Provided by:
git-core_1.6.0.4-1ubuntu2_i386 
NAME
git-submodule - Initialize, update or inspect submodules
SYNOPSIS
git submodule [--quiet] add [-b branch] [--] <repository> <path>
git submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] update [--init] [--] [<path>...]
git submodule [--quiet] summary [--summary-limit <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...]
DESCRIPTION
Submodules allow foreign repositories to be embedded within a dedicated
subdirectory of the source tree, always pointed at a particular commit.
They are not to be confused with remotes, which are meant mainly for
branches of the same project; submodules are meant for different
projects you would like to make part of your source tree, while the
history of the two projects still stays completely independent and you
cannot modify the contents of the submodule from within the main
project. If you want to merge the project histories and want to treat
the aggregated whole as a single project from then on, you may want to
add a remote for the other project and use the subtree merge strategy,
instead of treating the other project as a submodule. Directories that
come from both projects can be cloned and checked out as a whole if you
choose to go that route.
Submodules are composed from a so-called gitlink tree entry in the main
repository that refers to a particular commit object within the inner
repository that is completely separate. A record in the .gitmodules
file at the root of the source tree assigns a logical name to the
submodule and describes the default URL the submodule shall be cloned
from. The logical name can be used for overriding this URL within your
local repository configuration (see submodule init).
This command will manage the tree entries and contents of the
gitmodules file for you, as well as inspect the status of your
submodules and update them. When adding a new submodule to the tree,
the add subcommand is to be used. However, when pulling a tree
containing submodules, these will not be checked out by default; the
init and update subcommands will maintain submodules checked out and at
appropriate revision in your working tree. You can briefly inspect the
up-to-date status of your submodules using the status subcommand and
get a detailed overview of the difference between the index and
checkouts using the summary subcommand.
COMMANDS
add
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".
This requires two arguments: <repository> and <path>.
<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 origin
repository.
<path> is the relative location for the cloned submodule to exist
in the superproject. If <path> does not exist, then the submodule
is created by cloning from the named URL. If <path> does exist and
is already a valid git repository, then this is added to the
changeset without cloning. This second form is provided to ease
creating a new submodule from scratch, and presumes the user will
later push the submodule to the given URL.
In either case, 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 need be
provided: git-submodule will correctly locate the submodule using
the relative URL in .gitmodules.
status
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 be prefixed with - if the submodule is not initialized
and + if the currently checked out submodule commit does not match
the SHA-1 found in the index of the containing repository. This
command is the default command for git-submodule.
init
Initialize the submodules, i.e. register each submodule name and
url found in .gitmodules into .git/config. The key used in
.git/config is submodule.$name.url. 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.
update
Update the registered submodules, i.e. clone missing submodules and
checkout the commit specified in the index of the containing
repository. This will make the submodules HEAD be detached.
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.
summary
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.
OPTIONS
-q, --quiet
Only print error messages.
-b, --branch
Branch of repository to add as 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.
-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.
<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.
AUTHOR
Written by Lars Hjemli <hjemli@gmail.com[1]>
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
NOTES
1. hjemli@gmail.com
mailto:hjemli@gmail.com