Git: How to handle git libraries in project

Question

I've a Xcode project which itself has Git Source Control. In a Libraries folder I've cloned eight other Git project from GitHub. They are located inside my own Git repository and I've added all these libraries to my git in a commit.

Instead of having the code of all these git libraries in my repository, is there a way to let git download their code from their repo when I make a clone of my repo? Or is it normal to include other git repos inside a project?

Answer 1

Sure do the following:

1. Remove the 3rd-party-folder which you might have added already

2. Open your Terminal and execute the following commands

   cd /path/to/your/main/repo git submodule add [email protected]:someuser/somerepo.git somerepo git commit -m "Added submodules" 

3. Now instead of copying those files you'll have a reference to the other repository in your project:

Edit:

Now if you want to update the submodule to a more recent commit you can do the following:

cd somerepo git pull # You can also checkout a branch / tag etc. cd .. git add somerepo git commit -m "Telling the main repo to update the reference to the referenced repo"