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what is a submodule in git

by Glen Mann Jr. Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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A git submodule is a record within a host git repository that points to a specific commit in another external repository. Submodules are very static and only track specific commits. Submodules do not track git refs or branches and are not automatically updated when the host repository is updated.

Full Answer

How do I remove a submodule?

How do I remove a submodule? It is a fairly common need but has a slightly convoluted procedure. To remove a submodule you need to: Delete the relevant line from the .gitmodules file. Delete the relevant section from .git/config. Run git rm --cached path_to_submodule (no trailing slash). Commit and delete the now untracked submodule files.

What is an initial commit in Git?

git commit creates a commit, which is like a snapshot of your repository. These commits are snapshots of your entire repository at specific times. You should make new commits often, based around logical units of change. Over time, commits should tell a story of the history of your repository and how it came to be the way that it currently is.

How to switch to a different remote branch in Git?

How To Switch Branch on Git

  • Switch Branch using git checkout. The easiest way to switch branch on Git is to use the “ git checkout ” command and specify the name of the branch you ...
  • Switch branch using git switch. ...
  • Checkout Remote Branch on Git. ...
  • Checkout New Branch from Specific Commit. ...
  • Conclusion. ...

How to check submodule commit hash?

git submodule status always reports the current status (as the name suggests), that is, the commit that is currently checked-out. The hash that you see here is the same that you'd see by going into the submodule's directory 1 and checking the latest commit (with git log or git rev-parse HEAD)

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Are git submodules a good idea?

Its more accurate to say that git submodules are useful when you want to share code that you also need change along with the consumer of that code. If you're not trying to change the shared code along with the consumer of that code, there are better options for sharing your code.

When should I use a git submodule?

In most cases, Git submodules are used when your project becomes more complex, and while your project depends on the main Git repository, you might want to keep their change history separate. Using the above as an example, the Room repository depends on the House repository, but they operate separately.

How do you define a submodule?

submodule (plural submodules) A module making up part of a larger module. The first-year English Literature module consists of three submodules. (algebra) A module contained in a larger module, both over the same ring, such that the ring multiplication in the former is a restriction of that in the latter.

What is git submodule update?

A git submodule update will bring the latest commits into your local Git worktree. In this git submodule update example, we'll show you how branches can seem out of sync between your submodule and the latest commit, and how to issue the appropriate git command to update those git submodules with the latest code.

How do I create a sub repo?

How to create submodules in GitHubClone the parent or top-level repository.In the root of the parent, issue a “git submodule add” command and provide the GitHub repository's URL.Issue a “git status” command to verify a . ... Add the . ... Push the GitHub submodule add commit back to the server.

Where is git submodule commit stored?

It is stored in Git's object database directly. The tree object for the directory where the submodule lives will have an entry for the submodule's commit (this is the so-called "gitlink").

How do I add a submodule to a repository?

In order to add a Git submodule, use the “git submodule add” command and specify the URL of the Git remote repository to be included as a submodule. When adding a Git submodule, your submodule will be staged. As a consequence, you will need to commit your submodule by using the “git commit” command.

How do I initialize a git submodule?

If you already cloned the project and forgot --recurse-submodules , you can combine the git submodule init and git submodule update steps by running git submodule update --init . To also initialize, fetch and checkout any nested submodules, you can use the foolproof git submodule update --init --recursive .

How do I clone a git repository with submodules?

The git submodule init and update commands are needed to pull down submodule artifacts and resources....Git clone with submodulesIssue a git clone command on the parent repository.Issue a git submodule init command.Issue a git submodule update command.

How do you pull a submodule?

Once you have set up the submodules you can update the repository with fetch/pull like you would normally do. To pull everything including the submodules, use the --recurse-submodules and the --remote parameter in the git pull command .

How do I remove a submodule?

How do I remove a submodule?Delete the relevant line from the . gitmodules file.Delete the relevant section from . git/config .Run git rm --cached path_to_submodule (no trailing slash).Commit and delete the now untracked submodule files. Stack Overflow reference.

How do I checkout submodule?

To check out submodules via CLI:Use git clone to copy the repository content to the local machine: git clone [repository-url] ... Navigate to the main repository directory. ... Update the content of submodule directories with the git submodule update command.

Do git submodules automatically update?

If you pass --recurse-submodules to the git clone command, it will automatically initialize and update each submodule in the repository, including nested submodules if any of the submodules in the repository have submodules themselves.

How do I add a submodule to a repository?

In order to add a Git submodule, use the “git submodule add” command and specify the URL of the Git remote repository to be included as a submodule. When adding a Git submodule, your submodule will be staged. As a consequence, you will need to commit your submodule by using the “git commit” command.

What happens when you git clone?

Git clone is used to copy an existing Git repository into a new local directory. The Git clone command will create a new local directory for the repository, copy all the contents of the specified repository, create the remote tracked branches, and checkout an initial branch locally.

How do you pull a submodule?

Once you have set up the submodules you can update the repository with fetch/pull like you would normally do. To pull everything including the submodules, use the --recurse-submodules and the --remote parameter in the git pull command .

When should you use a git submodule?

If you need to maintain a strict version management over your external dependencies , it can make sense to use git submodules. The following are a few best use cases for git submodules.

What is git submodule init?

The default behavior of git submodule init is to copy the mapping from the .gitmodules file into the local ./.git/config file. This may seem redundant and lead to questioning git submodule init usefulness. git submodule init has extend behavior in which it accepts a list of explicit module names. This enables a workflow of activating only specific submodules that are needed for work on the repository. This can be helpful if there are many submodules in a repo but they don't all need to be fetched for work you are doing.

What is a submodule add in git?

The git submodule add is used to add a new submodule to an existing repository. The following is an example that creates an empty repo and explores git submodules.

Do submodules track git?

Submodules do not track git refs or branches and are not automatically updated when the host repository is updated. When adding a submodule to a repository a new .gitmodules file will be created. The .gitmodules file contains meta data about the mapping between the submodule project's URL and local directory.

When can you lock code to a specific commit?

When an external component or subproject is changing too fast or upcoming changes will break the API, you can lock the code to a specific commit for your own safety.

Can external code be copied?

Often a code repository will depend upon external code. This external code can be incorporated in a few different ways. The external code can be directly copied and pasted into the main repository. This method has the downside of losing any upstream changes to the external repository.

Adding Git submodules

Here, we can see to add a submodule in the git repository we have used the command:-

Cloning a GitHub repository having .gitmodules

For Cloning the repository having submodules we have to use the following command:

Git init

It is used to copy the mappings from a .gitmodules file to a ./.gitconfig file. Moreover, it is very helpful when there are many submodules present in a repository activate only specific submodules which are needed for working in the repository.

Workflows in submodules

As soon as you initialize the submodules and update them within a parent repository now we can use them as a different repository that can have their own branches and history. So when we are creating some changes in the submodule it’s important to have a track on them and commit them properly. So let’s switch to our submodule here Submodules-in-git

How to create a submodule for a repository?

If you need to create a new submodule for your existing repository, click the + icon from the submodules pane to enter the remote URL and the repo path . You will see the update to your .gitmodules file in your WIP node, and once you commit the changes, your submodule will be ready!

What is a submodule in git?

A Git submodule is like a repository inside of another Git repository, or a child repository of one parent repository. Learn how to add a Git submodule to your project and how to pull changes to your Git submodule so they are reflected in your main project by pointing to a specific commit.

Where to find submodules in GitKraken?

If you’re using the GitKraken Git GUI to manage your Git submodules, you can access your submodules from the lower left corner of the app. If your repo already has submodules, you can click to edit the Remote URL, the Path, or view the Current Revision.

Can you open a submodule in GitKraken?

You can also open your submodule’s repository inside of GitKraken, and make any additional changes. When you exit the submodule, GitKraken will detect the update and you can select Commit Changes to incorporate the changes into the parent repository.

Can you add videos to your watch history?

Videos you watch may be added to the TV's watch history and influence TV recommendations. To avoid this, cancel and sign in to YouTube on your computer.

What is Git Submodule?

A Git submodule is a feature that allows the integration of multiple independent repositories into a single project. A submodule acts as a subdirectory within the main project directory, but the code it contains does not have to be copied directly into the project.

Why Use Git Submodules?

Git submodules are helpful when working with complex projects. For example, developers of microservice-based apps can design and update each microservice separately to preserve independent change histories.

Basic Git Submodule Commands

The Git command-line interface has a dedicated subcommand for manipulating submodules. Use git submodule to create, update, and manage submodules.

Working with Git Submodules

In projects that utilize submodules, the workflow must include submodule management. The sections below deal with the most common submodule operations, such as:

What is a gitmodules file?

This .gitmodules file is one of multiple places where Git keeps track of the submodules in our project. Another one is .git/config, which now ends like this:

What makes a submodule a submodule?

The only thing that makes a Git repository a submodule is that it’s placed inside another, parent Git repository.

How to check for changes in a submodule?

Checking for new changes in a submodule, for example, works like in any other Git repository: you run a git fetch command inside the submodule repository, possibly followed by something like git pull origin main if you want to indeed make use of the updates.

What is a submodule in git?

Submodules in Git are really just standard Git repositories. No fancy innovation, just the same Git repositories that we all know so well by now. This is also part of the power of submodules: they’re so robust and straightforward because they are so “boring” (from a technological point of view) and field-tested.

How to populate submodules after cloning?

In such a case, to populate submodules after you’ve cloned their parent repository, you can simply execute git submodule update --init --recursive afterwards. The even better way is to simply add the --recurse-submodules option right when you call git clone in the first place.

What does the little + sign mean in a submodule?

I’m sure you remember that little + sign: it means the submodule pointer was moved! To update our locally checked out revision to the “official” one that our teammate chose, we can run the update command:

What does the second to last line mean in a submodule?

The second to last line indicates that something in our submodule has been changed. But let’s take a closer look:

What is a Submodule?

A submodule is a link to a repository within a Git repository. It makes it easy to connect different repositories together which depend on each other.

What happens if you execute a command inside the web folder?

This is because a submodule is just like a version of a repository inside a repository.

What does it mean when you click on a link in GitHub?

When you click on the link in GitHub, it will take you to the web-tutorials repository to which our submodule points. Any command that we execute inside the “web” folder will affect the web-tutorials repository. This is because a submodule is just like a version of a repository inside a repository.

Why are submodules not reflected in main repository?

This is because submodules are linked to a particular commit.

Why is there no code in a submodule?

There would be no code inside any submodule folder. This is because submodules are not downloaded by default. There are two ways to retrieve the contents of a submodule and download them to your local machine. You can download the contents of submodules by specifying the –recursive flag in your git clone statement:

What happens when a git repository grows?

As a Git repository grows in size, you’ll probably find yourself depending on other repositories. A blog project may depend on another repository that stores the code for a particular theme. A software project may depend on a particular, in-house version of a framework.

How to download submodules in git?

You can download the contents of submodules by specifying the –recursive flag in your git clone statement:

Why use git submodule foreach?

If you don't mind operating only on initialized submodules, you can use git submodule foreach to avoid text parsing.

Can you use git submodule status?

You can use git submodule status or optionally git submodule status --recursive if you want to show nested submodules.

Can git echo submodules?

The git submodule foreach command could echo the names of the submodule, but that only works once they have been checked out which has not happened after the init step. There are more steps in the chain that need to happen before they can be checked out, and I don't want to have to hard-wire names of submodules into the script.

What is the meaning of "back up"?

Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.

Can you use git config to parse a submodule?

Because .gitmodule files have the Git configuration format, you can use git config to parse those files: you would only get the submodule path itself.

Do you get the path of a submodule?

you would only get the submodule path itself.

Does read -rd work with sh?

Note: read -rd '' requires bash and won't work with sh.

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1.Videos of What Is A submodule In Git

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