Git SourceTree - Uncommitted Submodules

Question

I've cloned a repository on my local machine (Xcode iOS project) that contains a 3 submodules.

One of the submodules is private and inaccessible to me so I commented it out of the .git/config file so I could do some work.

Now I've come to commit my changes and have been presented with the following dialog -

My question is - What happens if I click skip and push my changes to the remote repository. Will it effect other developers (who have access to the private submodule) who pull my commit. I'm reluctant to push in case it removes the submodule from the remote repo.

Hope that makes sense, and thanks in advance for any comments or answers.

Cheers, Adam

[UPDATE] This article seems to suggest that hitting skip will leave any changes uncommitted and won't be pushed to the remote. http://blog.sourcetreeapp.com/2012/02/01/using-submodules-and-subrepositories/

Answer 1

Submodules are like code references within repositories. Think about them as a pointer to another repo.

It's important to understand that when you check out submodule a local copy of submodule repo is present in your disk and if there are any intended/unintended changes in submodules you are asked for the above prompt.

To answer your question: If you press skip then only changes in your repo will be committed and submodule remote will be left intact. This may make your code unstable if you are relying on those changes in the submodules.

If you press commit then your changes in submodule will be committed as well.

It's generally a good practice to make any changes in submodules separately and pull those changes in your repo. If the submodules are actively used then I would recommend using a dependency manager or git subtrees to reference it.