Git submodule foreach with selected or limiting submodule list

Question

Issue in Brief :

I am just wondering whether git provides any options to limit the submodules while looping (ex : git submodule foreach "git pull origin master")

I need like this :

  git submodule foreach --limit_from="submodule_2"  --limit_to="submodule7" "git pull origin master" 

Issue in Detail :

I am working on a project with 24 submodules configured, i am facing the following issues which has a serious impacts in the entire team productivity,

Since its a six member team and the development goes rigorously, We used to pull the remote 3 to four times a day,

git pull origin master && git submodule foreach "git pull origin master"

Some times

1. we miss to clear/reset the repository before
2. miss to commit the changes before git pull
3. miss to checkoout the correct branch in the submodules
4. may get a auto merging conflict errors

The above may suppress the git pull most of the time.

Example : Let us consider the git status shows the following ,

#   modified:   lib/library/submodule_repo_1 (new commits)
#   modified:   lib/library/submodule_repo_2 (new commits)
#   modified:   lib/library/submodule_repo_3 (new commits)
#   modified:   lib/library/submodule_repo_4 (new commits, modified content)
#   modified:   lib/library/submodule_repo_5 (new commits)
#   modified:   lib/library/submodule_repo_6 (new commits)
#   modified:   lib/library/submodule_repo_7 (new commits, modified content)
.
.
.
.
.
#   modified:   lib/library/submodule_repo_23 (new commits, modified content)
#   modified:   lib/library/submodule_repo_24 (new commits)

The above git status shows : Out of 24 submodules submodule_repo_4 , submodule_repo_7 and submodule_repo_23 have modifications.

git will throw an error if i missed to clear these changes or commit them before a git pull.

Pain taking job :

Let us consider if i commit the modification in submodule_repo_4 and submodule_repo_7 but not the submodule_repo_23, in this case git will update all the repository upto submodule_repo_22 and it will throw an error (Ex :local file changes will be overwritten by merge) after reaching submodule_repo_23.

So to update the submodule_repo_23 after a git reset or commit, i need to loop again the submodule from the begining say submodule_repo_1.

Do we have any option to limit the submodules inthe foreach loop like below,

git submodule foreach --limit_from='submodule_repo_20' --limit_to='submodule_repo_23' "git pull orign master"

Answer 1

You can except submodules you do not want to process. It means that foreach will still enter the submodule but will skip the command execution:

git submodule foreach '[ "$path" = "library/PhpExcel" ] || git status'