Documentation / git-submodule.txton commit gitweb: parse_commit_text encoding fix (5ed5bbc)
   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>] [--] [<path>...]
  18'git submodule' [--quiet] summary [--summary-limit <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...]
  19'git submodule' [--quiet] foreach <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 $path and $sha1:
 135        $path is the name of the submodule directory relative to the
 136        superproject, and $sha1 is the commit as recorded in the superproject.
 137        Any submodules defined in the superproject but not checked out are
 138        ignored by this command. Unless given --quiet, foreach prints the name
 139        of each submodule before evaluating the command.
 140        A non-zero return from the command in any submodule causes
 141        the processing to terminate. This can be overridden by adding '|| :'
 142        to the end of the command.
 143+
 144As an example, +git submodule foreach \'echo $path {backtick}git
 145rev-parse HEAD{backtick}'+ will show the path and currently checked out
 146commit for each submodule.
 147
 148sync::
 149        Synchronizes submodules' remote URL configuration setting
 150        to the value specified in .gitmodules.  This is useful when
 151        submodule URLs change upstream and you need to update your local
 152        repositories accordingly.
 153+
 154"git submodule sync" synchronizes all submodules while
 155"git submodule sync -- A" synchronizes submodule "A" only.
 156
 157OPTIONS
 158-------
 159-q::
 160--quiet::
 161        Only print error messages.
 162
 163-b::
 164--branch::
 165        Branch of repository to add as submodule.
 166
 167--cached::
 168        This option is only valid for status and summary commands.  These
 169        commands typically use the commit found in the submodule HEAD, but
 170        with this option, the commit stored in the index is used instead.
 171
 172-n::
 173--summary-limit::
 174        This option is only valid for the summary command.
 175        Limit the summary size (number of commits shown in total).
 176        Giving 0 will disable the summary; a negative number means unlimited
 177        (the default). This limit only applies to modified submodules. The
 178        size is always limited to 1 for added/deleted/typechanged submodules.
 179
 180-N::
 181--no-fetch::
 182        This option is only valid for the update command.
 183        Don't fetch new objects from the remote site.
 184
 185--merge::
 186        This option is only valid for the update command.
 187        Merge the commit recorded in the superproject into the current branch
 188        of the submodule. If this option is given, the submodule's HEAD will
 189        not be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will
 190        have to resolve the resulting conflicts within the submodule with the
 191        usual conflict resolution tools.
 192        If the key `submodule.$name.update` is set to `merge`, this option is
 193        implicit.
 194
 195--rebase::
 196        This option is only valid for the update command.
 197        Rebase the current branch onto the commit recorded in the
 198        superproject. If this option is given, the submodule's HEAD will not
 199        be detached. If a a merge failure prevents this process, you will have
 200        to resolve these failures with linkgit:git-rebase[1].
 201        If the key `submodule.$name.update` is set to `rebase`, this option is
 202        implicit.
 203
 204--reference <repository>::
 205        This option is only valid for add and update commands.  These
 206        commands sometimes need to clone a remote repository. In this case,
 207        this option will be passed to the linkgit:git-clone[1] command.
 208+
 209*NOTE*: Do *not* use this option unless you have read the note
 210for linkgit:git-clone[1]'s --reference and --shared options carefully.
 211
 212<path>...::
 213        Paths to submodule(s). When specified this will restrict the command
 214        to only operate on the submodules found at the specified paths.
 215        (This argument is required with add).
 216
 217FILES
 218-----
 219When initializing submodules, a .gitmodules file in the top-level directory
 220of the containing repository is used to find the url of each submodule.
 221This file should be formatted in the same way as `$GIT_DIR/config`. The key
 222to each submodule url is "submodule.$name.url".  See linkgit:gitmodules[5]
 223for details.
 224
 225
 226AUTHOR
 227------
 228Written by Lars Hjemli <hjemli@gmail.com>
 229
 230GIT
 231---
 232Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite