How to Use Git Submodule

March 28, 2025 · 1 min read · Page View:

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below.

Git submodule¹ is a feature of Git that allows you to include a Git repository as a subdirectory of another Git repository. It is often used to manage dependencies between projects.

How to add a submodule #

For the introduced repository, you don’t need to do anything special.

For the parent repository, you need to do the following steps:

1. Add the submodule to the repository:

git submodule add https://github.com/another/repo.git path/to/submodules/another_repo

Then you will find the .gitmodules file in the root directory of the repository, which is used to manage the submodules.

2. Initialize the submodule:

git submodule init

3. If you want to update the submodule, you can use the following command:

git submodule update

4. You should commit this change:

git add .
git commit -m "Add submodule"
git push origin <branch-name>

5. If you want to remove the submodule, you can use the following command:

git submodule deinit <submodule-path>

How to update the submodule #

You can enter the submodule directory and make some commits, then push or pull. Then you can back to the parent repository and commit the changes.

How can other people clone the repository with the submodule? #

The same operation as above:

git clone <repository-url>

git submodule init
git submodule update
# or two in one
git submodule update --init --recursive

or just one line command:

git clone --recurse-submodules <repository>

How to remove the submodule #

git submodule deinit <submodule-path>
git rm <submodule-path>

Reference #