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>] [-f|--force] [--name <name>] 13 [--reference <repository>] [--depth <depth>] [--] <repository> [<path>] 14'git submodule' [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...] 15'git submodule' [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...] 16'git submodule' [--quiet] deinit [-f|--force] (--all|[--] <path>...) 17'git submodule' [--quiet] update [--init] [--remote] [-N|--no-fetch] 18 [--[no-]recommend-shallow] [-f|--force] [--rebase|--merge] 19 [--reference <repository>] [--depth <depth>] [--recursive] 20 [--jobs <n>] [--] [<path>...] 21'git submodule' [--quiet] summary [--cached|--files] [(-n|--summary-limit) <n>] 22 [commit] [--] [<path>...] 23'git submodule' [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command> 24'git submodule' [--quiet] sync [--recursive] [--] [<path>...] 25'git submodule' [--quiet] absorbgitdirs [--] [<path>...] 26 27 28DESCRIPTION 29----------- 30Inspects, updates and manages submodules. 31 32A submodule allows you to keep another Git repository in a subdirectory 33of your repository. The other repository has its own history, which does not 34interfere with the history of the current repository. This can be used to 35have external dependencies such as third party libraries for example. 36 37When cloning or pulling a repository containing submodules however, 38these will not be checked out by default; the 'init' and 'update' 39subcommands will maintain submodules checked out and at 40appropriate revision in your working tree. 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` (see linkgit:gitmodules[5]) file at the 46root of the source tree assigns a logical name to the submodule and 47describes the 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 51Submodules are not to be confused with remotes, which are other 52repositories of the same project; submodules are meant for 53different projects you would like to make part of your source tree, 54while the history of the two projects still stays completely 55independent and you cannot modify the contents of the submodule 56from within the main project. 57If you want to merge the project histories and want to treat the 58aggregated whole as a single project from then on, you may want to 59add a remote for the other project and use the 'subtree' merge strategy, 60instead of treating the other project as a submodule. Directories 61that come from both projects can be cloned and checked out as a whole 62if you choose to go that route. 63 64COMMANDS 65-------- 66add:: 67 Add the given repository as a submodule at the given path 68 to the changeset to be committed next to the current 69 project: the current project is termed the "superproject". 70+ 71This requires at least one argument: <repository>. The optional 72argument <path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule 73to exist in the superproject. If <path> is not given, the 74"humanish" part of the source repository is used ("repo" for 75"/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" for "host.xz:foo/.git"). 76The <path> is also used as the submodule's logical name in its 77configuration entries unless `--name` is used to specify a logical name. 78+ 79<repository> is the URL of the new submodule's origin repository. 80This may be either an absolute URL, or (if it begins with ./ 81or ../), the location relative to the superproject's origin 82repository (Please note that to specify a repository 'foo.git' 83which is located right next to a superproject 'bar.git', you'll 84have to use '../foo.git' instead of './foo.git' - as one might expect 85when following the rules for relative URLs - because the evaluation 86of relative URLs in Git is identical to that of relative directories). 87If the superproject doesn't have an origin configured 88the superproject is its own authoritative upstream and the current 89working directory is used instead. 90+ 91<path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule to 92exist in the superproject. If <path> does not exist, then the 93submodule is created by cloning from the named URL. If <path> does 94exist and is already a valid Git repository, then this is added 95to the changeset without cloning. This second form is provided 96to ease creating a new submodule from scratch, and presumes 97the user will later push the submodule to the given URL. 98+ 99In either case, the given URL is recorded into .gitmodules for 100use by subsequent users cloning the superproject. If the URL is 101given relative to the superproject's repository, the presumption 102is the superproject and submodule repositories will be kept 103together in the same relative location, and only the 104superproject's URL needs to be provided: git-submodule will correctly 105locate the submodule using the relative URL in .gitmodules. 106 107status:: 108 Show the status of the submodules. This will print the SHA-1 of the 109 currently checked out commit for each submodule, along with the 110 submodule path and the output of 'git describe' for the 111 SHA-1. Each SHA-1 will be prefixed with `-` if the submodule is not 112 initialized, `+` if the currently checked out submodule commit 113 does not match the SHA-1 found in the index of the containing 114 repository and `U` if the submodule has merge conflicts. 115+ 116If `--recursive` is specified, this command will recurse into nested 117submodules, and show their status as well. 118+ 119If you are only interested in changes of the currently initialized 120submodules with respect to the commit recorded in the index or the HEAD, 121linkgit:git-status[1] and linkgit:git-diff[1] will provide that information 122too (and can also report changes to a submodule's work tree). 123 124init:: 125 Initialize the submodules recorded in the index (which were 126 added and committed elsewhere) by copying submodule 127 names and urls from .gitmodules to .git/config. 128 Optional <path> arguments limit which submodules will be initialized. 129 It will also copy the value of `submodule.$name.update` into 130 .git/config. 131 The key used in .git/config is `submodule.$name.url`. 132 This command does not alter existing information in .git/config. 133 You can then customize the submodule clone URLs in .git/config 134 for your local setup and proceed to `git submodule update`; 135 you can also just use `git submodule update --init` without 136 the explicit 'init' step if you do not intend to customize 137 any submodule locations. 138 139deinit:: 140 Unregister the given submodules, i.e. remove the whole 141 `submodule.$name` section from .git/config together with their work 142 tree. Further calls to `git submodule update`, `git submodule foreach` 143 and `git submodule sync` will skip any unregistered submodules until 144 they are initialized again, so use this command if you don't want to 145 have a local checkout of the submodule in your working tree anymore. If 146 you really want to remove a submodule from the repository and commit 147 that use linkgit:git-rm[1] instead. 148+ 149When the command is run without pathspec, it errors out, 150instead of deinit-ing everything, to prevent mistakes. 151+ 152If `--force` is specified, the submodule's working tree will 153be removed even if it contains local modifications. 154 155update:: 156+ 157-- 158Update the registered submodules to match what the superproject 159expects by cloning missing submodules and updating the working tree of 160the submodules. The "updating" can be done in several ways depending 161on command line options and the value of `submodule.<name>.update` 162configuration variable. Supported update procedures are: 163 164 checkout;; the commit recorded in the superproject will be 165 checked out in the submodule on a detached HEAD. This is 166 done when `--checkout` option is given, or no option is 167 given, and `submodule.<name>.update` is unset, or if it is 168 set to 'checkout'. 169+ 170If `--force` is specified, the submodule will be checked out (using 171`git checkout --force` if appropriate), even if the commit specified 172in the index of the containing repository already matches the commit 173checked out in the submodule. 174 175 rebase;; the current branch of the submodule will be rebased 176 onto the commit recorded in the superproject. This is done 177 when `--rebase` option is given, or no option is given, and 178 `submodule.<name>.update` is set to 'rebase'. 179 180 merge;; the commit recorded in the superproject will be merged 181 into the current branch in the submodule. This is done 182 when `--merge` option is given, or no option is given, and 183 `submodule.<name>.update` is set to 'merge'. 184 185 custom command;; arbitrary shell command that takes a single 186 argument (the sha1 of the commit recorded in the 187 superproject) is executed. This is done when no option is 188 given, and `submodule.<name>.update` has the form of 189 '!command'. 190 191When no option is given and `submodule.<name>.update` is set to 'none', 192the submodule is not updated. 193 194If the submodule is not yet initialized, and you just want to use the 195setting as stored in .gitmodules, you can automatically initialize the 196submodule with the `--init` option. 197 198If `--recursive` is specified, this command will recurse into the 199registered submodules, and update any nested submodules within. 200-- 201summary:: 202 Show commit summary between the given commit (defaults to HEAD) and 203 working tree/index. For a submodule in question, a series of commits 204 in the submodule between the given super project commit and the 205 index or working tree (switched by `--cached`) are shown. If the option 206 `--files` is given, show the series of commits in the submodule between 207 the index of the super project and the working tree of the submodule 208 (this option doesn't allow to use the `--cached` option or to provide an 209 explicit commit). 210+ 211Using the `--submodule=log` option with linkgit:git-diff[1] will provide that 212information too. 213 214foreach:: 215 Evaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out submodule. 216 The command has access to the variables $name, $path, $sha1 and 217 $toplevel: 218 $name is the name of the relevant submodule section in .gitmodules, 219 $path is the name of the submodule directory relative to the 220 superproject, $sha1 is the commit as recorded in the superproject, 221 and $toplevel is the absolute path to the top-level of the superproject. 222 Any submodules defined in the superproject but not checked out are 223 ignored by this command. Unless given `--quiet`, foreach prints the name 224 of each submodule before evaluating the command. 225 If `--recursive` is given, submodules are traversed recursively (i.e. 226 the given shell command is evaluated in nested submodules as well). 227 A non-zero return from the command in any submodule causes 228 the processing to terminate. This can be overridden by adding '|| :' 229 to the end of the command. 230+ 231As an example, +git submodule foreach \'echo $path {backtick}git 232rev-parse HEAD{backtick}'+ will show the path and currently checked out 233commit for each submodule. 234 235sync:: 236 Synchronizes submodules' remote URL configuration setting 237 to the value specified in .gitmodules. It will only affect those 238 submodules which already have a URL entry in .git/config (that is the 239 case when they are initialized or freshly added). This is useful when 240 submodule URLs change upstream and you need to update your local 241 repositories accordingly. 242+ 243"git submodule sync" synchronizes all submodules while 244"git submodule sync \-- A" synchronizes submodule "A" only. 245+ 246If `--recursive` is specified, this command will recurse into the 247registered submodules, and sync any nested submodules within. 248 249absorbgitdirs:: 250 If a git directory of a submodule is inside the submodule, 251 move the git directory of the submodule into its superprojects 252 `$GIT_DIR/modules` path and then connect the git directory and 253 its working directory by setting the `core.worktree` and adding 254 a .git file pointing to the git directory embedded in the 255 superprojects git directory. 256+ 257A repository that was cloned independently and later added as a submodule or 258old setups have the submodules git directory inside the submodule instead of 259embedded into the superprojects git directory. 260+ 261This command is recursive by default. 262 263OPTIONS 264------- 265-q:: 266--quiet:: 267 Only print error messages. 268 269--all:: 270 This option is only valid for the deinit command. Unregister all 271 submodules in the working tree. 272 273-b:: 274--branch:: 275 Branch of repository to add as submodule. 276 The name of the branch is recorded as `submodule.<name>.branch` in 277 `.gitmodules` for `update --remote`. A special value of `.` is used to 278 indicate that the name of the branch in the submodule should be the 279 same name as the current branch in the current repository. 280 281-f:: 282--force:: 283 This option is only valid for add, deinit and update commands. 284 When running add, allow adding an otherwise ignored submodule path. 285 When running deinit the submodule working trees will be removed even 286 if they contain local changes. 287 When running update (only effective with the checkout procedure), 288 throw away local changes in submodules when switching to a 289 different commit; and always run a checkout operation in the 290 submodule, even if the commit listed in the index of the 291 containing repository matches the commit checked out in the 292 submodule. 293 294--cached:: 295 This option is only valid for status and summary commands. These 296 commands typically use the commit found in the submodule HEAD, but 297 with this option, the commit stored in the index is used instead. 298 299--files:: 300 This option is only valid for the summary command. This command 301 compares the commit in the index with that in the submodule HEAD 302 when this option is used. 303 304-n:: 305--summary-limit:: 306 This option is only valid for the summary command. 307 Limit the summary size (number of commits shown in total). 308 Giving 0 will disable the summary; a negative number means unlimited 309 (the default). This limit only applies to modified submodules. The 310 size is always limited to 1 for added/deleted/typechanged submodules. 311 312--remote:: 313 This option is only valid for the update command. Instead of using 314 the superproject's recorded SHA-1 to update the submodule, use the 315 status of the submodule's remote-tracking branch. The remote used 316 is branch's remote (`branch.<name>.remote`), defaulting to `origin`. 317 The remote branch used defaults to `master`, but the branch name may 318 be overridden by setting the `submodule.<name>.branch` option in 319 either `.gitmodules` or `.git/config` (with `.git/config` taking 320 precedence). 