git-submodule(1) Git Manual git-submodule(1)
NAME
git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules
SYNOPSIS
git submodule [--quiet] [--cached]
git submodule [--quiet] add [<options>] [--] <repository> [<path>]
git submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] deinit [-f|--force] (--all|[--] <path>...)
git submodule [--quiet] update [<options>] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] set-branch [<options>] [--] <path>
git submodule [--quiet] set-url [--] <path> <newurl>
git submodule [--quiet] summary [<options>] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command>
git submodule [--quiet] sync [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] absorbgitdirs [--] [<path>...]
DESCRIPTION
Inspects, updates and manages submodules.
For more information about submodules, see gitsubmodules(7).
COMMANDS
With no arguments, shows the status of existing submodules. Several
subcommands are available to perform operations on the submodules.
add [-b <branch>] [-f | --force] [--name <name>] [--reference
<repository>] [--ref-format <format>] [--depth <depth>] [--]
<repository> [<path>]
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".
<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 default remote
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).
The default remote is the remote of the remote-tracking branch of
the current branch. If no such remote-tracking branch exists or the
HEAD is detached, origin is assumed to be the default remote. If
the superproject doesn't have a default remote configured the
superproject is its own authoritative upstream and the current
working directory is used instead.
The optional argument <path> is the relative location for the
cloned submodule to exist in the superproject. If <path> is not
given, the canonical part of the source repository is used (repo
for /path/to/repo.git and foo for host.xz:foo/.git). If <path>
exists and is already a valid Git repository, then it is staged for
commit without cloning. The <path> is also used as the submodule's
logical name in its configuration entries unless --name <name> is
used to specify a logical name.
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.
If --ref-format <format> is specified, the ref storage format of
newly cloned submodules will be set accordingly.
status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
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(1) for the SHA-1.
Each SHA-1 will possibly 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 --cached is specified, this command will instead print the SHA-1
recorded in the superproject for each submodule.
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 [--] [<path>...]
Initialize the submodules recorded in the index (which were added
and committed elsewhere) by setting submodule.$name.url in
.git/config, using the same setting from .gitmodules as a template.
If the URL is relative, it will be resolved using the default
remote. If there is no default remote, the current repository will
be assumed to be upstream.
Optional <path> arguments limit which submodules will be
initialized. If no path is specified and submodule.active has been
configured, submodules configured to be active will be initialized,
otherwise all submodules are initialized.
It will also copy the value of submodule.$name.update, if present
in the .gitmodules file, to .git/config, but (1) this command does
not alter existing information in .git/config, and (2)
submodule.$name.update that is set to a custom command is not
copied for security reasons.
You can then customize the submodule clone URLs in .git/config for
your local setup and proceed to git submodule update; you can also
just use git submodule update --init without the explicit init step
if you do not intend to customize any submodule locations.
See the add subcommand for the definition of default remote.
deinit [-f | --force] (--all|[--] <path>...)
Unregister the given submodules, i.e. remove the whole
submodule.$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 working tree
anymore.
When the command is run without pathspec, it errors out, instead of
deinit-ing everything, to prevent mistakes.
If --force is specified, the submodule's working tree will be
removed even if it contains local modifications.
If you really want to remove a submodule from the repository and
commit that use git-rm(1) instead. See gitsubmodules(7) for removal
options.
update [--init] [--remote] [-N | --no-fetch] [--[no-]recommend-shallow]
[-f | --force] [--checkout | --rebase | --merge]
[--reference=<repository>] [--ref-format=<format>] [--depth=<depth>]
[--recursive] [--jobs <n>] [--[no-]single-branch]
[--filter=<filter-spec>] [--] [<path>...]
Update the registered submodules to match what the superproject
expects by cloning missing submodules, fetching missing commits in
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. The command line option takes precedence over the
configuration variable. If neither is given, a checkout is
performed. (note: what is in .gitmodules file is irrelevant at this
point; see git submodule init above for how .gitmodules is used).
The update procedures supported both from the command line as well
as through the submodule.<name>.update configuration are:
checkout
the commit recorded in the superproject will be checked out in
the submodule on a detached HEAD.
If --force is specified, the submodule will be checked out
(using git checkout --force), even if the commit specified in
the index of the containing repository already matches the
commit checked out in the submodule.
rebase
the current branch of the submodule will be rebased onto the
commit recorded in the superproject.
merge
the commit recorded in the superproject will be merged into the
current branch in the submodule.
The following update procedures have additional limitations:
!<custom-command>
mechanism for running arbitrary commands with the commit ID as
an argument. Specifically, if the submodule.<name>.update
configuration variable is set to !<custom-command>, the object
name of the commit recorded in the superproject for the
submodule is appended to the <custom-command> string and
executed. Note that this mechanism is not supported in the
.gitmodules file or on the command line.
none
the submodule is not updated. This update procedure is not
allowed on the command line.
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 --ref-format <format> is specified, the ref storage format of
newly cloned submodules will be set accordingly.
If --filter <filter-spec> is specified, the given partial clone
filter will be applied to the submodule. See git-rev-list(1) for
details on filter specifications.
set-branch (-b|--branch) <branch> [--] <path>, set-branch
(-d|--default) [--] <path>
Set the default remote tracking branch for the submodule. The
--branch option allows the remote branch to be specified. The
--default option removes the submodule.<name>.branch configuration
key, which causes the tracking branch to default to the remote
HEAD.
set-url [--] <path> <newurl>
Set the URL of the specified submodule to <newurl>. Then, it will
automatically synchronize the submodule's new remote URL
configuration.
summary [--cached | --files] [(-n|--summary-limit) <n>] [commit] [--]
[<path>...]
