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NAME

       git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules

SYNOPSIS

       git submodule [--quiet] add [-b branch]
                     [--reference <repository>] [--] <repository> [<path>]
       git submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
       git submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
       git submodule [--quiet] update [--init] [-N|--no-fetch] [--rebase]
                     [--reference <repository>] [--merge] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
       git submodule [--quiet] summary [--cached|--files] [--summary-limit <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...]
       git submodule [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command>
       git submodule [--quiet] sync [--] [<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
       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").

           <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.

           <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
           and + if the currently checked out submodule commit does not match
           the SHA-1 found in the index of the containing repository. This
           command is the default command for git submodule.

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

       init
           Initialize the submodules, i.e. register each submodule name and
           url found in .gitmodules 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.

       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 or merge.

           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.

       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).

       foreach
           Evaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out submodule.
           The command has access to the variables $name, $path and $sha1:
           $name is the name of the relevant submodule section in .gitmodules,
           $path is the name of the submodule directory relative to the
           superproject, and $sha1 is the commit as recorded in 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. 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.

       --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.

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

       --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.

       --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).

       <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.

AUTHOR

       Written by Lars Hjemli <hjemli@gmail.com[1]>

GIT

       Part of the git(1) suite

NOTES

        1. hjemli@gmail.com
           mailto:hjemli@gmail.com