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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | COMMANDS | OPTIONS | FILES | SEE ALSO | GIT | COLOPHON |
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GIT-SUBMODULE(1) Git Manual GIT-SUBMODULE(1)
git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules
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>...]
Inspects, updates and manages submodules.
For more information about submodules, see gitsubmodules(7).
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.
-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).
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.
gitsubmodules(7), gitmodules(5).
Part of the git(1) suite
This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control
system) project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩. If you have a bug report for this manual
page, see ⟨http://git-scm.com/community⟩. This page was obtained
from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/git/git.git⟩ on 2026-05-24. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2026-05-22.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Git 2.54.0.254.g6a4418 2026-05-22 GIT-SUBMODULE(1)
Pages that refer to this page: git(1), git-checkout(1), git-config(1), git-diff(1), git-diff-files(1), git-diff-index(1), git-diff-pairs(1), git-diff-tree(1), git-log(1), git-rm(1), git-show(1), git-status(1), git-switch(1), gitmodules(5), gitglossary(7), gitsubmodules(7)
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HTML rendering created 2026-05-24 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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