git/Documentation/gitmodules.txt
Michal Sojka 5c31acfbe2 submodule: improve documentation of update subcommand
The documentation of 'git submodule update' has several problems:

1) It mentions that value 'none' of submodule.$name.update can be
   overridden by --checkout, but other combinations of configuration
   values and command line options are not mentioned.

2) The documentation of submodule.$name.update is scattered across three
   places, which is confusing.

3) The documentation of submodule.$name.update in gitmodules.txt is
   incorrect, because the code always uses the value from .git/config
   and never from .gitmodules.

4) Documentation of --force was incomplete, because it is only effective
   in case of checkout method of update.

Fix all these problems by documenting submodule.*.update in
git-submodule.txt and make everybody else refer to it.

Helped-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Helped-by: Jens Lehmann <Jens.Lehmann@web.de>
Signed-off-by: Michal Sojka <sojkam1@fel.cvut.cz>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2015-03-02 14:59:55 -08:00

107 lines
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gitmodules(5)
=============
NAME
----
gitmodules - defining submodule properties
SYNOPSIS
--------
$GIT_WORK_DIR/.gitmodules
DESCRIPTION
-----------
The `.gitmodules` file, located in the top-level directory of a Git
working tree, is a text file with a syntax matching the requirements
of linkgit:git-config[1].
The file contains one subsection per submodule, and the subsection value
is the name of the submodule. The name is set to the path where the
submodule has been added unless it was customized with the '--name'
option of 'git submodule add'. Each submodule section also contains the
following required keys:
submodule.<name>.path::
Defines the path, relative to the top-level directory of the Git
working tree, where the submodule is expected to be checked out.
The path name must not end with a `/`. All submodule paths must
be unique within the .gitmodules file.
submodule.<name>.url::
Defines a URL from which the submodule repository can be cloned.
This may be either an absolute URL ready to be passed to
linkgit:git-clone[1] or (if it begins with ./ or ../) a location
relative to the superproject's origin repository.
In addition, there are a number of optional keys:
submodule.<name>.update::
Defines the default update procedure for the named submodule,
i.e. how the submodule is updated by "git submodule update"
command in the superproject. This is only used by `git
submodule init` to initialize the configuration variable of
the same name. Allowed values here are 'checkout', 'rebase',
'merge' or 'none'. See description of 'update' command in
linkgit:git-submodule[1] for their meaning. Note that the
'!command' form is intentionally ignored here for security
reasons.
submodule.<name>.branch::
A remote branch name for tracking updates in the upstream submodule.
If the option is not specified, it defaults to 'master'. See the
`--remote` documentation in linkgit:git-submodule[1] for details.
submodule.<name>.fetchRecurseSubmodules::
This option can be used to control recursive fetching of this
submodule. If this option is also present in the submodules entry in
.git/config of the superproject, the setting there will override the
one found in .gitmodules.
Both settings can be overridden on the command line by using the
"--[no-]recurse-submodules" option to "git fetch" and "git pull".
submodule.<name>.ignore::
Defines under what circumstances "git status" and the diff family show
a submodule as modified. When set to "all", it will never be considered
modified (but will nonetheless show up in the output of status and
commit when it has been staged), "dirty" will ignore all changes
to the submodules work tree and
takes only differences between the HEAD of the submodule and the commit
recorded in the superproject into account. "untracked" will additionally
let submodules with modified tracked files in their work tree show up.
Using "none" (the default when this option is not set) also shows
submodules that have untracked files in their work tree as changed.
If this option is also present in the submodules entry in .git/config of
the superproject, the setting there will override the one found in
.gitmodules.
Both settings can be overridden on the command line by using the
"--ignore-submodule" option. The 'git submodule' commands are not
affected by this setting.
EXAMPLES
--------
Consider the following .gitmodules file:
[submodule "libfoo"]
path = include/foo
url = git://foo.com/git/lib.git
[submodule "libbar"]
path = include/bar
url = git://bar.com/git/lib.git
This defines two submodules, `libfoo` and `libbar`. These are expected to
be checked out in the paths 'include/foo' and 'include/bar', and for both
submodules a URL is specified which can be used for cloning the submodules.
SEE ALSO
--------
linkgit:git-submodule[1] linkgit:git-config[1]
GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite