GIT-SUBMODULE(1)                  Git Manual                  GIT-SUBMODULE(1)



NAME
       git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules

SYNOPSIS
       git submodule [--quiet] add [-b <branch>] [-f|--force] [--name <name>]
                     [--reference <repository>] [--depth <depth>] [--] <repository> [<path>]
       git submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
       git submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
       git submodule [--quiet] deinit [-f|--force] [--] <path>...
       git submodule [--quiet] update [--init] [--remote] [-N|--no-fetch]
                     [-f|--force] [--rebase|--merge] [--reference <repository>]
                     [--depth <depth>] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
       git submodule [--quiet] summary [--cached|--files] [(-n|--summary-limit) <n>]
                     [commit] [--] [<path>...]
       git submodule [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command>
       git submodule [--quiet] sync [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]


DESCRIPTION
       Submodules allow foreign repositories to be embedded within a dedicated
       subdirectory of the source tree, always pointed at a particular commit.

       They are not to be confused with remotes, which are meant mainly for
       branches of the same project; submodules are meant for different
       projects you would like to make part of your source tree, while the
       history of the two projects still stays completely independent and you
       cannot modify the contents of the submodule from within the main
       project. If you want to merge the project histories and want to treat
       the aggregated whole as a single project from then on, you may want to
       add a remote for the other project and use the subtree merge strategy,
       instead of treating the other project as a submodule. Directories that
       come from both projects can be cloned and checked out as a whole if you
       choose to go that route.

       Submodules are composed from a so-called gitlink tree entry in the main
       repository that refers to a particular commit object within the inner
       repository that is completely separate. A record in the .gitmodules
       (see gitmodules(5)) file at the root of the source tree assigns a
       logical name to the submodule and describes the default URL the
       submodule shall be cloned from. The logical name can be used for
       overriding this URL within your local repository configuration (see
       submodule init).

       This command will manage the tree entries and contents of the
       gitmodules file for you, as well as inspect the status of your
       submodules and update them. When adding a new submodule to the tree,
       the add subcommand is to be used. However, when pulling a tree
       containing submodules, these will not be checked out by default; the
       init and update subcommands will maintain submodules checked out and at
       appropriate revision in your working tree. You can briefly inspect the
       up-to-date status of your submodules using the status subcommand and
       get a detailed overview of the difference between the index and
       checkouts using the summary subcommand.

COMMANDS
       add
           Add the given repository as a submodule at the given path to the
           changeset to be committed next to the current project: the current
           project is termed the "superproject".

           This requires at least one argument: <repository>. The optional
           argument <path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule
           to exist in the superproject. If <path> is not given, the
           "humanish" part of the source repository is used ("repo" for
           "/path/to/repo.git" and "foo" for "host.xz:foo/.git"). The <path>
           is also used as the submodule's logical name in its configuration
           entries unless --name is used to specify a logical name.

           <repository> is the URL of the new submodule's origin repository.
           This may be either an absolute URL, or (if it begins with ./ or
           ../), the location relative to the superproject's origin repository
           (Please note that to specify a repository foo.git which is located
           right next to a superproject bar.git, you'll have to use ../foo.git
           instead of ./foo.git - as one might expect when following the rules
           for relative URLs - because the evaluation of relative URLs in Git
           is identical to that of relative directories). If the superproject
           doesn't have an origin configured the superproject is its own
           authoritative upstream and the current working directory is used
           instead.

           <path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule to exist
           in the superproject. If <path> does not exist, then the submodule
           is created by cloning from the named URL. If <path> does exist and
           is already a valid Git repository, then this is added to the
           changeset without cloning. This second form is provided to ease
           creating a new submodule from scratch, and presumes the user will
           later push the submodule to the given URL.

           In either case, the given URL is recorded into .gitmodules for use
           by subsequent users cloning the superproject. If the URL is given
           relative to the superproject's repository, the presumption is the
           superproject and submodule repositories will be kept together in
           the same relative location, and only the superproject's URL needs
           to be provided: git-submodule will correctly locate the submodule
           using the relative URL in .gitmodules.

       status
           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 does not match the
           SHA-1 found in the index of the containing repository and U if the
           submodule has merge conflicts.

           If --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into nested
           submodules, and show their status as well.

           If you are only interested in changes of the currently initialized
           submodules with respect to the commit recorded in the index or the
           HEAD, git-status(1) and git-diff(1) will provide that information
           too (and can also report changes to a submodule's work tree).

       init
           Initialize the submodules recorded in the index (which were added
           and committed elsewhere) by copying submodule names and urls from
           .gitmodules to .git/config. Optional <path> arguments limit which
           submodules will be initialized. It will also copy the value of
           submodule.$name.update into .git/config. The key used in
           .git/config is submodule.$name.url. This command does not alter
           existing information in .git/config. You can then customize the
           submodule clone URLs in .git/config for your local setup and
           proceed to git submodule update; you can also just use git
           submodule update --init without the explicit init step if you do
           not intend to customize any submodule locations.

       deinit
           Unregister the given submodules, i.e. remove the whole
           submodule.$name section from .git/config together with their work
           tree. Further calls to git submodule update, git submodule foreach
           and git submodule sync will skip any unregistered submodules until
           they are initialized again, so use this command if you don't want
           to have a local checkout of the submodule in your work tree
           anymore. If you really want to remove a submodule from the
           repository and commit that use git-rm(1) instead.

           If --force is specified, the submodule's work tree will be removed
           even if it contains local modifications.

       update
           Update the registered submodules, i.e. clone missing submodules and
           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.

           If the submodule is not yet initialized, and you just want to use
           the setting as stored in .gitmodules, you can automatically
           initialize the submodule with the --init option.

           If --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into the
           registered submodules, and update any nested submodules within.

           If --force is specified, the submodule will be checked out (using
           git checkout --force if appropriate), even if the commit specified
           in the index of the containing repository already matches the
           commit checked out in the submodule.

       summary
           Show commit summary between the given commit (defaults to HEAD) and
           working tree/index. For a submodule in question, a series of
           commits in the submodule between the given super project commit and
           the index or working tree (switched by --cached) are shown. If the
           option --files is given, show the series of commits in the
           submodule between the index of the super project and the working
           tree of the submodule (this option doesn't allow to use the
           --cached option or to provide an explicit commit).

           Using the --submodule=log option with git-diff(1) will provide that
           information too.

       foreach
           Evaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out submodule.
           The command has access to the variables $name, $path, $sha1 and
           $toplevel: $name is the name of the relevant submodule section in
           .gitmodules, $path is the name of the submodule directory relative
           to the superproject, $sha1 is the commit as recorded in the
           superproject, and $toplevel is the absolute path to the top-level
           of the superproject. Any submodules defined in the superproject but
           not checked out are ignored by this command. Unless given --quiet,
           foreach prints the name of each submodule before evaluating the
           command. If --recursive is given, submodules are traversed
           recursively (i.e. the given shell command is evaluated in nested
           submodules as well). A non-zero return from the command in any
           submodule causes the processing to terminate. This can be
           overridden by adding || : to the end of the command.

           As an example, git submodule foreach 'echo $path `git rev-parse
           HEAD`' will show the path and currently checked out commit for each
           submodule.

       sync
           Synchronizes submodules' remote URL configuration setting to the
           value specified in .gitmodules. It will only affect those
           submodules which already have a URL entry in .git/config (that is
           the case when they are initialized or freshly added). This is
           useful when submodule URLs change upstream and you need to update
           your local repositories accordingly.

           "git submodule sync" synchronizes all submodules while "git
           submodule sync -- A" synchronizes submodule "A" only.

OPTIONS
       -q, --quiet
           Only print error messages.

       -b, --branch
           Branch of repository to add as submodule. The name of the branch is
           recorded as submodule.<name>.branch in .gitmodules for update
           --remote.

       -f, --force
           This option is only valid for add, deinit and update commands. When
           running add, allow adding an otherwise ignored submodule path. When
           running deinit the submodule work trees will be removed even if
           they contain local changes. When running update, throw away local
           changes in submodules when switching to a different commit; and
           always run a checkout operation in the submodule, even if the
           commit listed in the index of the containing repository matches the
           commit checked out in the submodule.

       --cached
           This option is only valid for status and summary commands. These
           commands typically use the commit found in the submodule HEAD, but
           with this option, the commit stored in the index is used instead.

       --files
           This option is only valid for the summary command. This command
           compares the commit in the index with that in the submodule HEAD
           when this option is used.

       -n, --summary-limit
           This option is only valid for the summary command. Limit the
           summary size (number of commits shown in total). Giving 0 will
           disable the summary; a negative number means unlimited (the
           default). This limit only applies to modified submodules. The size
           is always limited to 1 for added/deleted/typechanged submodules.

       --remote
           This option is only valid for the update command. Instead of using
           the superproject's recorded SHA-1 to update the submodule, use the
           status of the submodule's remote-tracking branch. The remote used
           is branch's remote (branch.<name>.remote), defaulting to origin.
           The remote branch used defaults to master, but the branch name may
           be overridden by setting the submodule.<name>.branch option in
           either .gitmodules or .git/config (with .git/config taking
           precedence).

           This works for any of the supported update procedures (--checkout,
           --rebase, etc.). The only change is the source of the target SHA-1.
           For example, submodule update --remote --merge will merge upstream
           submodule changes into the submodules, while submodule update
           --merge will merge superproject gitlink changes into the
           submodules.

           In order to ensure a current tracking branch state, update --remote
           fetches the submodule's remote repository before calculating the
           SHA-1. If you don't want to fetch, you should use submodule update
           --remote --no-fetch.

           Use this option to integrate changes from the upstream subproject
           with your submodule's current HEAD. Alternatively, you can run git
           pull from the submodule, which is equivalent except for the remote
           branch name: update --remote uses the default upstream repository
           and submodule.<name>.branch, while git pull uses the submodule's
           branch.<name>.merge. Prefer submodule.<name>.branch if you want to
           distribute the default upstream branch with the superproject and
           branch.<name>.merge if you want a more native feel while working in
           the submodule itself.

       -N, --no-fetch
           This option is only valid for the update command. Don't fetch new
           objects from the remote site.

       --checkout
           This option is only valid for the update command. Checkout the
           commit recorded in the superproject on a detached HEAD in the
           submodule. This is the default behavior, the main use of this
           option is to override submodule.$name.update when set to merge,
           rebase or none. If the key submodule.$name.update is either not
           explicitly set or set to checkout, this option is implicit.

       --merge
           This option is only valid for the update command. Merge the commit
           recorded in the superproject into the current branch of the
           submodule. If this option is given, the submodule's HEAD will not
           be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will
           have to resolve the resulting conflicts within the submodule with
           the usual conflict resolution tools. If the key
           submodule.$name.update is set to merge, this option is implicit.

       --rebase
           This option is only valid for the update command. Rebase the
           current branch onto the commit recorded in the superproject. If
           this option is given, the submodule's HEAD will not be detached. If
           a merge failure prevents this process, you will have to resolve
           these failures with git-rebase(1). If the key
           submodule.$name.update is set to rebase, this option is implicit.

       --init
           This option is only valid for the update command. Initialize all
           submodules for which "git submodule init" has not been called so
           far before updating.

       --name
           This option is only valid for the add command. It sets the
           submodule's name to the given string instead of defaulting to its
           path. The name must be valid as a directory name and may not end
           with a /.

       --reference <repository>
           This option is only valid for add and update commands. These
           commands sometimes need to clone a remote repository. In this case,
           this option will be passed to the git-clone(1) command.

           NOTE: Do not use this option unless you have read the note for git-
           clone(1)'s --reference and --shared options carefully.

       --recursive
           This option is only valid for foreach, update and status commands.
           Traverse submodules recursively. The operation is performed not
           only in the submodules of the current repo, but also in any nested
           submodules inside those submodules (and so on).

       --depth
           This option is valid for add and update commands. Create a shallow
           clone with a history truncated to the specified number of
           revisions. See git-clone(1)

       <path>...
           Paths to submodule(s). When specified this will restrict the
           command to only operate on the submodules found at the specified
           paths. (This argument is required with add).

FILES
       When initializing submodules, a .gitmodules file in the top-level
       directory of the containing repository is used to find the url of each
       submodule. This file should be formatted in the same way as
       $GIT_DIR/config. The key to each submodule url is
       "submodule.$name.url". See gitmodules(5) for details.

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite



Git 2.1.4                         03/19/2016                  GIT-SUBMODULE(1)
