{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "git-submodule",
    "section": "1",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/git-submodule/1/json",
    "generated": "2026-05-30T05:14:27Z",
    "synopsis": "git submodule [--quiet] [--cached]\ngit submodule [--quiet] add [<options>] [--] <repository> [<path>]\ngit submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]\ngit submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]\ngit submodule [--quiet] deinit [-f|--force] (--all|[--] <path>...)\ngit submodule [--quiet] update [<options>] [--] [<path>...]\ngit submodule [--quiet] set-branch [<options>] [--] <path>\ngit submodule [--quiet] set-url [--] <path> <newurl>\ngit submodule [--quiet] summary [<options>] [--] [<path>...]\ngit submodule [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command>\ngit submodule [--quiet] sync [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]\ngit submodule [--quiet] absorbgitdirs [--] [<path>...]",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "git submodule [--quiet] [--cached]\ngit submodule [--quiet] add [<options>] [--] <repository> [<path>]\ngit submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]\ngit submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]\ngit submodule [--quiet] deinit [-f|--force] (--all|[--] <path>...)\ngit submodule [--quiet] update [<options>] [--] [<path>...]\ngit submodule [--quiet] set-branch [<options>] [--] <path>\ngit submodule [--quiet] set-url [--] <path> <newurl>\ngit submodule [--quiet] summary [<options>] [--] [<path>...]\ngit submodule [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command>\ngit submodule [--quiet] sync [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]\ngit submodule [--quiet] absorbgitdirs [--] [<path>...]\n\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "Inspects, updates and manages submodules.\n\nFor more information about submodules, see gitsubmodules(7).\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "COMMANDS": {
            "content": "With no arguments, shows the status of existing submodules. Several subcommands are available\nto perform operations on the submodules.\n\nadd [-b <branch>] [-f|--force] [--name <name>] [--reference <repository>] [--depth <depth>]\n[--] <repository> [<path>]\nAdd the given repository as a submodule at the given path to the changeset to be\ncommitted next to the current project: the current project is termed the \"superproject\".\n\n<repository> is the URL of the new submodule’s origin repository. This may be either an\nabsolute URL, or (if it begins with ./ or ../), the location relative to the\nsuperproject’s default remote repository (Please note that to specify a repository\nfoo.git which is located right next to a superproject bar.git, you’ll have to use\n../foo.git instead of ./foo.git - as one might expect when following the rules for\nrelative URLs - because the evaluation of relative URLs in Git is identical to that of\nrelative directories).\n\nThe default remote is the remote of the remote-tracking branch of the current branch. If\nno such remote-tracking branch exists or the HEAD is detached, \"origin\" is assumed to be\nthe default remote. If the superproject doesn’t have a default remote configured the\nsuperproject is its own authoritative upstream and the current working directory is used\ninstead.\n\nThe optional argument <path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule to exist\nin the superproject. If <path> is not given, the canonical part of the source repository\nis used (\"repo\" for \"/path/to/repo.git\" and \"foo\" for \"host.xz:foo/.git\"). If <path>\nexists and is already a valid Git repository, then it is staged for commit without\ncloning. The <path> is also used as the submodule’s logical name in its configuration\nentries unless --name is used to specify a logical name.\n\nThe given URL is recorded into .gitmodules for use by subsequent users cloning the\nsuperproject. If the URL is given relative to the superproject’s repository, the\npresumption is the superproject and submodule repositories will be kept together in the\nsame relative location, and only the superproject’s URL needs to be provided.\ngit-submodule will correctly locate the submodule using the relative URL in .gitmodules.\n\nstatus [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]\nShow the status of the submodules. This will print the SHA-1 of the currently checked out\ncommit for each submodule, along with the submodule path and the output of git describe\nfor the SHA-1. Each SHA-1 will possibly be prefixed with - if the submodule is not\ninitialized, + if the currently checked out submodule commit does not match the SHA-1\nfound in the index of the containing repository and U if the submodule has merge\nconflicts.\n\nIf --cached is specified, this command will instead print the SHA-1 recorded in the\nsuperproject for each submodule.\n\nIf --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into nested submodules, and show\ntheir status as well.\n\nIf you are only interested in changes of the currently initialized submodules with\nrespect to the commit recorded in the index or the HEAD, git-status(1) and git-diff(1)\nwill provide that information too (and can also report changes to a submodule’s work\ntree).\n\ninit [--] [<path>...]\nInitialize the submodules recorded in the index (which were added and committed\nelsewhere) by setting submodule.$name.url in .git/config. It uses the same setting from\n.gitmodules as a template. If the URL is relative, it will be resolved using the default\nremote. If there is no default remote, the current repository will be assumed to be\nupstream.\n\nOptional <path> arguments limit which submodules will be initialized. If no path is\nspecified and submodule.active has been configured, submodules configured to be active\nwill be initialized, otherwise all submodules are initialized.\n\nWhen present, it will also copy the value of submodule.$name.update. This command does\nnot alter existing information in .git/config. You can then customize the submodule clone\nURLs in .git/config for your local setup and proceed to git submodule update; you can\nalso just use git submodule update --init without the explicit init step if you do not\nintend to customize any submodule locations.\n\nSee the add subcommand for the definition of default remote.\n\ndeinit [-f|--force] (--all|[--] <path>...)\nUnregister the given submodules, i.e. remove the whole submodule.$name section from\n.git/config together with their work tree. Further calls to git submodule update, git\nsubmodule foreach and git submodule sync will skip any unregistered submodules until they\nare initialized again, so use this command if you don’t want to have a local checkout of\nthe submodule in your working tree anymore.\n\nWhen the command is run without pathspec, it errors out, instead of deinit-ing\neverything, to prevent mistakes.\n\nIf --force is specified, the submodule’s working tree will be removed even if it contains\nlocal modifications.\n\nIf you really want to remove a submodule from the repository and commit that use git-\nrm(1) instead. See gitsubmodules(7) for removal options.\n\nupdate [--init] [--remote] [-N|--no-fetch] [--[no-]recommend-shallow] [-f|--force]\n[--checkout|--rebase|--merge] [--reference <repository>] [--depth <depth>] [--recursive]\n[--jobs <n>] [--[no-]single-branch] [--] [<path>...]\nUpdate the registered submodules to match what the superproject expects by cloning\nmissing submodules, fetching missing commits in submodules and updating the working tree\nof the submodules. The \"updating\" can be done in several ways depending on command line\noptions and the value of submodule.<name>.update configuration variable. The command line\noption takes precedence over the configuration variable. If neither is given, a checkout\nis performed. The update procedures supported both from the command line as well as\nthrough the submodule.<name>.update configuration are:\n\ncheckout\nthe commit recorded in the superproject will be checked out in the submodule on a\ndetached HEAD.\n\nIf --force is specified, the submodule will be checked out (using git checkout\n--force), even if the commit specified in the index of the containing repository\nalready matches the commit checked out in the submodule.\n\nrebase\nthe current branch of the submodule will be rebased onto the commit recorded in the\nsuperproject.\n\nmerge\nthe commit recorded in the superproject will be merged into the current branch in the\nsubmodule.\n\nThe following update procedures are only available via the submodule.<name>.update\nconfiguration variable:\n\ncustom command\narbitrary shell command that takes a single argument (the sha1 of the commit recorded\nin the superproject) is executed. When submodule.<name>.update is set to !command,\nthe remainder after the exclamation mark is the custom command.\n\nnone\nthe submodule is not updated.\n\nIf the submodule is not yet initialized, and you just want to use the setting as stored\nin .gitmodules, you can automatically initialize the submodule with the --init option.\n\nIf --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into the registered submodules,\nand update any nested submodules within.\n\nset-branch (-b|--branch) <branch> [--] <path>, set-branch (-d|--default) [--] <path>\nSets the default remote tracking branch for the submodule. The --branch option allows the\nremote branch to be specified. The --default option removes the submodule.<name>.branch\nconfiguration key, which causes the tracking branch to default to the remote HEAD.\n\nset-url [--] <path> <newurl>\nSets the URL of the specified submodule to <newurl>. Then, it will automatically\nsynchronize the submodule’s new remote URL configuration.\n\nsummary [--cached|--files] [(-n|--summary-limit) <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...]\nShow commit summary between the given commit (defaults to HEAD) and working tree/index.\nFor a submodule in question, a series of commits in the submodule between the given super\nproject commit and the index or working tree (switched by --cached) are shown. If the\noption --files is given, show the series of commits in the submodule between the index of\nthe super project and the working tree of the submodule (this option doesn’t allow to use\nthe --cached option or to provide an explicit commit).\n\nUsing the --submodule=log option with git-diff(1) will provide that information too.\n\nforeach [--recursive] <command>\nEvaluates an arbitrary shell command in each checked out submodule. The command has\naccess to the variables $name, $smpath, $displaypath, $sha1 and $toplevel: $name is the\nname of the relevant submodule section in .gitmodules, $smpath is the path of the\nsubmodule as recorded in the immediate superproject, $displaypath contains the relative\npath from the current working directory to the submodules root directory, $sha1 is the\ncommit as recorded in the immediate superproject, and $toplevel is the absolute path to\nthe top-level of the immediate superproject. Note that to avoid conflicts with $PATH on\nWindows, the $path variable is now a deprecated synonym of $smpath variable. Any\nsubmodules defined in the superproject but not checked out are ignored by this command.\nUnless given --quiet, foreach prints the name of each submodule before evaluating the\ncommand. If --recursive is given, submodules are traversed recursively (i.e. the given\nshell command is evaluated in nested submodules as well). A non-zero return from the\ncommand in any submodule causes the processing to terminate. This can be overridden by\nadding || : to the end of the command.\n\nAs an example, the command below will show the path and currently checked out commit for\neach submodule:\n\ngit submodule foreach 'echo $smpath `git rev-parse HEAD`'\n\n\nsync [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]\nSynchronizes submodules' remote URL configuration setting to the value specified in\n.gitmodules. It will only affect those submodules which already have a URL entry in\n.git/config (that is the case when they are initialized or freshly added). This is useful\nwhen submodule URLs change upstream and you need to update your local repositories\naccordingly.\n\ngit submodule sync synchronizes all submodules while git submodule sync -- A synchronizes\nsubmodule \"A\" only.\n\nIf --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into the registered submodules,\nand sync any nested submodules within.\n\nabsorbgitdirs\nIf a git directory of a submodule is inside the submodule, move the git directory of the\nsubmodule into its superproject’s $GITDIR/modules path and then connect the git\ndirectory and its working directory by setting the core.worktree and adding a .git file\npointing to the git directory embedded in the superprojects git directory.\n\nA repository that was cloned independently and later added as a submodule or old setups\nhave the submodules git directory inside the submodule instead of embedded into the\nsuperprojects git directory.\n\nThis command is recursive by default.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "OPTIONS": {
            "content": "",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "-q, --quiet",
                    "content": "Only print error messages.\n",
                    "flag": "-q",
                    "long": "--quiet"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--progress",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for add and update commands. Progress status is reported on the\nstandard error stream by default when it is attached to a terminal, unless -q is\nspecified. This flag forces progress status even if the standard error stream is not\ndirected to a terminal.\n",
                    "long": "--progress"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--all",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the deinit command. Unregister all submodules in the\nworking tree.\n",
                    "long": "--all"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-b <branch>, --branch <branch>",
                    "content": "Branch of repository to add as submodule. The name of the branch is recorded as\nsubmodule.<name>.branch in .gitmodules for update --remote. A special value of .  is used\nto indicate that the name of the branch in the submodule should be the same name as the\ncurrent branch in the current repository. If the option is not specified, it defaults to\nthe remote HEAD.\n",
                    "flag": "-b",
                    "long": "--branch",
                    "arg": "<branch>"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-f, --force",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for add, deinit and update commands. When running add, allow\nadding an otherwise ignored submodule path. When running deinit the submodule working\ntrees will be removed even if they contain local changes. When running update (only\neffective with the checkout procedure), throw away local changes in submodules when\nswitching to a different commit; and always run a checkout operation in the submodule,\neven if the commit listed in the index of the containing repository matches the commit\nchecked out in the submodule.\n",
                    "flag": "-f",
                    "long": "--force"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--cached",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for status and summary commands. These commands typically use\nthe commit found in the submodule HEAD, but with this option, the commit stored in the\nindex is used instead.\n",
                    "long": "--cached"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--files",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the summary command. This command compares the commit in\nthe index with that in the submodule HEAD when this option is used.\n",
                    "long": "--files"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-n, --summary-limit",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the summary command. Limit the summary size (number of\ncommits shown in total). Giving 0 will disable the summary; a negative number means\nunlimited (the default). This limit only applies to modified submodules. The size is\nalways limited to 1 for added/deleted/typechanged submodules.\n",
                    "flag": "-n",
                    "long": "--summary-limit"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--remote",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the update command. Instead of using the superproject’s\nrecorded SHA-1 to update the submodule, use the status of the submodule’s remote-tracking\nbranch. The remote used is branch’s remote (branch.<name>.remote), defaulting to origin.\nThe remote branch used defaults to the remote HEAD, but the branch name may be overridden\nby setting the submodule.<name>.branch option in either .gitmodules or .git/config (with\n.git/config taking precedence).\n\nThis works for any of the supported update procedures (--checkout, --rebase, etc.). The\nonly change is the source of the target SHA-1. For example, submodule update --remote\n--merge will merge upstream submodule changes into the submodules, while submodule update\n--merge will merge superproject gitlink changes into the submodules.\n\nIn order to ensure a current tracking branch state, update --remote fetches the\nsubmodule’s remote repository before calculating the SHA-1. If you don’t want to fetch,\nyou should use submodule update --remote --no-fetch.\n\nUse this option to integrate changes from the upstream subproject with your submodule’s\ncurrent HEAD. Alternatively, you can run git pull from the submodule, which is equivalent\nexcept for the remote branch name: update --remote uses the default upstream repository\nand submodule.<name>.branch, while git pull uses the submodule’s branch.<name>.merge.\nPrefer submodule.<name>.branch if you want to distribute the default upstream branch with\nthe superproject and branch.<name>.merge if you want a more native feel while working in\nthe submodule itself.\n",
                    "long": "--remote"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-N, --no-fetch",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the update command. Don’t fetch new objects from the remote\nsite.\n",
                    "flag": "-N",
                    "long": "--no-fetch"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--checkout",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the update command. Checkout the commit recorded in the\nsuperproject on a detached HEAD in the submodule. This is the default behavior, the main\nuse of this option is to override submodule.$name.update when set to a value other than\ncheckout. If the key submodule.$name.update is either not explicitly set or set to\ncheckout, this option is implicit.\n",
                    "long": "--checkout"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--merge",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the update command. Merge the commit recorded in the\nsuperproject into the current branch of the submodule. If this option is given, the\nsubmodule’s HEAD will not be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will\nhave to resolve the resulting conflicts within the submodule with the usual conflict\nresolution tools. If the key submodule.$name.update is set to merge, this option is\nimplicit.\n",
                    "long": "--merge"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--rebase",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the update command. Rebase the current branch onto the\ncommit recorded in the superproject. If this option is given, the submodule’s HEAD will\nnot be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will have to resolve these\nfailures with git-rebase(1). If the key submodule.$name.update is set to rebase, this\noption is implicit.\n",
                    "long": "--rebase"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--init",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the update command. Initialize all submodules for which\n\"git submodule init\" has not been called so far before updating.\n",
                    "long": "--init"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--name",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the add command. It sets the submodule’s name to the given\nstring instead of defaulting to its path. The name must be valid as a directory name and\nmay not end with a /.\n",
                    "long": "--name"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--reference <repository>",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for add and update commands. These commands sometimes need to\nclone a remote repository. In this case, this option will be passed to the git-clone(1)\ncommand.\n\nNOTE: Do not use this option unless you have read the note for git-clone(1)'s\n--reference, --shared, and --dissociate options carefully.\n",
                    "long": "--reference",
                    "arg": "<repository>"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--dissociate",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for add and update commands. These commands sometimes need to\nclone a remote repository. In this case, this option will be passed to the git-clone(1)\ncommand.\n\nNOTE: see the NOTE for the --reference option.\n",
                    "long": "--dissociate"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--recursive",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for foreach, update, status and sync commands. Traverse\nsubmodules recursively. The operation is performed not only in the submodules of the\ncurrent repo, but also in any nested submodules inside those submodules (and so on).\n",
                    "long": "--recursive"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--depth",
                    "content": "This option is valid for add and update commands. Create a shallow clone with a history\ntruncated to the specified number of revisions. See git-clone(1)\n\n--[no-]recommend-shallow\nThis option is only valid for the update command. The initial clone of a submodule will\nuse the recommended submodule.<name>.shallow as provided by the .gitmodules file by\ndefault. To ignore the suggestions use --no-recommend-shallow.\n",
                    "long": "--depth"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-j <n>, --jobs <n>",
                    "content": "This option is only valid for the update command. Clone new submodules in parallel with\nas many jobs. Defaults to the submodule.fetchJobs option.\n\n--[no-]single-branch\nThis option is only valid for the update command. Clone only one branch during update:\nHEAD or one specified by --branch.\n\n<path>...\nPaths to submodule(s). When specified this will restrict the command to only operate on\nthe submodules found at the specified paths. (This argument is required with add).\n",
                    "flag": "-j",
                    "long": "--jobs",
                    "arg": "<n>"
                }
            ]
        },
        "FILES": {
            "content": "When initializing submodules, a .gitmodules file in the top-level directory of the containing\nrepository is used to find the url of each submodule. This file should be formatted in the\nsame way as $GITDIR/config. The key to each submodule url is \"submodule.$name.url\". See\ngitmodules(5) for details.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "gitsubmodules(7), gitmodules(5).\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "GIT": {
            "content": "Part of the git(1) suite\n\n\n\nGit 2.34.1                                   02/26/2026                             GIT-SUBMODULE(1)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules",
    "flags": [
        {
            "flag": "-q",
            "long": "--quiet",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Only print error messages."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--progress",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--all",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "This option is only valid for the deinit command. Unregister all submodules in the working tree."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-b",
            "long": "--branch",
            "arg": "<branch>",
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-f",
            "long": "--force",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--cached",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--files",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-n",
            "long": "--summary-limit",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--remote",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-N",
            "long": "--no-fetch",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "This option is only valid for the update command. Don’t fetch new objects from the remote site."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--checkout",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--merge",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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.$name.update is set to merge, this option is implicit."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--rebase",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "This option is only valid for the update command. Rebase the current branch onto the commit recorded in the superproject. If this option is given, the submodule’s HEAD will not be detached. If a merge failure prevents this process, you will have to resolve these failures with git-rebase(1). If the key submodule.$name.update is set to rebase, this option is implicit."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--init",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--name",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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 /."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--reference",
            "arg": "<repository>",
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--dissociate",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--recursive",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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)."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--depth",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-j",
            "long": "--jobs",
            "arg": "<n>",
            "description": "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)."
        }
    ],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "gitsubmodules",
            "section": "7",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gitsubmodules/7/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "gitmodules",
            "section": "5",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gitmodules/5/json"
        }
    ]
}