How can I specify a branch/tag when adding a Git s

Question

How does git submodule add -b work?

After adding a submodule with a specific branch, a new cloned repository (after git submodule update --init) will be at a specific commit, not the branch itself (git status on the submodule shows "Not currently on any branch").

I can't find any information on .gitmodules or .git/config about the submodule's branch or any specific commit, so how does Git figure it out?

Also, is it possible to specify a tag instead of a branch?

I'm using version 1.6.5.2.

Answer 1

An example of how I use Git submodules.

1. Create a new repository
2. Then clone another repository as a submodule
3. Then we have that submodule use a tag called V3.1.2
4. And then we commit.

And that looks a little bit like this:

git init 
vi README
git add README
git commit 
git submodule add git://github.com/XXXXX/xxx.yyyy.git stm32_std_lib
git status

git submodule init
git submodule update

cd stm32_std_lib/
git reset --hard V3.1.2 
cd ..
git commit -a

git submodule status 

Maybe it helps (even though I use a tag and not a branch)?

Answer 2

We use Quack to pull a specific module from another Git repository. We need to pull code without the whole code base of the provided repository - we need a very specific module / file from that huge repository and should be updated every time we run update.

So we achieved it in this way:

Create configuration

name: Project Name

modules:
  local/path:
    repository: https://github.com/<username>/<repo>.git
    path: repo/path
    branch: dev
  other/local/path/filename.txt:
    repository: https://github.com/<username>/<repo>.git
    hexsha: 9e3e9642cfea36f4ae216d27df100134920143b9
    path: repo/path/filename.txt

profiles:
  init:
    tasks: ['modules']

With the above configuration, it creates one directory from the provided GitHub repository as specified in first module configuration, and the other one is to pull and create a file from the given repository.

Other developers just need to run

$ quack

And it pulls the code from the above configurations.

Answer 3

Note that if you have an existing submodule which isn't tracking a branch yet, then (if you have git 1.8.2+):

• Make sure the parent repo knows that its submodule now tracks a branch:

  cd /path/to/your/parent/repo
  git config -f .gitmodules submodule.<path>.branch <branch>
  

• Make sure your submodule is actually at the latest of that branch:

  cd path/to/your/submodule
  git checkout -b branch --track origin/branch
    # if the master branch already exist:
    git branch -u origin/master master
  

         (with 'origin' being the name of the upstream remote repo the submodule has been cloned from.
         A git remote -v inside that submodule will display it. Usually, it is 'origin')

• Don't forget to record the new state of your submodule in your parent repo:

  cd /path/to/your/parent/repo
  git add path/to/your/submodule
  git commit -m "Make submodule tracking a branch"
  

• Subsequent update for that submodule will have to use the --remote option:

  # update your submodule
  # --remote will also fetch and ensure that
  # the latest commit from the branch is used
  git submodule update --remote
  
  # to avoid fetching use
  git submodule update --remote --no-fetch 
  

---

Note that with Git 2.10+ (Q3 2016), you can use '.' as a branch name:

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 you want to update all your submodules following a branch:

    git submodule update --recursive --remote

Note that the result, for each updated submodule, will almost always be a detached HEAD, as Dan Cameron note in his answer.

(Clintm notes in the comments that, if you run git submodule update --remote and the resulting sha1 is the same as the branch the submodule is currently on, it won't do anything and leave the submodule still "on that branch" and not in detached head state.)

To ensure the branch is actually checked out (and that won't modify the SHA1 of the special entry representing the submodule for the parent repo), he suggests:

git submodule foreach -q --recursive 'branch="$(git config -f $toplevel/.gitmodules submodule.$name.branch)"; git checkout $branch'

Each submodule will still reference the same SHA1, but if you do make new commits, you will be able to push them because they will be referenced by the branch you want the submodule to track.
After that push within a submodule, don't forget to go back to the parent repo, add, commit and push the new SHA1 for those modified submodules.

Note the use of $toplevel, recommended in the comments by Alexander Pogrebnyak.
$toplevel was introduced in git1.7.2 in May 2010: commit f030c96.

it contains the absolute path of the top level directory (where .gitmodules is).

dtmland adds in the comments:

The foreach script will fail to checkout submodules that are not following a branch.
However, this command gives you both:

 git submodule foreach -q --recursive 'branch="$(git config -f $toplevel/.gitmodules submodule.$name.branch)"; [ "$branch" = "" ] && git checkout master || git checkout $branch' –

The same command but easier to read:

git submodule foreach -q --recursive \
    'branch="$(git config -f $toplevel/.gitmodules submodule.$name.branch)"; \
     [ "$branch" = "" ] && \
     git checkout master || git checkout $branch' –

---

umläute refines dtmland's command with a simplified version in the comments:

git submodule foreach -q --recursive 'git checkout $(git config -f $toplevel/.gitmodules submodule.$name.branch || echo master)'

multiple lines:

git submodule foreach -q --recursive \
  'git checkout \
  $(git config -f $toplevel/.gitmodules submodule.$name.branch || echo master)'

Answer 4

The only effect of choosing a branch for a submodule is that, whenever you pass the --remote option in the git submodule update command line, Git will check out in detached HEAD mode (if the default --checkout behavior is selected) the latest commit of that selected remote branch.

You must be particularly careful when using this remote branch tracking feature for Git submodules if you work with shallow clones of submodules. The branch you choose for this purpose in submodule settings IS NOT the one that will be cloned during git submodule update --remote. If you pass also the --depth parameter and you do not instruct Git about which branch you want to clone -- and actually you cannot in the git submodule update command line!! -- , it will implicitly behave like explained in the git-clone(1) documentation for git clone --single-branch when the explicit --branch parameter is missing, and therefore it will clone the primary branch only.

With no surprise, after the clone stage performed by the git submodule update command, it will finally try to check out the latest commit for the remote branch you previously set up for the submodule, and, if this is not the primary one, it is not part of your local shallow clone, and therefore it will fail with

fatal: Needed a single revision

Unable to find current origin/NotThePrimaryBranch revision in submodule path 'mySubmodule'

Answer 5

Note: Git 1.8.2 added the possibility to track branches. See some of the answers below.

---

It's a little confusing to get used to this, but submodules are not on a branch. They are, like you say, just a pointer to a particular commit of the submodule's repository.

This means, when someone else checks out your repository, or pulls your code, and does git submodule update, the submodule is checked out to that particular commit.

This is great for a submodule that does not change often, because then everyone on the project can have the submodule at the same commit.

If you want to move the submodule to a particular tag:

cd submodule_directory
git checkout v1.0
cd ..
git add submodule_directory
git commit -m "moved submodule to v1.0"
git push

Then, another developer who wants to have submodule_directory changed to that tag, does this

git pull
git submodule update

git pull changes which commit their submodule directory points to. git submodule update actually merges in the new code.

Answer 6

In my experience switching branches in the superproject or future checkouts will still cause detached HEADs of submodules regardless if the submodule is properly added and tracked (i.e. @djacobs7 and @Johnny Z answers).

And instead of manually checking out the correct branch manually or through a script git submodule foreach can be used.

This will check the submodule config file for the branch property and checkout the set branch.

git submodule foreach -q --recursive 'branch="$(git config -f <path>.gitmodules submodule.$name.branch)"; git checkout $branch'