Git Submodules Setting a submodule to follow a branch
Example
A submodule is always checked out at a specific commit SHA1 (the "gitlink", special entry in the index of the parent repo)
But one can request to update that submodule to the latest commit of a branch of the submodule remote repo.
Rather than going in each submodule, doing a git checkout abranch --track origin/abranch, git pull, you can simply do (from the parent repo) a:
git submodule update --remote --recursive
Since the SHA1 of the submodule would change, you would still need to follow that with:
git add .
git commit -m "update submodules"
That supposes the submodules were:
-
either added with a branch to follow:
git submodule -b abranch -- /url/of/submodule/repo -
or configured (for an existing submodule) to follow a branch:
cd /path/to/parent/repo git config -f .gitmodules submodule.asubmodule.branch abranch
