository, the presumption 90is the superproject and submodule repositories will be kept 91together in the same relative location, and only the 92superproject's URL needs to be provided: git-submodule will correctly 93locate the submodule using the relative URL in .gitmodules. 94 95status:: 96 Show the status of the submodules. This will print the SHA-1 of the 97 currently checked out commit for each submodule, along with the 98 submodule path and the output of 'git-describe' for the 99 SHA-1. Each SHA-1 will be prefixed with `-` if the submodule is not 100 initialized and `+` if the currently checked out submodule commit 101 does not match the SHA-1 found in the index of the containing 102 repository. This command is the default command for 'git-submodule'. 103 104init:: 105 Initialize the submodules, i.e. register each submodule name 106 and url found in .gitmodules into .git/config. 107 The key used in .git/config is `submodule.$name.url`. 108 This command does not alter existing information in .git/config. 109 You can then customize the submodule clone URLs in .git/config 110 for your local setup and proceed to 'git submodule update'; 111 you can also just use 'git submodule update --init' without 112 the explicit 'init' step if you do not intend to customize 113 any submodule locations. 114 115update:: 116 Update the registered submodules, i.e. clone missing submodules and 117 checkout the commit specified in the index of the containing repository. 118 This will make the submodules HEAD be detached unless '--rebase' or 119 '--merge' is specified or the key `submodule.$name.update` is set to 120 `rebase` or `merge`. 121+ 122If the submodule is not yet initialized, and you just want to use the 123setting as stored in .gitmodules, you can automatically initialize the 124submodule with the --init option. 125 126summary:: 127 Show commit summary between the given commit (defaults to HEAD) and 128 working tree/index. For a submodule in question, a series of commits 129 in the submodule between the given super project commit and the 130 index or working tree (switched by --cached) are shown. 131 132foreach:: 133 Evaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out submodule. 134 The command has access to the variables $name, $path and $sha1: 135 $name is the name of the relevant submodule section in .gitmodules, 136 $path is the name of the submodule directory relative to the 137 superproject, and $sha1 is the commit as recorded in the superproject. 138 Any submodules defined in the superproject but not checked out are 139 ignored by this command. Unless given --quiet, foreach prints the name 140 of each submodule before evaluating the command. 141 If --recursive is given, submodules are traversed recursively (i.e. 142 the given shell command is evaluated in nested submodules as well). 143 A non-zero return from the command in any submodule causes 144 the processing to terminate. This can be overridden by adding '|| :' 145 to the end of the command. 146+ 147As an example, +git submodule foreach \'echo $path {backtick}git 148rev-parse HEAD{backtick}'+ will show the path and currently checked out 149commit for each submodule. 150 151sync:: 152 Synchronizes submodules' remote URL configuration setting 153 to the value specified in .gitmodules. This is useful when 154 submodule URLs change upstream and you need to update your local 155 repositories accordingly. 156+ 157"git submodule sync" synchronizes all submodules while 158"git submodule sync -- A" synchronizes submodule "A" only. 159 160OPTIONS 161------- 162-q:: 163--quiet:: 164 Only print error messages. 165 166-b:: 167--branch:: 168 Branch of repository to add as submodule. 169 170--cached:: 171 This option is only valid for status and summary commands. These 172 commands typically use the commit found in the submodule HEAD, but 173 with this option, the commit stored in the index is used instead. 174 175-n:: 176--summary-limit:: 177 This option is only valid for the summary command. 178 Limit the summary size (number of commits shown in total). 179 Giving 0 will disable the summary; a negative number means unlimited 180 (the default). This limit only applies to modified submodules. The 181 size is always limited to 1 for added/deleted/typechanged submodules. 182 183-N:: 184--no-fetch:: 185 This option is only valid for the update command. 186 Don't fetch new objects from the remote site. 187 188--merge:: 189 This option is only valid for the update command. 190 Merge the commit recorded in the superproject into the current branch 191 of the submodule. If this option is given, the submodule's HEAD will 192 not be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will 193 have to resolve the resulting conflicts within the submodule with the 194 usual conflict resolution tools. 195 If the key `submodule.$name.update` is set to `merge`, this option is 196 implicit. 197 198--rebase:: 199 This option is only valid for the update command. 200 Rebase the current branch onto the commit recorded in the 201 superproject. If this option is given, the submodule's HEAD will not 202 be detached. If a a merge failure prevents this process, you will have 203 to resolve these failures with linkgit:git-rebase[1]. 204 If the key `submodule.$name.update` is set to `rebase`, this option is 205 implicit. 206 207--reference <repository>:: 208 This option is only valid for add and update commands. These 209 commands sometimes need to clone a remote repository. In this case, 210 this option will be passed to the linkgit:git-clone[1] command. 211+ 212*NOTE*: Do *not* use this option unless you have read the note 213for linkgit:git-clone[1]'s --reference and --shared options carefully. 214 215--recursive:: 216 This option is only valid for the foreach command. 217 Traverse submodules recursively. The operation is performed not 218 only in the submodules of the current repo, but also 219 in any nested submodules inside those submodules (and so on). 220 221<path>...:: 222 Paths to submodule(s). When specified this will restrict the command 223 to only operate on the submodules found at the specified paths. 224 (This argument is required with add). 225 226FILES 227----- 228When initializing submodules, a .gitmodules file in the top-level directory 229of the containing repository is used to find the url of each submodule. 230This file should be formatted in the same way as `$GIT_DIR/config`. The key 231to each submodule url is "submodule.$name.url". See linkgit:gitmodules[5] 232for details. 233 234 235AUTHOR 236------ 237Written by Lars Hjemli <hjemli@gmail.com> 238 239GIT 240--- 241Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite