Using Git 1.8.1.1 on Linux. The repository looks as follows:
master
book
The submodule was created as follows:
$ cd /path/to/master
$ git submodule add https://[email protected]/user/repo.git book
The book
submodule is clean:
$ cd /path/to/master/book/
$ git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit, working directory clean
The master, on the other hand, shows there are "new commits" for the book submodule:
$ cd /path/to/master/
$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes not staged for commit:
# (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
# (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
# modified: book (new commits)
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
Git should ignore the submodule directory completely, so that the master is also clean:
$ cd /path/to/master/
$ git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit, working directory clean
Inside the file master/.gitmodules
is the following, as per this answer:
[submodule "book"]
path = book
url = https://[email protected]/user/repo.git
ignore = dirty
Changed master/.gitmodules
to the following, as per this answer:
[submodule "book"]
path = book
url = https://[email protected]/user/repo.git
ignore = untracked
Edited master/.git/config
to the following, as per this answer:
[status]
showUntrackedFiles = no
Added the book directory to the master ignore file:
$ cd /path/to/master/
$ echo book > .gitignore
Added the book directory to the master as follows:
$ cd /path/to/master/
$ rm -rf book
$ git clone https://[email protected]/user/repo.git book
How can the book
submodule be in its own repository directory under the master
repository yet have git ignore the book
submodule? That is, the following should not display:
#
# modified: book (new commits)
#
How to suppress that message when executing git status
in the master repository?
An article about git submodule pitfalls suggests this an inappropriate submodule usage?
No, you don't need to add your submodule to your . gitignore : what the parent will see from your submodule is a gitlink (a special entry, mode 160000 ). That means: any change directly made in a submodule needs to be followed by a commit in the parent directory.
This means you have new commits in that submodule, which have a new SHA1 reference. What you need to do in the master directory is commit those changes in the master repository. cd /path/to/master git commit . - m "Update 'book' in master"
Use the git submodule update command to set the submodules to the commit specified by the main repository. This means that if you pull in new changes into the submodules, you need to create a new commit in your main repository in order to track the updates of the nested submodules.
This is because of some major drawbacks around git submodules, such as being locked to a specific version of the outer repo, the lacking of effective merge management, and the general notion that the Git repository itself doesn't really know it's now a multi-module repository.
Just run:
$ git submodule update
This will revert the submodule the to old commit (specified in parent-repo), without updating the parent-repo with the latest version of the submodule.
To include another repository, that needn't be tracked in its super-repo, try this:
$ cd /path/to/master/
$ rm -rf book
$ git clone https://[email protected]/user/repo.git book
$ git add book
$ echo "book" >> .gitignore
Then commit.
As stated in the linked git submodule pitfalls article:
... the only linkage between the parent and the submodule is [the] recorded value of the submodule’s checked-out SHA which is stored in the parent’s commits.
That means that a submodule is not saved by its checked-out branch or tag, but always by a specific commit; that commit (SHA) is saved into the super-repo (the one containing the submodule) like a normal text file (it's marked as such a reference, of course).
When you check out a different commit in the submodule or make a new commit in it, the super-repo will see that its checked out SHA has changed. That's when you get the modified (new commits)
line from git status
.
To eliminate that, you can either:
git submodule update
, which will reset the submodule to the commit currently saved in the super-repo (for details see the git submodule
manpage; orgit add book && git commit
to save the new SHA into the super-repo.As mentioned in the comments, consider abandoning the book
submodule: clone it inside the super-repo, if tracking of its state as part of the super-repo is not necessary.
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With