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 [--recursive] <command>
Evaluate an arbitrary shell <command> in each checked out
submodule. The command has access to the variables $name, $sm_path,
$displaypath, $sha1 and $toplevel:
$name
the name of the relevant submodule section in .gitmodules
$sm_path
the path of the submodule as recorded in the immediate
superproject
$displaypath
the relative path from the current working directory to the
submodules root directory
$sha1
the commit as recorded in the immediate superproject
$toplevel
the absolute path to the top-level of the immediate
superproject.
Note that to avoid conflicts with $PATH on Windows, the $path
variable is now a deprecated synonym of $sm_path variable. 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, the command below will show the path and currently
checked out commit for each submodule:
git submodule foreach 'echo $sm_path `git rev-parse HEAD`'
sync [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
Synchronize 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.
If --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into the
registered submodules, and sync any nested submodules within.
absorbgitdirs
If a git directory of a submodule is inside the submodule, move the
git directory of the submodule into its superproject's
$GIT_DIR/modules path and then connect the git directory and its
working directory by setting the core.worktree and adding a .git
file pointing to the git directory embedded in the superprojects
git directory.
A repository that was cloned independently and later added as a
submodule or old setups have the submodules git directory inside
the submodule instead of embedded into the superprojects git
directory.
This command is recursive by default.
OPTIONS
-q, --quiet
Only print error messages.
--progress
Report progress status on the standard error stream by default when
it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is specified. This flag
forces progress status even if the standard error stream is not
directed to a terminal. It is only valid for add and update
commands.
--all
Unregister all submodules in the working tree. This option is only
valid for the deinit command.
-b<branch>, --branch=<branch>
Branch of repository to add as submodule. The name of the branch is
recorded as submodule.<name>.branch in .gitmodules for update
--remote. A special value of . is used to indicate that the name of
the branch in the submodule should be the same name as the current
branch in the current repository. If the option is not specified,
it defaults to the remote HEAD.
-f, --force
Force the command to proceed, even if it would otherwise fail. This
option is only valid for add, deinit and update commands.
add
allow adding an otherwise ignored submodule path. This option
is also used to bypass a check that the submodule's name is not
already in use. By default, git submodule add will fail if the
proposed name (which is derived from the path) is already
registered for another submodule in the repository. Using
--force allows the command to proceed by automatically
generating a unique name by appending a number to the
conflicting name (e.g., if a submodule named child exists, it
will try child1, and so on).
deinit
the submodule working trees will be removed even if they
contain local changes.
update
(only effective with the checkout procedure), 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
Use the index to determine the commit instead of the HEAD. This
option is only valid for status and summary commands.
--files
Make the summary command compare the commit in the index with that
in the submodule HEAD.
-n<n>, --summary-limit=<n>
Limit the summary size (number of commits shown in total) to <n>.
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
Instead of using the superproject's recorded SHA-1 to update the
submodule, use the status of the submodule's remote-tracking
branch. This option is only valid for the update command. The
remote used is branch's remote (branch.<name>.remote), defaulting
to origin. The remote branch used defaults to the remote HEAD, 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
Don't fetch new objects from the remote site. This option is only
valid for the update command.
--checkout
Checkout the commit recorded in the superproject on a detached HEAD
in the submodule. This option is only valid for the update command.
This is the default behavior, the main use of this option is to
override submodule.<name>.update when set to a value other than
checkout. If the key submodule.<name>.update is either not
explicitly set or set to checkout, this option is implicit.
--merge
Merge the commit recorded in the superproject into the current
branch of the submodule. This option is only valid for the update
command. 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
Rebase the current branch onto the commit recorded in the
superproject. This option is only valid for the update command. 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
Initialize all submodules for which git submodule init has not been
called so far before updating. This option is only valid for the
update command.
--name=<name>
Set the submodule's name to the given string instead of defaulting
to its path. <name> must be valid as a directory name and may not
end with a /.
--reference=<repository>
Pass the local <repository> as a reference when cloning the
submodule. 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, --shared, and --dissociate options
carefully.
--dissociate
After using a reference repository to clone from, do not rely on it
anymore. 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
See the NOTE above for the --reference option.
--recursive
Traverse submodules recursively. This option is only valid for
foreach, update, status and sync commands. 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=<depth>
Create a shallow clone with a history truncated to the <depth>
revisions. This option is valid for add and update commands. See
git-clone(1)
--recommend-shallow, --no-recommend-shallow
Recommend or not shallow cloning of submodules. This option is only
valid for the update command. The initial clone of a submodule will
use the recommended submodule.<name>.shallow as provided by the
.gitmodules file by default. To ignore the suggestions use
--no-recommend-shallow.
-j<n>, --jobs=<n>
Clone new submodules in parallel with <n> jobs. This option is only
valid for the update command. Defaults to the submodule.fetchJobs
option.
--single-branch, --no-single-branch
Clone only one branch during update: HEAD or one specified by
--branch. This option is only valid for the update command.
<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.
SEE ALSO
gitsubmodules(7), gitmodules(5).
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 2.54.0 2026-04-19 git-submodule(1)
git 2.54.0 - Generated Fri Apr 24 13:41:07 CDT 2026