expects by cloning missing submodules and updating the working tree of
the submodules. The "updating" can be done in several ways depending
on command line options and the value of `submodule.<name>.update`
-configuration variable. Supported update procedures are:
+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`:
checkout;; the commit recorded in the superproject will be
- checked out in the submodule on a detached HEAD. This is
- done when `--checkout` option is given, or no option is
- given, and `submodule.<name>.update` is unset, or if it is
- set to 'checkout'.
+ 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
checked out in the submodule.
rebase;; the current branch of the submodule will be rebased
- onto the commit recorded in the superproject. This is done
- when `--rebase` option is given, or no option is given, and
- `submodule.<name>.update` is set to 'rebase'.
+ onto the commit recorded in the superproject.
merge;; the commit recorded in the superproject will be merged
- into the current branch in the submodule. This is done
- when `--merge` option is given, or no option is given, and
- `submodule.<name>.update` is set to 'merge'.
+ into the current branch in the submodule.
+
+The following 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
- superproject) is executed. This is done when no option is
- given, and `submodule.<name>.update` has the form of
- '!command'.
+ superproject) is executed. When `submodule.<name>.update`
+ is set to '!command', the remainder after the exclamation mark
+ is the custom command.
-When no option is given and `submodule.<name>.update` is set to 'none',
-the submodule is not updated.
+ none;; the submodule is not updated.
If the submodule is not yet initialized, and you just want to use the
setting as stored in .gitmodules, you can automatically initialize the