Submodule cheatsheet

Cloning from a repo with submodules

git clone ..
git submodule init  # Initialises git configuration from .gitmodules
git submodule update  # Will checkout the submodule

or equivalently

git clone
git submodule update --init

or equivalently

git clone --recursive ...

Adding commits to the submodules

Maintainer of the 'container' repo

Modifying a submodule

1. Go to the submodule and issue various commands e.g.:

cd path/to/the/submodule
git checkout xxx

or one wants to automatically refresh all submodules to their latest master:

git submodule update --remote

2. Check the status:

git diff

or

git diff --submodule=log

3. Commut & Push

git commit -am 'xxx'
git push

Adding a submodule

git submodule add

Other people that use the container repo

git pull  # This fetches the submodule updates but does NOT update!!!
git submodule update  # Mandatory

Better, safer:

git pull
git submodule update --init --recursive  # To ensure one catches new submodules for example

Potentially a git submodule sync if the url has changed

Basically the best and safest is:

git pull
git submodule sync --recursive
git submodule update --init -recursive