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git-submodule(1)
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION COMMANDS OPTIONS FILES SEE ALSO GIT
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>] [--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 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.

       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
           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. It uses 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.

           When present, it will also copy the value of submodule.$name.update. 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.

           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>] [--depth <depth>] [--recursive]
       [--jobs <n>] [--[no-]single-branch] [--] [<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. 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 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. When submodule.<name>.update is set to !command,
               the remainder after the exclamation mark is the custom command.

           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 submodule with the --init option.

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

       set-branch (-b|--branch) <branch> [--] <path>, set-branch (-d|--default) [--] <path>
           Sets 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>
           Sets 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>
           Evaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out submodule. The command has
           access to the variables $name, $sm_path, $displaypath, $sha1 and $toplevel: $name is the
           name of the relevant submodule section in .gitmodules, $sm_path is the path of the
           submodule as recorded in the immediate superproject, $displaypath contains the relative
           path from the current working directory to the submodules root directory, $sha1 is the
           commit as recorded in the immediate superproject, and $toplevel is 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>...]
           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.

           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
           This option is only valid for add and update commands. Progress status is reported 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.

       --all
           This option is only valid for the deinit command. Unregister all submodules in the
           working tree.

       -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
           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 working
           trees will be removed even if they contain local changes. When running 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
           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 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
           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.$name.update when set to a value other than
           checkout. If the key submodule.$name.update is either not explicitly set or set to
           checkout, this option is implicit.

       --merge
           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, --shared, and --dissociate options carefully.

       --dissociate
           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 for the --reference option.

       --recursive
           This option is only valid for foreach, update, status and sync 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)

       --[no-]recommend-shallow
           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>
           This option is only valid for the update command. Clone new submodules in parallel with
           as many jobs. Defaults to the submodule.fetchJobs option.

       --[no-]single-branch
           This option is only valid for the update command. Clone only one branch during update:
           HEAD or one specified by --branch.

       <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 2.34.1                                   02/26/2026                             GIT-SUBMODULE(1)

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