- checkout the commit specified in the index of the containing repository.
- This will make the submodules HEAD be detached unless `--rebase` or
- `--merge` is specified or the key `submodule.$name.update` is set to
- `rebase`, `merge` or `none`. `none` can be overridden by specifying
- `--checkout`. Setting the key `submodule.$name.update` to `!command`
- will cause `command` to be run. `command` can be any arbitrary shell
- command that takes a single argument, namely the sha1 to update to.
+ checkout the commit specified in the index of the containing
+ repository. The update mode defaults to `checkout`, but can be
+ configured with the `submodule.<name>.update` setting or the
+ `--rebase`, `--merge`, or `--checkout` options.
++
+For updates that clone missing submodules, checkout-mode updates will
+create submodules with detached HEADs; all other modes will create
+submodules with a local branch named after `submodule.<path>.branch`.
++
+For updates that do not clone missing submodules, the submodule's HEAD
+is only touched when the remote reference does not match the
+submodule's HEAD (for none-mode updates, the submodule is never
+touched). The remote reference is usually the gitlinked commit from
+the superproject's tree, but with `--remote` it is the upstream
+subproject's `submodule.<name>.branch`. This remote reference is
+integrated with the submodule's HEAD using the specified update mode.
+For checkout-mode updates, that will result in a detached HEAD. For
+rebase- and merge-mode updates, the commit referenced by the
+submodule's HEAD may change, but the symbolic reference will remain
+unchanged (i.e. checked-out branches will still be checked-out
+branches, and detached HEADs will still be detached HEADs). If none
+of the builtin modes fit your needs, set `submodule.<name>.update` to
+`!command` to configure a custom integration command. `command` can
+be any arbitrary shell command that takes a single argument, namely
+the sha1 to update to.