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 be prefixed with `-` if the submodule is not
- initialized, `+` if the currently checked out submodule commit
+ 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.
+
the submodules. The "updating" can be done in several ways depending
on command line options and the value of `submodule.<name>.update`
configuration variable. The command line option takes precedence over
-the configuration variable. if neither is given, a checkout is performed.
-update procedures supported both from the command line as well as setting
-`submodule.<name>.update`:
+the configuration variable. If neither is given, a 'checkout' is performed.
+The 'update' procedures supported both from the command line as well as
+through the `submodule.<name>.update` configuration are:
checkout;; the commit recorded in the superproject will be
checked out in the submodule on a detached HEAD.
+
If `--force` is specified, the submodule will be checked out (using
-`git checkout --force` if appropriate), even if the commit specified
+`git checkout --force`), even if the commit specified
in the index of the containing repository already matches the commit
checked out in the submodule.
merge;; the commit recorded in the superproject will be merged
into the current branch in the submodule.
-The following procedures are only available via the `submodule.<name>.update`
-configuration variable:
+The following 'update' procedures are only available via the
+`submodule.<name>.update` configuration variable:
custom command;; arbitrary shell command that takes a single
argument (the sha1 of the commit recorded in the