Git Submodules Cheat Sheet
2 min readAug 21, 2021
By Thomas Suebwicha
Written March 31, 2021
Last Edited August 21, 2021
Features
- Separate dependence of Git commits of that repository
- Independent library can be referenced to specific commit/branch development
# Clone a new project and its submodules
git clone --recursive <MAIN_PROJECT_REPO> # Create a submodule (& clone it)
# This also creates a .gitmodules file that shouldn't be editted manually
git submodule add <MODULE_REPO> <DIRECTORY> # Checkout a branch on the submodule
cd <MODULE_REPO>
git checkout <BRANCH_NAME> # Commit the version
cd ..
git commit -am "<COMMENT>"
git push origin <BRANCH> # update the submodules
git submodule update # Git cloning submodules if empty
git submodule update --init --recursive # Update specific submodule
git submodule update --remote <MODULE_DIRECTORY> # PULL on all submodules
git submodule foreach git pull origin master # Update submodules recursively
git submodule update --recursive # Status of git submodule
git submodule status <PATH_TO_SUBMODULE> # Modifications to git project
## Want submodule to update after a pull - add to githook
echo "git submodule update --init --recursive" >> .git/hooks/post-merge ## Set up git to show updates to submodules on git status
git config status.submodulesummary 1 ## Point the submodule to a branch instead of a commit E.g. master or stable
git config -f .gitmodules submodule.<MODULE_NAME>.branch <BRANCH_NAME>
Another alternative is to identify if the dependency has a release tag and download the version. This will mitigate the dependence and simplify the process and dependence of the above commands.