321+ 322This works for any of the supported update procedures (`--checkout`, 323`--rebase`, etc.). The only change is the source of the target SHA-1. 324For example, `submodule update --remote --merge` will merge upstream 325submodule changes into the submodules, while `submodule update 326--merge` will merge superproject gitlink changes into the submodules. 327+ 328In order to ensure a current tracking branch state, `update --remote` 329fetches the submodule's remote repository before calculating the 330SHA-1. If you don't want to fetch, you should use `submodule update 331--remote --no-fetch`. 332+ 333Use this option to integrate changes from the upstream subproject with 334your submodule's current HEAD. Alternatively, you can run `git pull` 335from the submodule, which is equivalent except for the remote branch 336name: `update --remote` uses the default upstream repository and 337`submodule.<name>.branch`, while `git pull` uses the submodule's 338`branch.<name>.merge`. Prefer `submodule.<name>.branch` if you want 339to distribute the default upstream branch with the superproject and 340`branch.<name>.merge` if you want a more native feel while working in 341the submodule itself. 342 343-N:: 344--no-fetch:: 345 This option is only valid for the update command. 346 Don't fetch new objects from the remote site. 347 348--checkout:: 349 This option is only valid for the update command. 350 Checkout the commit recorded in the superproject on a detached HEAD 351 in the submodule. This is the default behavior, the main use of 352 this option is to override `submodule.$name.update` when set to 353 a value other than `checkout`. 354 If the key `submodule.$name.update` is either not explicitly set or 355 set to `checkout`, this option is implicit. 356 357--merge:: 358 This option is only valid for the update command. 359 Merge the commit recorded in the superproject into the current branch 360 of the submodule. If this option is given, the submodule's HEAD will 361 not be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will 362 have to resolve the resulting conflicts within the submodule with the 363 usual conflict resolution tools. 364 If the key `submodule.$name.update` is set to `merge`, this option is 365 implicit. 366 367--rebase:: 368 This option is only valid for the update command. 369 Rebase the current branch onto the commit recorded in the 370 superproject. If this option is given, the submodule's HEAD will not 371 be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will have 372 to resolve these failures with linkgit:git-rebase[1]. 373 If the key `submodule.$name.update` is set to `rebase`, this option is 374 implicit. 375 376--init:: 377 This option is only valid for the update command. 378 Initialize all submodules for which "git submodule init" has not been 379 called so far before updating. 380 381--name:: 382 This option is only valid for the add command. It sets the submodule's 383 name to the given string instead of defaulting to its path. The name 384 must be valid as a directory name and may not end with a '/'. 385 386--reference <repository>:: 387 This option is only valid for add and update commands. These 388 commands sometimes need to clone a remote repository. In this case, 389 this option will be passed to the linkgit:git-clone[1] command. 390+ 391*NOTE*: Do *not* use this option unless you have read the note 392for linkgit:git-clone[1]'s `--reference` and `--shared` options carefully. 393 394--recursive:: 395 This option is only valid for foreach, update, status and sync commands. 396 Traverse submodules recursively. The operation is performed not 397 only in the submodules of the current repo, but also 398 in any nested submodules inside those submodules (and so on). 399 400--depth:: 401 This option is valid for add and update commands. Create a 'shallow' 402 clone with a history truncated to the specified number of revisions. 403 See linkgit:git-clone[1] 404 405--[no-]recommend-shallow:: 406 This option is only valid for the update command. 407 The initial clone of a submodule will use the recommended 408 `submodule.<name>.shallow` as provided by the .gitmodules file 409 by default. To ignore the suggestions use `--no-recommend-shallow`. 410 411-j <n>:: 412--jobs <n>:: 413 This option is only valid for the update command. 414 Clone new submodules in parallel with as many jobs. 415 Defaults to the `submodule.fetchJobs` option. 416 417<path>...:: 418 Paths to submodule(s). When specified this will restrict the command 419 to only operate on the submodules found at the specified paths. 420 (This argument is required with add). 421 422FILES 423----- 424When initializing submodules, a .gitmodules file in the top-level directory 425of the containing repository is used to find the url of each submodule. 426This file should be formatted in the same way as `$GIT_DIR/config`. The key 427to each submodule url is "submodule.$name.url". See linkgit:gitmodules[5] 428for details. 429 430GIT 431--- 432Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite