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1git-submodule(1)
2================
3
4NAME
5----
6git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules
7
8
9SYNOPSIS
10--------
b2493649 11[verse]
ec05df35 12'git submodule' [--quiet] add [-b branch] [--] <repository> <path>
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13'git submodule' [--quiet] status [--cached] [--] [<path>...]
14'git submodule' [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
15'git submodule' [--quiet] update [--init] [--] [<path>...]
16'git submodule' [--quiet] summary [--summary-limit <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...]
19a31f9c 17'git submodule' [--quiet] foreach <command>
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18
19
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20DESCRIPTION
21-----------
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22Submodules allow foreign repositories to be embedded within
23a dedicated subdirectory of the source tree, always pointed
24at a particular commit.
25
26They are not to be confused with remotes, which are meant mainly
27for branches of the same project; submodules are meant for
28different projects you would like to make part of your source tree,
29while the history of the two projects still stays completely
30independent and you cannot modify the contents of the submodule
31from within the main project.
32If you want to merge the project histories and want to treat the
33aggregated whole as a single project from then on, you may want to
34add a remote for the other project and use the 'subtree' merge strategy,
35instead of treating the other project as a submodule. Directories
36that come from both projects can be cloned and checked out as a whole
37if you choose to go that route.
38
39Submodules are composed from a so-called `gitlink` tree entry
40in the main repository that refers to a particular commit object
41within the inner repository that is completely separate.
42A record in the `.gitmodules` file at the root of the source
43tree assigns a logical name to the submodule and describes
44the default URL the submodule shall be cloned from.
45The logical name can be used for overriding this URL within your
46local repository configuration (see 'submodule init').
47
48This command will manage the tree entries and contents of the
49gitmodules file for you, as well as inspect the status of your
50submodules and update them.
51When adding a new submodule to the tree, the 'add' subcommand
52is to be used. However, when pulling a tree containing submodules,
53these will not be checked out by default;
54the 'init' and 'update' subcommands will maintain submodules
55checked out and at appropriate revision in your working tree.
56You can briefly inspect the up-to-date status of your submodules
57using the 'status' subcommand and get a detailed overview of the
58difference between the index and checkouts using the 'summary'
59subcommand.
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60
61
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62COMMANDS
63--------
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64add::
65 Add the given repository as a submodule at the given path
ec05df35 66 to the changeset to be committed next to the current
77ef80a8 67 project: the current project is termed the "superproject".
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68+
69This requires two arguments: <repository> and <path>.
70+
71<repository> is the URL of the new submodule's origin repository.
72This may be either an absolute URL, or (if it begins with ./
73or ../), the location relative to the superproject's origin
74repository.
75+
76<path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule to
77exist in the superproject. If <path> does not exist, then the
78submodule is created by cloning from the named URL. If <path> does
79exist and is already a valid git repository, then this is added
80to the changeset without cloning. This second form is provided
81to ease creating a new submodule from scratch, and presumes
82the user will later push the submodule to the given URL.
83+
84In either case, the given URL is recorded into .gitmodules for
85use by subsequent users cloning the superproject. If the URL is
86given relative to the superproject's repository, the presumption
87is the superproject and submodule repositories will be kept
88together in the same relative location, and only the
89superproject's URL need be provided: git-submodule will correctly
90locate the submodule using the relative URL in .gitmodules.
ecda0723 91
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92status::
93 Show the status of the submodules. This will print the SHA-1 of the
94 currently checked out commit for each submodule, along with the
ba020ef5 95 submodule path and the output of 'git-describe' for the
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96 SHA-1. Each SHA-1 will be prefixed with `-` if the submodule is not
97 initialized and `+` if the currently checked out submodule commit
98 does not match the SHA-1 found in the index of the containing
ba020ef5 99 repository. This command is the default command for 'git-submodule'.
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100
101init::
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102 Initialize the submodules, i.e. register each submodule name
103 and url found in .gitmodules into .git/config.
104 The key used in .git/config is `submodule.$name.url`.
105 This command does not alter existing information in .git/config.
106 You can then customize the submodule clone URLs in .git/config
107 for your local setup and proceed to 'git submodule update';
108 you can also just use 'git submodule update --init' without
109 the explicit 'init' step if you do not intend to customize
110 any submodule locations.
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111
112update::
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113 Update the registered submodules, i.e. clone missing submodules and
114 checkout the commit specified in the index of the containing repository.
115 This will make the submodules HEAD be detached.
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116+
117If the submodule is not yet initialized, and you just want to use the
118setting as stored in .gitmodules, you can automatically initialize the
119submodule with the --init option.
70c7ac22 120
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121summary::
122 Show commit summary between the given commit (defaults to HEAD) and
123 working tree/index. For a submodule in question, a series of commits
124 in the submodule between the given super project commit and the
125 index or working tree (switched by --cached) are shown.
70c7ac22 126
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127foreach::
128 Evaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out submodule.
129 The command has access to the variables $path and $sha1:
130 $path is the name of the submodule directory relative to the
131 superproject, and $sha1 is the commit as recorded in the superproject.
132 Any submodules defined in the superproject but not checked out are
133 ignored by this command. Unless given --quiet, foreach prints the name
134 of each submodule before evaluating the command.
135 A non-zero return from the command in any submodule causes
136 the processing to terminate. This can be overridden by adding '|| :'
137 to the end of the command.
138+
139As an example, "git submodule foreach 'echo $path `git rev-parse HEAD`' will
140show the path and currently checked out commit for each submodule.
141
142
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143OPTIONS
144-------
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145-q::
146--quiet::
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147 Only print error messages.
148
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149-b::
150--branch::
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151 Branch of repository to add as submodule.
152
70c7ac22 153--cached::
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154 This option is only valid for status and summary commands. These
155 commands typically use the commit found in the submodule HEAD, but
156 with this option, the commit stored in the index is used instead.
157
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158-n::
159--summary-limit::
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160 This option is only valid for the summary command.
161 Limit the summary size (number of commits shown in total).
51836e9e 162 Giving 0 will disable the summary; a negative number means unlimited
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163 (the default). This limit only applies to modified submodules. The
164 size is always limited to 1 for added/deleted/typechanged submodules.
70c7ac22 165
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166<path>...::
167 Paths to submodule(s). When specified this will restrict the command
70c7ac22 168 to only operate on the submodules found at the specified paths.
ec05df35 169 (This argument is required with add).
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170
171FILES
172-----
211b7f19 173When initializing submodules, a .gitmodules file in the top-level directory
70c7ac22 174of the containing repository is used to find the url of each submodule.
c4585701 175This file should be formatted in the same way as `$GIT_DIR/config`. The key
5162e697 176to each submodule url is "submodule.$name.url". See linkgit:gitmodules[5]
6fbe42c7 177for details.
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178
179
180AUTHOR
181------
182Written by Lars Hjemli <hjemli@gmail.com>
183
184GIT
185---
9e1f0a85 186Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite