How to `git clone` including submodules?

Question

I'm trying to put a submodule into a repo.

The problem is that when I clone the parent repo, the submodule folder is entirely empty.

Is there any way to make it so that 'git clone parent' actually puts data in the submodule folder?

example: http://github.com/cwolves/sequelize/tree/master/lib/

nodejs-mysql-native is pointing at an external git, but when I checkout the sequelize project, that folder is empty...

Answer 1

Try this.

git clone -b <branch_name> --recursive <remote> <directory>

If you have added the submodule in a branch make sure that you add it to the clone command.

Answer 2

Try this for including submodules in git repository.

git clone -b <branch_name> --recursive <remote> <directory>

or

git clone --recurse-submodules

Answer 3

With version 2.13 of Git and later, --recurse-submodules can be used instead of --recursive:

git clone --recurse-submodules -j8 git://github.com/foo/bar.git
cd bar

^{Editor’s note: -j8 is an optional performance optimization that became available in version 2.8, and fetches up to 8 submodules at a time in parallel — see man git-clone.}

With version 1.9 of Git up until version 2.12 (-j flag only available in version 2.8+):

git clone --recursive -j8 git://github.com/foo/bar.git
cd bar

With version 1.6.5 of Git and later, you can use:

git clone --recursive git://github.com/foo/bar.git
cd bar

For already cloned repos, or older Git versions, use:

git clone git://github.com/foo/bar.git
cd bar
git submodule update --init --recursive

Answer 4

You can use this command to clone your repo with all the submodules:

git clone --recursive YOUR-GIT-REPO-URL

Or if you have already cloned the project, you can use:

git submodule init
git submodule update

Answer 5

late answer

// git CLONE INCLUDE-SUBMODULES ADDRESS DESTINATION-DIRECTORY
git clone --recursive https://[e-mail]/USERNAME/REPO.git DESTINATION_DIR

As I just spent a whole hour fiddling around with a friend: Even if you have Admin rights on BitBucket, always clone the ORIGINAL repository and use the password of the one who owns the repo. Annoying to find out that you ran into this minetrap :P

Answer 6

Original answer 2010

As joschi mentions in the comments, git submodule now supports the --recursive option (Git1.6.5 and more).

If --recursive is specified, this command will recurse into the registered submodules, and update any nested submodules within.

See Working with git submodules recursively for the init part.
See git submodule explained for more.

With version 1.6.5 of git and later, you can do this automatically by cloning the super-project with the –-recursive option:

git clone --recursive git://github.com/mysociety/whatdotheyknow.git

---

Update 2016, with git 2.8: see "How to speed up / parallelize downloads of git submodules using git clone --recursive?"

You can initiate fetching the submodule using multiple threads, in parallel.
For instances:

git fetch --recurse-submodules -j2